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Analysis Of Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

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The short story “Where are you going, where have you been” by Joyce Oates, has a darkness around it. An aspect that has been praised by readers. The story revolves around the main character, Connie, a rebellious teenager. Connie’s character suffers from many transformations throughout the story. She starts off as a rebellious girl with a superficial personality. Underneath her annoying act, hides her real self. A young girl who wishes to receive her mothers love and appreciation. She has always lived underneath her sister's shadow, almost as if her life depended on competing with her sister for their mother's love. Connie’s unlikable and rebellious personality comes from her internal issues. Issues she has had to deal with since a young age, …show more content…

Her character experiences two sides of an identity. Connie deals with deciding between being a daughter at home, or a free spirited woman outside of her home. The boundary between home or not home is remarkable throughout the story. Connie is limited in her own house but being a free spirit means leaving her home, and in her case she suffers a traumatic event by trying to be a free spirit. The idea of home and not home is used in great measure throughout the story. It represents many young girls suffering with being limited by their parents or not being able to be themselves at their home. Many girls feel repressed in their own homes, and once they live they find their true selves. In this case, Connie does not find herself, or becomes a free spirit. Instead she suffers from a traumatic experience that changes her life forever. Where she was meant to go is no longer an option. She had a future for herself, she was a good young girl and daughter, even if her mother couldn’t appreciate her enough. After experiencing a traumatic event, most people, especially teenagers or children will suffer from this event and its representation for the rest of their life’s. Connie becomes forced to transition early into adulthood. Traumatic events can shape a person for the better or worse. Either way, Connie was forcibly pushed to mature, she could no longer keep being and acting like a child. She now had to experience and deal with future internal issues caused by the wrongdoings of older and evil men. The story shifts between conflicts. It initially starts with the conflict between Connie and her mother, as she feels unloved by her mother. Connie also feels limited in her own home. Later changer to conflict between Connie and the older men and her friends. And lastly it turns into a conflict between Connie and

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521 Words | 3 Pages

In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie (protagonist) is a fifteen-year-old teenager who physically attempts to behave like an adult by tampering with her appearance and participating in activities habitual to adults (going to restaurants and theaters with boys). As an adolescent, she’s morally ambiguous and thus safely explores adulthood. Arnold Friend, an ingenuine and strange character, pulls Connie away from her infantile fantasies to the grave reality of being an adult woman. The author uses the motif of a bilateral persona evident in Connie’s and Arnold Friend’s characters to illustrate the theme that entails the abrupt transition that Connie’s rebellious and childish spirit is forced

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(Oates). Also, her dad does not pay her any attention to her either. Her father goes to work and eats. If Connie’s family was more active in her life, then she would have never followed the wrong path and

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Connie had a side hidden away from her family. When home she had a “childlike and bobbing walk”( Oates 1) but away from home her walk was “languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head”. The moral standards and self interpretation of Oates character Connie stems from how her parents treat

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824 Words | 4 Pages

As many teens have been asked these same questions multiple times by their parents as well as Connie has, one could assume. She is fifteen with long blonde hair which seemed to draw everyone’s attention. Oates begins the story explaining how Connie was gawking at herself in the mirror, as just about any other ordinary fifteen-year-old girl would; and that’s just what Connie is portrayed to be, ordinary. She shows a mighty interest in boys, she knows that she is very beautiful. She’s superficial, very naïve, and self-centered.

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1181 Words | 5 Pages

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by the author Joyce Carol Oates in 1966. Oates describes her idea for the story after briefly reading an article about the real-life murderer, Charles Schmid, who lured and murdered three teenage girls (Kirszner & Mandell 523). She uses this idea to create the character, Arnold Friend, and his victim, Connie. Connie is a typical teenage girl portrayed as naïve and self-centered. The short story appears realistic, given that the conflict in the story is based off of real events.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the author, Joyce Carol Oates, uses a multitude of archetypes. The word choice she uses emphasizes a Coming of Age, The Rebel, and The Bully. The main character, Connie, was a young, lost girl who thought she had everything figured out. Connie suddenly gets a rude awakening and learns that ignorance along with good looks will have its downfalls.

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In her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates gives the internal events of her short story the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. This is accomplished by providing the thoughts of Connie to the reader; showing the effects of the setting on Connie; and Connie’s final realization of her fate. She connects this to the idea that Arnold Friend is the demonic adversary who convinces Connie to cross the threshold into adulthood and lose her innocence by shear persuasion and threatening undertones.

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224 Words | 1 Pages

With the help of Arnold Friend and Ellie, Connie matures into an adult by understanding her “religion”, Connie dreams, and Arnold Friend being perceived as a devil. Connie’s “religion”

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Again, the reader sees traditional values placed against changing times, reinforcing Connie’s internal struggle to define

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1040 Words | 5 Pages

In Joyce Carol Oates's short story, “Where are you going, and where have you been?” , there is a character named Connie. Connie is a fifteen-year-old girl who believes she is one of the most beautiful girls. She is a rebellious teen who argues with her mother. The relationship between her and her mother is very rocky.

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1415 Words | 6 Pages

“But now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie.” (Oates ). Also, there is another opportunity for friendship within the family, between Connie and her sister, however, that is lost in their rivalry and hostility. “Her sister was so plain and chunky and steady that Connie had to hear her praised all the time – by her mother and her mother's sisters.” ( ).

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1399 Words | 6 Pages

That also made her become more vulnerable to the real dangers and the evilness that exists in the world. That danger was represented by an old man who pretends to be an eighteen year old boy that seduced and kidnaped Connie. The end of the story Joyce Carol Oates leaves it open to the readers, because that way it makes the reader think of what might have happened, whether she got raped or whether she is killed, after the main character leaves with the antagonist of the story. Oates shows that ignorance, narcissism and the lack of

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877 Words | 4 Pages

Like most teenagers she is thinking only in the moment and what is going to please her. Basically Connie and her friend go to a restaurant and this creepy guy named Eddie came in to talk with them, obviously Connie isn’t thinking straight and she leaves the restaurant with this stranger Eddie. Leaving her friend behind. In the book she states “I just hate to leave her like that” (Oates, 391).

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2529 Words | 11 Pages

When she hangs out with her friends, she dresses, walks, and laughs in attractive manners to be more sexualized and polished. In fact, Connie's fantasies about the world of sexuality and maturity, the images of popular cultures she collects and the romantic songs she listens to, contrast its actuality through which she ends up being kidnapped by a strange man. In both stories, the way in which Sonny and Connie interpret pleasant life of no suffering, dealing with drugs and repealing against education or having shallow and

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700 Words | 3 Pages

In the coming of age story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses symbolism, conflict, and the third person to foreshadow fifteen-year-old Connie’s unfortunate, yet untimely fate. While one may think that the conflict stems from Connie’s promiscuity, it is clear to see her promiscuity is only a result to a much bigger conflict, her mother’s constant nagging and disapproval, alongside the lack of attention from her father. the author paints a vivid picture of what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl such as Connie goes elsewhere to find to find the love, attention, and approval that she lacks at home. All which is vital for her growth and wellbeing as a person.

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