Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Connie's Fault

It’s All Your Fault
In real life, people make choices that they regret later. In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, a young girl named Connie gets a visit from a stranger named Arnold Friend. Connie is a fifteen year old who, like most teenage girls, wants to grow up too fast. Connie is responsible for Arnold visiting her because, she did not listen to her mother, and she wanted to grow up too fast, and she’s just too confident.
Connie’s refusal to listen is another reason why she is responsible for Arnold visiting her. Connie’s mother is always scolding her about the way she looks. However. Connie thinks that she is just jealous. Oates says, “now her looks were gone and that was why she was alway after Connie” (Oates 195).

She presented herself in public as a young woman, but she was only fifteen years old. She wore her shirts “one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home”. Everything about her was different when she’s away from home. Connie thinks that what she was doing was okay, but in reality she was drawing bad attention to herself. It resulted in Arnold Friend noticing her and visiting her. In the story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Connie prides herself on being confident. She thinks that she can handle anything that she is faced with. She was really confident when Arnold visited her when she was alone. “Who the hell do you think you are?” she says (Oates 199). She thinks that this situation is just like all the other situations she has experienced with her friends. However, she soon realizes that Arnold is not who she thinks she is. She sees that Arnold’s hair may be fake and his boots looked weird “as if his food wasn’t in it”