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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis

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Everything you do has a consequence hiding in the choice. Whether that consequence is beneficial or harmful, usually depends upon the choice, or action of the person. Yet the fact of the matter remains, everything one does, or anything one will do, will always cause some other thing to happen. One cannot be born and live through life without having affected the world around them. One will always influence the future, no matter if the influence is lasting or not. Joyce Carol Oates’s character Connie in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” discovers at a young age that even if one is not trying to draw attention to themselves, it can be given, and is not always a good thing to receive.
Interpretations of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” vary depending on …show more content…

She dresses in a lucrative manner, when she could dress more morally, and not steal off with different guys. Connie was an extremely superficial person, Oates describes, “she knew she was pretty and that was everything.” Another source, Marie Mitchell Olesen Urbanski, describes her as, “the vain, spoiled daughter of middle class parents.” It was this need to look, and feel, pretty that causes Connie to draw the attention of Arnold Friend, “He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin . . . He wagged a finger and laughed.” The consequence of her need for attention was the unwanted attention of Arnold Friend and his friend Ellie. Another action that Connie made, without considering any of the consequences, was staying home when the rest of her family went to a barbeque. The consequence of her staying at home was that she was alone when Arnold and Ellie came knocking at her door. Connie did not ask to be essentially raped by Arnold, but her actions never seriously drove him only to want her more. Arnold was able to learn all about her, and that knowledge was enough to cause Connie not to drive him

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955 Words | 4 Pages

By giving herself up to Arnold she loses even “her own identity” (Korb Gale). By the end of Connie and Arnold’s conversation, Connie has lost herself. She has become a puppet that will do whatever Arnold wants her to do. Her submission to Arnold “spells a conquest of both space and will.” (Gillis Gale).

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1181 Words | 5 Pages

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by the author Joyce Carol Oates in 1966. Oates describes her idea for the story after briefly reading an article about the real-life murderer, Charles Schmid, who lured and murdered three teenage girls (Kirszner & Mandell 523). She uses this idea to create the character, Arnold Friend, and his victim, Connie. Connie is a typical teenage girl portrayed as naïve and self-centered. The short story appears realistic, given that the conflict in the story is based off of real events.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the author, Joyce Carol Oates, uses a multitude of archetypes. The word choice she uses emphasizes a Coming of Age, The Rebel, and The Bully. The main character, Connie, was a young, lost girl who thought she had everything figured out. Connie suddenly gets a rude awakening and learns that ignorance along with good looks will have its downfalls.

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170 Words | 1 Pages

“Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”  was written by the author, Joyce Carol Oates, the protagonist in the story is a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl named Connie who feels she can not live up to her mother's expectations and feels that her mother mistreats her. Connie wishes her mom and herself were dead, to end the torment she feels. It seems that Connie doesn't have a fatherly figure in her life, her father works long hours and is barely home, and when he is home he buries his head into the newspaper.

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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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725 Words | 3 Pages

Her beauty is what matters most to her. Connie’s mother dishes out frequent complaints about how conceited she is, but Connie brushes them off. As Oates says, “she knew she was pretty and that was everything.” While she is just a teenage girl at home, her duplicity would come out when she is with her friends. Connie shows another persona when in public.

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460 Words | 2 Pages

Teenage girl’s desires to be beautiful and desired, feminism, and adolescent sexuality are a few of the issues Connie, along with others, faced during this time period (and some can argue today). Connie was responsible for her actions (obviously) but it only partially to blame for what happened to her. If she had never left her friend to go sit in some random guy’s car, maybe Arnold Friend would’ve never seen her, or had taken a liking to her. I’m not stating that what happened with Arnold Friend was her fault, he’s the pedophile that should’ve known better and not threatened her, but it could have been prevented if she had never ditched her

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1203 Words | 5 Pages

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is about a teenage girl named Connie who is in the mist of her adolescent rebellion. She wants to prove her maturity to others and herself. In the story, Oates describes that Connie always lets her mind flow freely in between her daydream. She even creates and keeps dreaming about her ideal male figure in her mind to make her happy and satisfied. Oates allows the reader to step into Connie’s “dream world” through the appearance of Arnold Friend.

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393 Words | 2 Pages

All of us learn to forgive. Some may learn as children from parents or teachers, and some may even learn as adults. Literature for young and old often have an underlying theme of forgiveness, no matter what the storyline is. Modern books such as “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” conquer the topic, and historical books like the Bible send the strong message of forgiveness. This theme in “The Five People” and the Bible story of The Prodigal Son show us that forgiveness, even after death, can repair relationships.

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1328 Words | 6 Pages

In the story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” Joyce Carol Oates depicts the turbulent sixties, a time of change and rebellious character towards the reformable youth. Throughout this era, many teenagers willed to rebel against their parents and the ethics and values they upheld since their youth. Among the many disruptions towards the societal flow, the most prominent and influential were the new generation’s erotic choice of music. The parent disapproval of the new music genre only caused more attraction to it, causing the children to rebel from their elders morality.

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1081 Words | 5 Pages

In life we can't always control what happens to us. We will always make choices that are better then others, and there will also be consequences along with them. Some examples would be like befriending people. We've been taught that the people around us are the once that influences us. Sometimes we don't choose the right person to befriend.

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984 Words | 4 Pages

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is about a teenager named Connie who is trying to come to terms with her transformation from childhood to adulthood. Through this process, Connie attempts to act older than she is an tries to gain the attention of boys. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Oates portrays Connie as obsessed with men to symbolize how one’s obsession and narcissistic attitude can cause danger to seem surreal. In the short story, Carol Oates describes Connie as having two different personalities, one being a narcissistic attitude.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.

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693 Words | 3 Pages

She was fundamentally forced into an ordeal that she did not want to partake in. Although Connie is without a doubt a victim in this situation, an argument could be made that Sammy is a victim as well. While I wholeheartedly agree that Connie is most definitely a victim, I cannot agree that Sammy is a victim as well. It was by his own choice that he was left without a job. No one forced him to call out his boss for kicking a couple girls out of the shop he worked in.

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657 Words | 3 Pages

Connie does this because she needs to be reassured that she is in fact pretty. On top of this, Connie acknowledges that her beauty is “everything”(1). This statement implies that if perhaps Connie was not beautiful, she would have nothing. Furthermore, when Arnold Friend pulls up at Connie’s house, her heart begins to pound not because there is a stranger at her door, but because she is “wondering how bad she looked”(2). Even when faced with possible danger,

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