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Childhood Violence In The Wild Dogs And The Verb To Kill

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In the transformation between adulthood and childhood violence, gender, nationality all influence how one experiences that change. However, in adolescent coming of age stories the greatest factor affecting transformation is often gender, as illustrated by “The Laughing Man” by J.D. Salinger, “The Wild Dogs” by Peter Skrzynecki, “The Verb To Kill” by Luisa Valenzuela, and “Where are you going” by Joyce Carol Oates. In adolescent stories gender determines one's experience more than nationality because boys tend to experience physical violence while girls tend to experience troublesome relationships.
“The Laughing Man” is a vignette about a boy being watched after school by the “Chief”(71) who is their babysitter. The Chief tells the boys stories …show more content…

The narrator and Janek go to Janek’s house, and when they arrive, they find Olga cheating. Janek gets extremely angry and starts swearing and beating Olga. Janek throws her out of the house: she “literally flew through the air (7) and she has to go to the hospital for “both her hands broken” (8). This is a terrible and frightening experience for a young child to see. After witnessing the beating of Olga, the narrator is more scared, and he has to process this adult situation . This violent act forces him to “grow up” …show more content…

“My sister and i are afraid he’ll catch us one night and kill us”(115) Almost every line of the story dwells on the concept of fear. The girls fear grows into actions “i keep imagining” (115) they don't have any adults to give them a reality check because they are absent. This story doesn't take place in a specific country other than a generic beach. This way the author can focus on how violence affects someone independent of what country it is in. 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. This could happen to any young girls

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“At its most basic, every story is an attempt to answer the question What happened?” (Norton 85) One of the most significant elements in a short story is plot. Plot is construct by authors and they rearrange the character’s action in a consequential way to shape our response and interpretation (Norton 85). In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates and "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, they use similar plot styles that contributes to the process of maturation for characters in the stories.

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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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Home is where the heart is, but what if home is no longer safe? Joyce Carol Oates explores this concept in her 1966 short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. On surface level, this story appears to discuss a rebellious young girl named Connie and her confrontation with Arnold Friend, a stalker. The ending leaves the reader to assume that Arnold Friend plans to sexually assault the young girl.

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The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is about a teenage girl named Connie who is in the mist of her adolescent rebellion. She wants to prove her maturity to others and herself. In the story, Oates describes that Connie always lets her mind flow freely in between her daydream. She even creates and keeps dreaming about her ideal male figure in her mind to make her happy and satisfied. Oates allows the reader to step into Connie’s “dream world” through the appearance of Arnold Friend.

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“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.

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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.

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