“She thought, I’m not going to see my mother again. She thought, I’m not going to sleep in my bed again”. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is a short store by Carol Oates. In the story, Connie was a 15 year old girl, and lived she out in a rural area. She lived with her parents, and her sister June. Connie enjoyed going to the mall with her friends, and meeting boys at her local diner. One night, on the way back to her home, she passed a man with black hair in a golden car, who later showed up at her doorstep and introduced himself as Arnold Friend. He attempts to convince her to come out and take a drive with him, and after a long period of time and the eventual breakdown of Connie, he succeeds. The author of this story uses foreshadowing and symbolism to develop the theme that your decisions can affect the course of your life. …show more content…
The foreshadowing in this story helps the reader to understand Connie’s personality, as well as guess what choices she might make in the future. For example, the text states that, …show more content…
She was fifteen and had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors…” The author chooses to write this sentence, as well as the entire story, in past tense, which signals to the reader that Connie’s actions might have resulted in something happening to her. With the reader being able to predict Connie’s actions, they are also able to make assumptions about later events and points in the