Love is a complex emotion. It may encourage a person to write poetry or it may drive him to the point of murder. With emotions ranging from extremely positive to completely negative, love has turned into a rather complicated subject of debate and thus we often find authors and poets asking the critical question, what really is love? The debate ranges from academic to anecdotal but love has occupied an important place in literature and that's exactly forms the crux of two short stories, 'Where are you going, Where have you been" and "What do we talk about when we talk about love?" by Joyce Carol Oates and Raymond Carver respectively.
             In Oates' story we come across a kind of love that is unspoken yet strong. Throughout the story, one feels as if the protagonist, Connie, is not close to her family and doesn't really care about them. "Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over. "She makes me want to throw up sometimes," she complained to her friends..." Connie couldn't bring herself to love her family in the traditional sense. She was more interested in living a life of complete freedom and less responsibility. Connie was a normal fifteen year old who considered herself pretty and cared a great deal about her appearance. Self love is pronounced as she would take good care of herself and also modify her appearance according to where she was going, "Connie had long dark blond hair that drew anyone's eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out and the rest of it she let fall down her back. She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home." Being a teenager with good looks, Connie was understandably removed from her family. She was at an age when people like to rebel and family is usually the last thing on one's mind. That's exactly what ...