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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Music Analysis

849 Words4 Pages

One of the most important motifs used by Oates’ in her short fiction piece, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is MUSIC. Oates uses music as something omnipresent in the plot. Music defines the character of Connie that helps provide a greater understanding of her psyche and also in revealing the theme of the story. In the plot, Connie is constantly daydreaming and being conscious of her looks. She is repeatedly feeding into music that isolates her from family and real life. This leads to a big turning where Connie is finally forced to face with dangerous reality through the antagonist, Arnold Friend. In the beginning, Connie is always being compared to her sister as being the immature and useless child whose “mind was all filled with …show more content…

The reader is able to understand where her actions, her ideas of love and her attempts of looking pretty and mature to attract older boys, come from. Music connects her to the fantasized adult sexuality. It connects her to the unrealistic concepts of romance. When Arnold Friend arrives in the picture, the glass of fantasy in Connie’s head is shattered and she is forced to face reality. She realizes her oblivion to being stalked by Arnold for a long time and the reality of being killed or harm caused to her loved ones. Even though, she makes that connection to reality at some point, the music used by Arnold eases her down to finally give in. Her unstable character, which is due to her lost connection to the real world, makes her an easy victim for …show more content…

Music plays a major role in conveying this theme by Oates. Connie listens to music and is influenced by the images of romance, adulthood and sexuality that it portrays. She buys into that dreamy life. But then Arnold comes into the picture and challenges her comfortable life of daydreams. He seems to have experience in luring young teenage girls and proposes exactly what she wants. He uses her childlike dreams to manipulate her. However, it is still ambiguous as to whether Arnold Friend is actually real or just a nightmare of Connie. Connie is a typical teenager who focuses on her physical appearance. This is the result of the way she is influenced by music about women’s beauty

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Arnold Friend Monologue

117 Words | 1 Pages

At the end of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” I believe that Connie is a normal girl. Although Connie is illustrated as a self-indulgent and vein teenager I did see anything that stood out in the text with lead me to believe that she was particularly evil. The same goes for her being a good girl she didn’t do anything that I found profoundly good. The fact the Arnold Friend scares Connie into coming with him is a cause for concluding that he is evil.

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Arnold Friend Character Analysis

1137 Words | 5 Pages

However, this is countered when Connie notes that “he was much older—thirty, maybe more” (315), a fact that frightens her. What Arnold is to Connie is a challenge of her want to be an adult, and a trail of her ability to deal with adult issue. Such as a man who singles her out sexual reason. Her wish to be an adult is something she seeks while passively avoiding it. Her avoidance is marked by day dreams of puppy love romance, like a typical teenager; yet, her attractive flaunt to be mature is presented as if she seeks to be an

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Connie In Joyce Carol Oates's The Metamorphosis

1417 Words | 6 Pages

Connie in Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” desperately wants to be independent from her family, while Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” pathetically yearns for inclusion. In this story, Oates pays special attention to the mother-daughter relationship and the lack of meaningful communication between them. Connie's mother is an image of the future Connie doesn't want – the life of a domestic housewife. Connie has a love-hate relationship with her mother, with whom she identifies, but at the same time she has to distance herself from her mother in order to establish her independence. On the other hand, The Metamorphosis, a story by Franz Kafka, is about a man who has been transformed into a giant beetle

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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Arnold Friend Character

890 Words | 4 Pages

Arnold Friend was there to take Connie away; away from her childhood and home, which never quite felt like home until her fantasy world deteriorated and reality set it. The next moment is pivotal, this is when Connie forgets her hedonism and becomes something of much more substance. Before Connie studies Arnold Friend’s abnormal personality and erratic behavior she is fascinated by him and even worries that she is ill prepared for this

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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Literary Analysis

694 Words | 3 Pages

Oates’s biography explained her fiction writing as a mixture violence and sexual obsession. The writing style definitely fits the plot point of this story with both of her literary ingredients being present in not only Arnold Friend but in Connie as well. The Protagonist Connie is presented in a very self-centered way. She is obsessed with her looks and often fantasizes about all the boys she meets.

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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Arnold Friend Analysis

817 Words | 4 Pages

Reluctantly, her parents allow her to stay home alone. A few hours later, a familiar gold jalopy pulls up to her house. The driver announces to Connie that his name is Arnold Friend. His unusual physical appearance, his tone of voice, and what he may symbolize frighten the Connie.

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Literary Analysis Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

1582 Words | 7 Pages

Once again, the author incorporates music into the background of the scene to add to the importance of Connie’s push for maturation and desire for whats on the other side. As the girls got picked up from their nightly adventure and were headed toward home the author states, “she couldn’t hear the music at this distance” (319) giving the implication that once Connie is back under the watch of an elder, she isn’t free to be herself and act as if she is an adult, she is pushed back into her lone shell of childhood. When Connie is

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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Comparison

1203 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Flowers”, Alice Walker explores the woods through the eyes of a little girl named Myop, but she soon realizes the world isn’t as nice as flowers. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Joyce Carol Oates follows a young girl named Connie who is focused on others and her own appearance, until she is introduced to the world in a unexpected way. Both Walker and Oates use young girls to show the harsher sides of the world and how their childhood changes to adulthood in different ways. The main thing that Myop and Connie have in common is that they are both females, but their looks and the way the live are totally different.

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Archetypes In Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

1428 Words | 6 Pages

Home is where the heart is, but what if home is no longer safe? Joyce Carol Oates explores this concept in her 1966 short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. On surface level, this story appears to discuss a rebellious young girl named Connie and her confrontation with Arnold Friend, a stalker. The ending leaves the reader to assume that Arnold Friend plans to sexually assault the young girl.

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Analysis Of Connie In Joyce Carol Oates Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

1415 Words | 6 Pages

Connie in Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” desperately wants to be independent from her family, while Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” pathetically yearns for inclusion. In this story, Oates pays special attention to the mother-daughter relationship and the lack of meaningful communication between them. Connie's mother is an image of the future Connie doesn't want – the life of a domestic housewife. Connie has a love-hate relationship with her mother, with whom she identifies, but at the same time she has to distance herself from her mother in order to establish her independence. On the other hand, The Metamorphosis, a story by Franz Kafka, is about a man who has been transformed into a giant beetle

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Analysis Of Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

1203 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the story, there are many instances: the illogical time and settings, the similarity between Arnold and Connie and the unrealistic events show that the meeting between Connie and Arnold Friend is a dream. The dream is also a preparation for Connie before she steps onto the stage of being an adult. Connie’s dream begins when she refuses to go to her aunt’s house for barbecue party. She stays home, and under the warmness of the sun, she begins her day dreaming about love and the boy she has met the night before. In the beginning, the author writes “Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun…”

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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis

1328 Words | 6 Pages

In her story, Oates conveys that the music style of the 1960’s had negative effects on the generation which lead to many problems causing a complete shift in societies ethical views. The story opens up on a rebellious, self centered fifteen year old named Connie that is fascinated in the new music

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Literary Devices In Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

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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Young And Beautiful Analysis

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The Great Gatsby soundtrack for the movie The Great Gatsby was chosen perfectly to represent the main themes of the 20s in America, specifically the chase for the American Dream, unprecedented prosperity, decadence, idealism, and the empty pursuit of pleasure. Modern songs were put to a jazz-like tone to create an atmosphere similar to the 20s. These songs can directly be heard as coming from a specific character’s point of view, in particular Daisy’s and Gatsby’s. The song “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Ray encompasses the main themes of decadence and idealism represented through the characters Daisy and Gatsby in the novel The Great Gatsby.

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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Theme Analysis

1255 Words | 6 Pages

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

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