# Name the short story...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 1, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076 "2011-03-01T16:59:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mrego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@mrego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrego)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076/1 "2011-03-01T16:59:57Z")

</div>

Friends,

Many years ago I took a Community College class Comp II or Comp III.  
We had a book with famous or even “Pullitzer prize” short stories.

One of them, was about a Ms Rose (?) who had a very strickt father it goes back and forth in time to end with the fact that they find a suitor, who had disappeared, dead in her bed.  
Do you know the name and author of this story?

Well, this was the easy question. The hard one is that there is yet another story. It is about a small-town girl that one days goes to the big city (she lived in a farm?) and there she is fascinated by the older boys with their cars, charm, etc. She meets a older boy, who limps in one leg and speaks with older, out-of-context slangs. Next thing, her parents leave the house and the boy shows up at her doorstep asking for “permission to get in” and if she does not explicitly tell him that it is ok to get it he cannot do so…  
I have been for years thinking about reading these stories again, but no clue how to find them.

Perhaps some of you can help me…

Thanks in advance!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076/2 "2011-03-01T17:07:00Z")

</div>

The second story sounds like Joyce Carol Oates’s [Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?](http://jco.usfca.edu/works/wgoing/text.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076/3 "2011-03-01T17:07:20Z")

</div>

First one is probably [A Rose for Emily](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rose_for_Emily)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076/4 "2011-03-01T17:09:22Z")

</div>

The first one is _[A Rose for Emily](http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/workshops/fiction/faulkner1.asp)_.

Regards,  
Shodan

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mrego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@mrego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrego)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076/5 "2011-03-01T17:17:20Z")

</div>

Thanks a lot . Perfect !!!

You all are definitely fighting ignorance!!!

Thanks!!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-the-short-story/573076/6 "2011-03-01T19:57:13Z")

</div>

> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> The second story sounds like Joyce Carol Oates’s [Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?](http://jco.usfca.edu/works/wgoing/text.html)

This was made into the movie [Smooth Talk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_Talk), starring Laura Dern and Treat Wiliams.