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Joyce Carol Oates's Short Story Where Are You Going?

1099 Words5 Pages

Where are you going? Where have you been? is about a beautiful teenager named Connie. She does not have the best relationship with her parents but she tries her best to get through each day. Connie and her group of friends usually go to a drive in to hangout and eat. One-night Connie realized she was being watched by a guy. She is not sure who but she was suspicious about it. Connie was home alone one night because her mom and sister had gone to her aunt’s barbecue and her father was also out. About an hour went by since she had been home alone and she heard a car pull up into the driveway. It could not be anyone from her family since they did not leave too long ago. Connie went to the front door and realized it was the same guy she saw a few nights ago watching her. He believed that him and Connie were “in love” and meant to be together. He continued to be very persistent with getting Connie in his car. He said he was not going to leave her house until she got in the car. Connie decided to reach for the phone to call the police but that was not a good decision. He forced her to hang up the phone and come out to the car. Once, Connie got into the car they left and he took her to a place she did not recognize with lots of land. Oates portrays the young teenager, Connie as someone who …show more content…

there are a variety of symbols used. For example, Oates points out that “not only “33” is part of Arnold’s “secret code” of numbers, but his sign “X” that seems to hover in the air, is also one of the symbols for Christ” (Wilson). The author is explaining the symbol as being related to the church. The author describes how the “X” is hovering in the air meaning that it is remaining in one place. According to Oates, the sign of the “X” was a symbol of friendship. Arnold says “Don’t you know I’m your friend? Didn’t you see me put my sign in the air when you walked by?” (Oates ). It is clearly suggested that Arnolds ‘sign’

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While “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” may seem like your average “coming of age” story at

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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.

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The line comes from the Joyce Carol Oates' story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? " I believe the author is referring to how her family and her friend perceive here. Connie sees herself while at home as dull and quiet compared to the rebellious and outgoing look she presents to her friends. It appears that that neither groups, family or friends, know who she really is. I believe its natural for you to act one way with you friends and another way with your family.

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Connie was unable to see the men's true personality until they removed their glasses, which like Connie, a person who has multiple sides. They use similar expressions throughout the story, for example, “Christ” and the use of the word “dope” this further links the two characters personalities. At the end of the story, after Arthur stops Connie from calling the police, she willingly joins the two men. This shows Connie ignoring her superego- calling the police- to succumb to her id (8, 9). Connie once asks, “how come we never saw you before?” to which Arthur replies, “Sure you saw me before… You just don’t remember” these lines also illustrate the tendency for a person to repress their ultimate desires (5).

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In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Connie is a fifteen-year-old girl, who does not necessarily get along with her family. During the week, she often times goes to a shopping plaza with some of her friends. However, they sneak across the highway to go to a popular diner where the older crowd hangs out at. At home, Connie is often times arguing with her family. One day her family is invited to her aunt's barbecue but Connie refuses to go.

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Her parents working, Jennifer at school. After a long day, everyone is going to bed. Until a shocking 911 call is received to the dispatchers from Jennifer. “ Someone broke into our house!”(Hansen, Chris). a terrifying event was taking place in her home.

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In “Where are you going, Where have you been?” Joyce provides Arnold’s commentary of him coming out and practically revealing his plan saying “ ‘Now, these numbers are a secret code, honey,’ Arnold Friend explained. He read off the numbers 33, 19, 17 and raised his eyebrows at her to see what she thought of that, but she didn't think much of it.”(3). Otas never directly comes out and says what the code exactly is. However, Michele D. Theriot from Short Story Criticism describes Joyce’s hidden meanings in Arnold's car, numbers 33, 19, and 17(342).

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In Oates’ story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” , the story mainly focuses on the conflict and main plot of Smooth Talk. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” explains Connie’s relationship to her family members, basically describing that she’s a basic adolescent that desires to be treated like an adult but lacks the maturity and doesn’t want the responsibilities, still claiming her freedom (or at least attempting to). One Sunday her family leaves to a barbeque Connie refused to go to and a familiar stranger drives up to her house.

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“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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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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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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In Joyce Carol Oate’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the coming of age message is to avoid living in your childhood fantasies so much that you can’t face the realities of adulthood. Connie is a fifteen years old girl who wants to act mature but constantly living in her childhood fantasies. When it comes to her craving of acting like a grown up, she goes to the Big Boy restaurant with her friends but left them behind when a boy is asking her to go out for dinner. When she gets home, she dreams that ‘the boy’ she met last night whose ‘sweet, gentle’ and just like ‘in the movies and promised in songs’(52). Sweet and gentle are being expressed as imagery to describe the boy that Connie met the night before.

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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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Connie’s family had just returned from a fun BBQ on a Sunday night which would turn out to be the worst day of their lives. While they were stuffing their faces with hot dogs, their daughter Connie had given into the temptations of Arnold Friend to go on a drive to a place she would not return from. Arnold did take her on a drive that night, but it was not your ideal sunday drive. Arnold went out to a nice field in the country as promised, but this field that was once a pleasant sight up on the hill suddenly turned into a crime scene for the loss of an innocent young girl with a curious mind.

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I believe that in the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” false perception V.S. reality is seen. The main theme in this short story is the conflict between fantasy and reality. One of the main characters in this short story is Connie. She tries very hard to create an adult persona.

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