Have you ever felt so umcomfortable in a situation it made you scared? WAYG, WHYB written by Joyce Carol Oates is a thriller about a stalker who preys on the main character connie. Through Arnold Friend’s persistance and determination for connie, as well as the biblical references, Joyce Carol Oates shows how Arnold Friend is the devil. Arnold Friend is the devil and this can be proven through his appearance. “Tight faded jeans stuffed into blacked scuffed boots” (Oates 4).
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.
2. The Connie’s character, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is a fifteen year old, naïve girl. She has two sides to her personality, “everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (1). At home she would act childlike and away from home she would act older, making her sexual appeal stand out. Like most teenagers, Connie didn’t get along with her family and is in constant battle with her family.
Living “just an ordinary girl’s” life was no longer the lifestyle for a girl named Connie. Once a man told her that she was gonna be his, her life turned. Connie was no longer able to forget about reality instead she was forced into adulthood by a man named Arnold Friend. Connie is the main character in the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates. The story is mainly about how Arnold Friend, a sort of stalker of Connie’s, comes to her house.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates, which was published in 1938 and later adapted into a film directed by Joyce Chopra in 1985. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates explores adulthood from a teenager’s perspective. In the story, Connie, the female protagonist, lives with dual personality (one side which she only shows for her family and one side which she reveals to her friends). Connie, who has conflicts with her family, works hard to present her appearance of being an adult through her clothing, makeup, hairstyle, and behaviors that attract boy’s attention in the search for her independence. One day at the diner, Connie meets her father's friend named Arnold Fiend,
“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.
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
Connie was enjoying her summer vacation going out with her friends, hanging around her house listening to music, and dreaming about the boys she met. She never suspected that she was being stalked until it was too late. In Joyce Oates story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Connie unknowingly meets the man who had been stalking her, Arnold Friend, and her carefree summer comes to an end.(or is taken away by the devil himself.) One beautiful warm Sunday afternoon,
The story Where Are You Going, Where have you Been, is about a fifteen year old young lady named Connie. She was seen at home as a youthful adolescent who went around "ogling" at herself. When she was out with friends she attempted to keep up a full grown and hot personality. Her mother was extremely judgmental of her. Continually contrasting Connie with her more seasoned sister June, suggesting that she was less mindful than June.
In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.
Carol Joyce Oates’ “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” presents how falling into temptation leads to giving up control and innocence. Though her mother is unapproving of her actions, Connie spends her time seeking attention from male strangers. Home alone, Connie is approached by a compelling creature who convinces her to leave her life and join him on his unknown journey. Through disapproving her family, having multiple appearances, listening to music, and her desperation to receive attention from boys, Connie gives up control of herself losing the purity of adolescents and contributing to her detrimental fate. It is imperative that one should not be controlled because of a desire to impress others.
The story “Where Are You Going, Where have you been” is about Connie a girl who lives in the U.S. She goes out with her friends and lives an ordinary life. Her mother is alway comparing her to her sister. Her parents are don’t chaperone the youth in the evenings. She falls into the hands of Arnold Friend, who tries to abduct her.
Reluctantly, her parents allow her to stay home alone. A few hours later, a familiar gold jalopy pulls up to her house. The driver announces to Connie that his name is Arnold Friend. His unusual physical appearance, his tone of voice, and what he may symbolize frighten the Connie.
Throughout the story, there are many instances: the illogical time and settings, the similarity between Arnold and Connie and the unrealistic events show that the meeting between Connie and Arnold Friend is a dream. The dream is also a preparation for Connie before she steps onto the stage of being an adult. Connie’s dream begins when she refuses to go to her aunt’s house for barbecue party. She stays home, and under the warmness of the sun, she begins her day dreaming about love and the boy she has met the night before. In the beginning, the author writes “Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun…”
The Stranger In the beginning of “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” Joyce Carol Oates reminds the reader of how carefree it is to be a teenager without any responsibility. One can quickly see that Connie is like many teenagers of today behaving to much like a grown woman. Connie appears to be growing up to fast before our eyes. She is in a stage of teenage rebellion, acting on things too fast.
