Oate’s story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” examines a young girl that is caught up, in a religion of her own making leading to the worship of a false idol or image. As she approaches an age of not quite a woman but, yet not a child she faces many challenging choices. As she relies on her own form of religion she lacks the guidance to make moral decisions with any certainty. Arnold Friend enters her world and portrays himself as a friend and lover however, this seems to be a trap for the young girl. There are many signs that Connie is at a crossroads in her life and must choose a path to follow. Oates illustrates that the lack of a strong religious foundation leads to her to follow a path that could be considered death.
When Connie escapes her home life she chooses to flee to the local dinner. The outside is described with the same reverence that might be used in the description of a temple. Conner enters the diner “pleased and expectant as if they were standing in a sacred building.” Oates goes on to describe the posture of these two girls, which is reflective of a young woman that has entered a sacred area and is in awe of the environment that surrounds her. We further see that Connie is using music to fill a void “listened to the
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It is Sunday and Connie chooses to isolate herself from the family activities of the day. Alone Connie awakes from a nap in the yard of her home to a world that seems changed. She fills the silence with her music played by the disc jockey Bobby King. The choice in name is very symbolic, for Connie the music is a religious experience and the disc jockey is the figure head of the religion. Connie worships the music “paid close attention herself, bathed in a glow of slow-pulsed joy that seemed to riser mysteriously out of the music itself”. Arnold Friend appears during her time of worship, possibly called forth unknowingly by