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Where Are You Going Quotes

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In Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?," the main character, Connie, is very concerned about her looks and making sure she always looks like what she would consider "pretty." As a young, fifteen year old girl, looking good and getting the attention of boys was her main priority. Although she is still technically a child, Connie wanted to look older and more mature, assumably to mimic the women she could see in advertisements and magazines. When kids reach their teenage years, they often long for the freedom of adulthood and want to be treated with the same respect adults get. Due to hormones, teenagers are moody and may even lash out at their parents when their parents try to control them. This is the same situation for Connie, even as a girl in the 60s. She wanted to be an …show more content…

This quotes reveals that at home, Connie dresses to her mother's standards, presumably modest, but when she goes to the shopping plaza with her girl friends, she takes the same outfit and makes adjustments to make the outfit trendier and more eye-catching to boys. Another way that Connie attempts to seem mature is by the way she interacts with her family, specifically her mother. When they are planning on attending an aunt's barbecue, Connie rejects her invitation to go, "Connie said no, she wasn't interested, rolling her eyes to let her mother know just what she thought of it" (Oates 565). Firstly, her deciding to stay home can be seen as an attempt to grow up because she has reached the age in life where she can be trusted to stay home alone and also shows that she is is old enough to make or deny plans for herself. Secondly, her reaction of rolling her eyes to being invited makes it seem like she believes she is "to cool" to hang out with her family

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909 Words | 4 Pages

Connie’s parents are made up of a not so caring father and a judgmental mother: “Their father was away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted supper and he read the newspaper at supper and after supper he went to bed. He didn't bother talking much to them, but around his bent head Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over.” (Oates 1). Here the author explains the father's actions when he arrives home. Connie’s father does not pay attention to her nor her sister, June.

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658 Words | 3 Pages

She does not get affection from her family, and feels isolated from them. Connie first receives affection from Arnold when he asks her “You wanta come for a ride” (Oates 8). No one has ever offered Connie any affection. Her family looks down on her as the disappointing child and she is just a young girl trying to be loved. Arnold asking her to come for a ride and seeking to spend time with her is the attention she is missing in her daily life.

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1355 Words | 6 Pages

Oates uses Connie’s thoughts to describe her mother saying, “Her mother went scuffling around the house in old bedroom slippers and complained over the telephone to one sister about the other. If Connie’s name was mentioned it was disapproving” (Oates). The author is suggesting that Connie’s mother doesn’t like what her daughter is doing. The word disapproving is used to describe how her mother doesn’t approve how Connie is and what she does with her friends. “Her mother constantly nags at her for spending too much time in front of a mirror and for not being as steady and reliable as her twenty-four year old, unmarried sister” (Barstow).

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1432 Words | 6 Pages

Connie struggles if she should go. Maybe she wants to learn what adulthood really means and she can find out with Arnold. Connie finally gives in, Oates says, “So much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it”

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411 Words | 2 Pages

Proud of my tomboy heritage, I’d dogmatically scorned any attempts to look pretty or girlish. A classmate named Karen had once told me I was beautiful, and by the third grade two boys had asked me to be their girlfriend, all of which bewildered me (62) While there is a common transition among pre-pubescent or pubescent children to an increased concern in appearance, it is evident that Grealy’s fixation on her outward appearance takes an unnatural turn. Being a cancer survivor undoubtedly changes one’s self-perception. Initially, Grealy pursued affirmation and acceptance from her

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555 Words | 3 Pages

Readers are able to see this when Oates states, “He didn’t bother talking much to them, but around his bent head Connie’s mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over” (308). Her demeanor is apparent throughout the story as she is a typical teenage girl who has no worries in the world and in a sense is clueless about the real world. This is important because it allows readers to understand her character’s personality and actions throughout the story.

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200 Words | 1 Pages

In the Salinas Valley, Elisa Allen was working in her garden of chrysanthemum on a foggy December day. As she was working in her garden, Elisa frequently glanced at her husband, Henry. He was conversing with two gentlemen near the tractor shed. Elisa was searching for insects in her garden when Henry approached her ad began talking about her garden and explaining why the gentlemen were there. As they continued to talk, they decide to go into Salinas for dinner and a movie.

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817 Words | 4 Pages

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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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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1399 Words | 6 Pages

That also made her become more vulnerable to the real dangers and the evilness that exists in the world. That danger was represented by an old man who pretends to be an eighteen year old boy that seduced and kidnaped Connie. The end of the story Joyce Carol Oates leaves it open to the readers, because that way it makes the reader think of what might have happened, whether she got raped or whether she is killed, after the main character leaves with the antagonist of the story. Oates shows that ignorance, narcissism and the lack of

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877 Words | 4 Pages

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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642 Words | 3 Pages

That is the main reason why Connie wants to leave with the first person who asks her to do so. From him she feels the attention that likes very much and does not receive from her family members. She does not feel supported by anyone in the family; everyone only criticizes her, tells her that her own sister is much

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441 Words | 2 Pages

In this story, Oates describes Connie character as a pretty young girl with “long dark blond hair that drew anyone’s eye to it.” (86) Because Connie led two different lives, she would dress and look different at home, then she would with

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984 Words | 4 Pages

Connie’s first encounter with Friend was at a diner when he stated to Connie, “Gonna get you, baby”(pg.1142). Because Connie was use to this type of attention, she did not view it as strange that an older man was calling her in such away. However, if Connie had seen Friend as dangerous instead of just another man, her kidnapping might have been prevented. Later in the story when Friend showed up as Connie’s house, she walked outside and talked to him instead of questioning how he knew where she lived or calling the police. Oates described Connie's interaction with Friend by stating,“Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed: tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pullover shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard muscles of his arms and shoulders”(pg.1145).

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657 Words | 3 Pages

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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