Where Are You Going

Teenagers in the 1960’s were facing a time of change with the civil rights movement and the development of hip culture. The lives of teenagers contrast the lives of their family because they are both adopting different personalities with different interests in music and activities. In the story Where are you going, Where have you been, Joyce Carol Oates 's depicts a specific example of the changing 1960’s middle class America by describing the story of a teenage girl named Connie who undergoes her own tribulation with a older man who attempts to take advantage of her body.Family relationships are one of the main cores of a character in characters as they act differentlly depending their situation, and most of the time teenagers are rebellious.

In the story Where are you going, where have you been Connie, her mother and sister all have competitive relationships. Her mother says “Stop gawking at yourself.Who are you? You think you are so pretty?” to Connie after seeing Connie look at her own face maybe because her mother 's “looks were gone and that was why she was after Connie”(Oates 1). Her mother is jealous of her daughter, and because of that their relationship is weak. This is shown by the author’s choice of tone and usage of rhetorical phrases emphasizing on the point that their relationship is not family like. Moving on throughout the story the mother daughter relationship continually weakens. Connie’s mother compares Connie and June by commenting “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister” and then compares the beauty products both sisters use, specifically hair spray, and tells Connie “You don’t see your sister using that junk”(1), The author’s usage of a comparison of beauty products both sisters use shows how she favors June instead of Connie. Most commonly the mother daughter relationship in a family should be the strongest but opposite to this is the relationship is Connie and her mother, They are very distant from each other and it even goes to a point where Connie “wished her mother was dead”(1). The distance that Connie and her mother maintain in her relationship shows how Connie

Connie does not have a relationship with any of her family members, and the author Bob Dylan uses this lack of relationships to illustrate her behavior outside of the house.The significance of a lack of a relationship with her father,sister and mother put her in a position of vulnerability and low self-esteem. In addition, because Connie is neglected in her family she feels the need to rebel to grab attention.Connie’s decision to go near the car of Arnold Friend and act in a sexual manner is a result of her poor family connections because her lack of family connections puts her in a position of vulnerability and puts her in a position of rebellion. As the climax of the story progresses Connie comes to the conclusion that being in a relationship with Arnold Friend is not a good idea. After asking what Arnold Friend would do, he replies “it won’t last long and you’ll like me the way you get to like people you’re close to”(8). The author’s usage of simile in this situation and choice of words describes Connie’s relationship with her family in terms of Arnold Friend. One can most likely guarantee that getting close to a rapist is not enjoyable and saying that Connie will enjoy getting close to a rapist is the same as getting close to your family justifies how Connie does not have strong relationship with her family, The author’s decision to include this quote in the text describes how the author wants the audience to know that the reason is put in this situation is a result of