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Teenage narrative
Essays on major character development
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Teenage narrative
Essays on major character development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
First in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” the guiding figures are present, but they do not care, which leads to Connie’s death. Connie’s parents did not pay her any attention. Her mom was jealous of her as stated in the short story, “Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think your pretty?”
He tells Connie that “the place where you came from ain’t there anymore, and where you had in mind to go is cancelled out” (Oates, 9). This title emphasizes not only the fear but also desire that Connie has during her teenage time. Also, similar sentences like” where’re we going?”(4) repeat several time in the story to keep us focus on and think about the actual meaning of the question and what it is important to
Based on the story “Where have you been, where are you going” by Joyce Carol Oates Connie was a young girl, who wanted to grow up way to fast. She wants everyone to believe that she is very experienced in being an adult. In the story Connie went to the movies with her friends and met up with a boy named Eddie. Eddie and Connie went to the diner and then to an alley. But as Connie was walking out of the movie theater, Connie’s eye wandered over the people and things in the car.
Connie’s fate is the result of Karma The story Tittle is “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates. The story is about Connie she’s 15 years old who cares about her appearance a lot. Her mother always tell her to stop caring so much about her appearance and hanging out with friends.
Connie’s vanity causes her make terrible choices about Arnold Friend. The Trouble of being notice is blaming yourself if what you deserve is horrible things like getting unwanted attention someday you get what coming to you. In Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where You Going, Where have you Been,” one of the protagonist Connie is a fifteen year old girl who wants to look and act like an arrogant child. She isn’t herself.
Comparison Paper In Joyce Carol Oates, “Where are you going, Where have you been?”, the author depicts a short story about a typical teenage girl, Connie, in the 60’s whose young mind is untouched by the reality of the world. As such, she enjoys living a blissfully unknowing and slightly careless life as she regularly goes to the mall and diners to flirt with guys and go off on her own with in. Nevertheless, the reality of the world suddenly sets in during her encounter with Arnold Friend after she nonchalantly allows herself to be drawn into his trap. Her abrupt, and quite frankly late, realization thus results in a state of shock.
Connie does not have any relationship with her father, which allowed her to be vulnerable to older men. Oates describes the father’s character as, “…away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted supper and he read the newspaper at supper he went to bed. He didn’t bother talking much to them…” (26). Her parent’s lack of effective communication allowed Connie to seek validation in all the wrong places.
Connie’s attributes are showcased prominently in the beginning, thus emphasizing her character. Marie Urbanski breaks down the story and agrees that Oates presents the protagonist early on, when she says, “the first paragraph introduces a vain, spoiled daughter of middle class parents” (Urbanski 1). Connie embodies the typical teenage desire for independence and maturity, which is evident throughout the story. Her preoccupation with her appearance and appeal to romance makes her susceptible to the dangerous charm of Arnold Friend. Connie, despite her sense of maturity, soon comes to the realization that life can be dangerous.
If you are old enough to remember, you can think back to the memories of when you are a kid and understand the memories as a child are the best memories that you have in your life; yet eventually you mature into ann adult. Like the book, Catcher in the Rye, the short story Where Are You Going Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oats is about Connie, an adolescent girl, wanting to stay in her child-like life and not mature into a adult. Fortunately, Connie has some help coming into the adult world with the manifestation of a person named Arnold Friend and Ellie.
Occurs in the suburbs during the 1960’s. However a young teenaged girl is put into a very uncomfortable situation as a result of acting out and trying to find herself. Although the young girl named Connie portrayed as confident and rebellious with her friends meeting Arnold Friend changed everything. It is implied Connie’s was almost forced to give her life for her families quickly makes the young girl realized what she got herself into .Reading this short story really opens the mind of each person who reads it .
Connie who’s usual self-absorbed and seemingly in control of situations when it comes to boys her own age finds herself struggling for control when Arnold arrives at her door. “Connie stared at him, another wave of dizziness and fear rising in her so that for a moment he wasn't even in focus but was just a blur standing there against his gold car, and she had the idea that he had driven up the driveway all right but had come from nowhere before that and belonged nowhere and that everything about him and even about the music that was so familiar to her was only half real” (Oates 6). Connie begins to realize she’s not ready for the responsibilities of adulthood after all. In fact when she starts to realize the sexual advances from Arnold, she begins to panic. ” she was so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it—the telephone was clammy and very heavy and her fingers groped down to the dial but were too weak to touch it.
People desires can vary from person to person. Some want power, other want to find the love of their lives. However getting what want is difficult some never fully receive their deepest longings to meet themselves fell complete. Some desires have consequences, they can be small, however, others have terrible ramifications. In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates is about the main character Connie and her life.
“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.” ( ).
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
Connie uses her attitude and appearance to attract boys. But she is not aware of the reality of the society in which she lives. Connie is living in a fantasy world, but when she gets trapped by Arnold Friend she is put into a scary reality. There