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Summary Of The Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

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In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, a young girl named Connie isolates herself from her family because she feels like she is better than them. Connie is an attractive young woman and uses that to her advantage. One of Connie’s favorite things to do is go out with her friends, and flaunt what she’s got to her male counterparts. Because Connie doesn’t get the positive attention she wants from her family, she turns to other people, which gets her into trouble. Connie’s boundaries are tested when a scary male threatens her at her own home, and though her instincts are screaming at her, she still chooses to leave with him. Though Connie comes off as a person with all beauty and no brain, it turns out she does know where to draw the line, it just may be too late. Connie realizes she is different from her family and likes to draw attention to herself because of this. Not only does she realize this, but her mother is quick to point it out as well. Connie’s mother notices how much Connie is always staring in the mirror and likes to pick on her because of this,
“’Connie stop gawking at yourself, who are you? You think …show more content…

Connie knows how different she is from her sister, June, as well. While Connie’s mother doesn’t like much of what Connie does because it’s nothing like June, going out with girlfriends is the one of the things she will allow. This is due to the fact that June goes out with friends which is considered normal in the household. However, when Connie goes with her friends she usually meets up with other boys. She loves the affection and how special they make her feel. Going behind her mother’s pleases Connie even more because she knows her mother would be extremely upset if she found out what Connie was really doing when she leaves the

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The short story “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates brings a dark transition of a child to an adult. Connie, the main character, is a young girl with all the care-free worries of someone her age. She day-dreams about romance and love through the popular songs on the radio, spends evenings with friends at the local shopping mall and dive diner, and flirts with boys. Like many girls her age, Connie seems to sleep-walk through life, dancing to a tune that only she can hear or understand. But this is cut away when she meets a stranger named Arnold Friend.

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“She was fifteen and she had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates, 259). Connie didn’t like being compared to her sister June by her mother and felt as if her mother only thought that she sat around all day daydreaming about boys. The only good thing that June did in Connie’s eyes was go out with her friends, which justified Connie being able to go out with hers. Connie would lie about going to the movie with her friend and they would end up going to hang out with older boys at restaurants and in allies until her friends dad would pick them up. One night Connie spent 3 hours with a boy she had met eating at a restaurant and then down an alley to hang out with

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Connie mother always tells her that she should be responsible like her older sister, do well in school and should cares about her family. June the older sister of Connie, she is 24 years old and works at Connie high school she is very responsible and help her parents with money. While Connie is the opposite she only cares about herself and her appearance. One day Connie goes out with a boy named Eddie for dinner. After dinner they walked to the

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Her family is unstable and unorganized. Connie’s parents allowed her freedom: “There was one good thing: June went places with girl friends of hers, girls who were just as plain and steady as she, and so when Connie wanted to do that her mother had no objections.” (Oates 1). Connie was allowed to go out with friends with no one objecting, why or no. Her parents never asked the prompting questions “Where are You Going, Where Have You

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In Joyce Carol Oates’ highly acclaimed short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates tells the story of a fictional adolescent girl named Connie that has a run in with pure evil itself in the shape of a man named Arnold Friend. Arnold Friend, a man dressed as a boy that she once saw at a drive-in, shows up at Connie’s house one afternoon when her family is away and tells her that if she does not come out of her house and go away and have sex with him then he will kill her whole family. Throughout the story Connie is shown to be an extreme narcissist, constantly staring at herself and basking in her profound beauty. Connie is a typical teenage girl that only seems to care about boys what others think of her

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Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” focuses on how the character Arnold Friend actually defies the common archetype of enemy and instead acts as a savior, rescuing Connie from her misery. Connie, a fifteen year old girl, frequently goes out with her friends to escape from her family. One day when her parents are gone, a man, Arnold Friend, appears in her driveway requesting that she goes with him for a ride. She is persistent in staying at home, but eventually gives into him and goes with him because Connie’s life at home is not great. Her mother is always complaining about Connie’s actions and one day “Connie’s mother kept picking on her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it

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As a teenager, she is dependent on the adults in her life for care and discipline as well as for enabling her social life. Her friend’s father, for example, drives her and her friend, June, to the movie theater. Although Connie often fights against her family, particularly her mother and sister, they constitute the only life she really knows. Her experiments with creating a sexy appearance and alluring boys in the local diner serve as her attempt to explore new worlds as well as a new side of herself. However, until Arnold Friend arrives, her explorations have always been wrapped in safety.

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In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie, the protagonist, is a 15-year-old girl living in the suburbs, who conveys the qualities of a typical teenager: she listens to music, goes out with her friends, is obsessed about her looks, likes getting attention from boys and is intrigued with her sexuality. On one typical night out with her friends she notices a mysterious guy making suggestive gestures to her in the parking lot of a drive-in restaurant, but she remains unfazed and leaves with a guy named Eddie. Then one Sunday afternoon, her family leaves to go to an aunt’s barbecue leaving her home alone, but soon after the mysterious guy pulls up in a gold colored car in her driveway with his friend. He proceeds

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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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Starting right off the bat, Joyce Carol Oates describes Connie as being a fifteen year old with”a quick, nervous habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all alright” (316) bringing attention to the amount of insecurity and need for reassurance immersed within Connie. This statement continues although this time describing her mother as someone who “noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn’t much reason to look at her own face” (316) bringing into comparison the difference between Connie and her mother, a child and a mother, of childhood and of adulthood. From Connie’s perspective her mother is always on her back because of a theory that her family dislikes her. “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve

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Jazz is a notably diverse genre of music, which is why so many people have trouble truly identifying it as well as defining it. The two components that almost every sub-genre of jazz share are the inclusion of improvisation and the sense of a general swing. Much of what a good amount of people understand to be jazz is either “swing”, “smooth jazz”, or “elevator music.” However, there are many specific sub-genres of jazz that can be very different from one another. Two of these are “early jazz” and “swing.”

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1415 Words | 6 Pages

“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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Like most teenagers she is thinking only in the moment and what is going to please her. Basically Connie and her friend go to a restaurant and this creepy guy named Eddie came in to talk with them, obviously Connie isn’t thinking straight and she leaves the restaurant with this stranger Eddie. Leaving her friend behind. In the book she states “I just hate to leave her like that” (Oates, 391).

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The main character in the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates, is a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie. This character appears to be a typical teenager who feels misunderstood by her family. The relationship with her family causes her to live two different lives “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home.” (86) Connie’s dual lifestyle and inability to communicate with her family will eventually lead to her demise.

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The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates can be interpreted in a multitude of ways due to its ambiguity. A psychological lens, however, provides the most accurate viewpoint for analyzing the story as it clarifies certain obscure scenes and actions of Connie. One psychological issue of Connie that is easily inferred from the beginning of the story is her insecurity about her looks. Connie constantly worries about the way that she looks and takes any opportunity to do so, “craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right” (1).

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