Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Allusion Essay

In Joyce Carol Oates story, “Where are You Going, Where have You Been,” Oates sets up biblical references to the settings to allow the reader to connect the characters to biblical figures. The first major setting for biblical innuendos is the drive-in restaurant. Oates describes the restaurant as “a big bottle, through squatter than a real bottle, and on its cap was a revolving figure of a grinning boy holding a hamburger a loft” (Oates 1) which first establishes the biblical allusions. The revolving figure at top the drive-in restaurant is an allusion to the stepal atop a church. “Their faces pleased and expectant as if they were entering a sacred building that loomed up out of the night to give them what haven and blessing they yearned for”(Oates 1) Oates uses the restaurant as a place of peace and escape for Connie from a demanding mother, much like a church is an escape for sinners. Finally,“ the music that made everything so good: the music was always in the background, like music at a church services;” (Oates 1) Oates gives no

Connie had a “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 1). This vain behavior has Connie comparing herself to everyone she comes in contact with. The only thing Connie cared for was her looks “she knew she was pretty and that was everything”(Oates 1). Connie constantly compares herself to her sister June. June was “plain and chunky and steady”(Oates 1) unlike Connie who’s beauty, thinness, and unsteady attitude upset her mother. Connie had a side hidden away from her family. When home she had a “childlike and bobbing walk”( Oates 1) but away from home her walk was “languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head”. The moral standards and self interpretation of Oates character Connie stems from how her parents treat