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The short story “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates brings a dark transition of a child to an adult. Connie, the main character, is a young girl with all the care-free worries of someone her age. She day-dreams about romance and love through the popular songs on the radio, spends evenings with friends at the local shopping mall and dive diner, and flirts with boys. Like many girls her age, Connie seems to sleep-walk through life, dancing to a tune that only she can hear or understand. But this is cut away when she meets a stranger named Arnold Friend.
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
Connie, in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” encounters this experience, and falls victim to danger. Connie’s conscience will place her in a dream to help her see the threat that will be coming her way if she does not stop. Connie is a fifteen year old girl filled with insecurities, and depends on others’ reactions to her to make
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" was written by Joyce Carol Oates and the poem “First Love: A Quiz " written by A.E Stalling both have a lot in common. The poem takes the ancient Greek myth of the rape of Persephone and reconstructs it, for today’s society. The short story takes place in 1960s Middle-America. Both demonstrate allegorical figure of evil to illustrate the theme of love and the loss of innocence.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, written by Joyce Carol Oates, is a short story that takes place in a 1960’s American suburb where tight jeans and slicked back hair is the popular style. The story takes place around a young fifteen year old girl, Connie, who has family issues and enjoys going out with her friends whether it be to the mall, movies, or drive-in restaurant. At the restaurant, Connie is noticed by a man with an odd car who later finds her alone at her house and seductively forces her to come with him and leave her family. This short story demonstrates an allegory. While on the surface it seems to be just a story of a vain girl who is “voluntarily abducted”, it actually represents the temptation of death (Oats 1).
In the beginning, Oates creates a false sense of security. She is at home and Connie seems safe, this is what makes what happens next unexpected. After this, a strange man rolls up to Connie's home, and Connie is only worried about how she looks, not her safety. This makes you wonder what is going to happen, and if their is a reason she is scared. Then, the pace of the story completely changes when Arnold Friend starts to approach Connie and say things that make her feel uneasy.
Thinking she is too grown up to go to the cook out with her family, she decides to stay at home. While sunbathing, she falls into a dream and daze, thinking about the boy that she was with last night comparing it to song lyrics and film. Joyce said, “Connie had to shake her head as if to get awake” (341). She had adult thoughts and dreams that most fifteen year olds don’t have. She dreamed about boys so much that they took over her
The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, is a one where the idea of how girl who struggles with wanting to be a mature woman, faces her demon full form. The protagonist of the story is Connie, a 15-year-old rebel girl, obsessed with her look; and through fault of her own, meets the antithesis of herself, the antagonist of the story, Arnold Friend. Connie seeks to be a mature adult and desires an emancipation from her family. Seeing herself as mature woman through the desires of her attraction by other boys and men, as well as her mother. Its this same desire which acts as the main fault for her character.
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.
Oates explains that “...her head [is] always filled with trashy daydreams”, which is Connie’s way of escaping to a different world (Oates 1). Connies daydreams help her leave the constant yelling of her mother and neglect from her family and escape to her perfect reality. With Arnold’s offer to leave her family behind, Connie is reluctant to say no because she wants this opportunity to escape her negligent family. Oates says “Connie [has] to hear [June being] praised all the time…” which makes her upset even though she is used to it (Oates 1). These situations make Connie a victim here because this offer is difficult for her to make considering her family life is not the best.
Arnold Friend was there to take Connie away; away from her childhood and home, which never quite felt like home until her fantasy world deteriorated and reality set it. The next moment is pivotal, this is when Connie forgets her hedonism and becomes something of much more substance. Before Connie studies Arnold Friend’s abnormal personality and erratic behavior she is fascinated by him and even worries that she is ill prepared for this
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”
Such as, in the first quote “The place you came from ain’t there any more” (Oates 320). Meaning in reference to Connie, that she grew up in a family with both parents, and has an older sister June who she secretly looks up to, she is blessed to have friends that she loves to hang out with. She also has the warmth of her home that provides security and protection, which holds her childhood memories of her playing with her friends and neighbors. This is where she blossomed into a beautiful young girl with aspirations of pursuing what the future has in store for her. “and where you had in mind to go is cancelled out” (Oates 320).
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is about a teenager named Connie who is trying to come to terms with her transformation from childhood to adulthood. Through this process, Connie attempts to act older than she is an tries to gain the attention of boys. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Oates portrays Connie as obsessed with men to symbolize how one’s obsession and narcissistic attitude can cause danger to seem surreal. In the short story, Carol Oates describes Connie as having two different personalities, one being a narcissistic attitude.
Fantasy V.S. Reality In some cases an individual can perceive something as the complete opposite of what it truly is. People create the illusion or the fantasy on what they believe something to be.
