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Was Connie In Joyce Carol Oates Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

477 Words2 Pages

Was Connie a victim of Arnold alone or a victim of sexism that led to her fate? We will never know what was going through Connie's head at the time, but I believe she was the victim of Arnold alone. In the story by Joyce Carol Oates " Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Connie is a confused little girl who is basically going through puberty and has no other choice but to surrender to Arnold to save her family. Does Connie feel like she has no choice because she was never loved, does her insecurity takes place in the rape, and did the rape have a tremendous impact on her life?

In the story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Connie is a lost girl looking for attention somewhere or anywhere she can find it. She did not get the love she wanted at home, so that's when puberty took part of what happened between her and Arnold. Connie is being bullied by her mom every day. In the story, it states "Who are you? You think you're so pretty?"(pg. 1). Clearly, she felt a lot of insecurity from dealing with her mother. With Arnold, she probably felt a lot of attention something that she never had. …show more content…

Connie has low self-esteem about herself, so she feels less worthy. Maybe Connie was down and depressed that she just felt like she deserved what was coming to her. Nobody is saying that rape is ok, but in Connie perspective maybe it was. Everybody deals with certain situations in life maybe this was in God's

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