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External Conflicts In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, By Joyce Oates

1293 Words6 Pages

Everyone everywhere struggles with conflicts on a daily basis. Some of these conflicts may be external conflicts as well as internal conflicts. Just like our lives, literature that is composed has a combination of these internal and external conflicts. These conflicts are as follows: individual versus individual, individual versus self, individual versus technology, individual versus society, and individual versus nature. Although, “What You Pawn I will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie, and, “Where are You going, where have You Been,” by Joyce Oates have several different conflicts throughout both stories, in this paper I will focus on the internal conflicts of both of the fundamental characters, Jackson and Connie, and I will utilize different literary …show more content…

Jackson just knows that this is his deceased grandmother’s regalia that someone stole fifty years ago. He recounts the pawnbroker the story behind the regalia and how much it would mean to him to have it back. However, the pawnbroker needed conformation that the regalia belonged to Jackson’s family. Jackson told him about the misplaced bead that was in the armpit of the regalia. The author used to bead as a metaphor for Jacksons not so perfect life. The pawnbroker told Jackson if he could come up with the money he could buy back the regalia. However, Jackson struggles with keeping the money he earns because of his alcoholism. The contention in this story is comparative to the story “Where are You Going, where have you been.” Both of these stories show an internal conflict. In this story, Connie is an egotistical fifteen-year-old girl that believes that her vanity is going to get her on a road to autonomy and away from her family. Connie will go to great lengths to be wanted and loved. She wants nothing more than to be accepted by everyone. This is made evident when the author states, “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was

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