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Character analysis where are you going where have you been
Character analysis on where are you going where have you been
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From the opening lines of, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” By Joyce Carol Oates, readers are immediately introduced to the character, as well as indicating the story is being told by a third person narrator. The use of a third person narrator lets readers know what connie is thinking allowing them to identify with her on a more personal level. The beginning of the story is also introduced in past tense. This could foreshadow the fact that something bad might have happened to connie, also suggesting the theme of violence.
Since the age of 13 it has been common in our society for a young teenager to act older than they’re supposed to be. However, while some consider making there own money for doing minor labor work for their parents as “being responsible” Connie, a fifteen year old freshman, took it to whole different level. She was a reckless teenager who was all talk and no play. Instead of helping her parents out at home or thinking about her upcoming year in highschool all she wanted to do was flirt with older guys with her friends. She wanted to be involved with the wrong crowd and wanted to grow up way too quickly.
In Joyce Carol Oates’s Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been , there certainly is no clear cut way to interpret the story. Oates includes symbolism throughout the story that adds depth and requires the reader to look farther into the reasons behind the details that are included the work. She writes about a fifteen year old girl, Connie, who becomes a victim of Arnold Friend while left home alone . Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been was written in 1966, a time during which a social revolution for American women was in full swing. This empowerment that woman had, as they pushed for complete gender equality, inspired the character of Connie.
In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the protagonist Connie’s misperceptions about the adult world results in her rapid jolt from adolescence into the horrific realities of adulthood. Connie romanticizes the idea of romance, leading her to a great shock when her fantasizes of love come true in a perverted way through the character Arnold Friend. Additionally, her misperceptions about physical beauty as her determining factor of a person’s persona leads her to obsess over physical image highlighting her flaw of vanity. Connie’s idealistic views of adult romance and physical beauty blinds her to the wickedness of the character Arnold Friend who bring about her involuntary downfall into the horrific
Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? By Joyce Carol Oates is a short story about a 15-year old girl named Connie. Connie is narcissistic, enjoys going out with friends and thinks she knows everything.
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.
In the story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Connie is a lost girl looking for attention somewhere or anywhere she can find it. She did not get the love she wanted at home, so that's when puberty took part of what happened between her and Arnold.
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.
Although some may argue that the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, reveals that Connie’s materialistic ideals drove her actions which caused her ultimate demise, this position limits the importance of Connie’s repressed thoughts. Her repressed thoughts, identified through daydreams and inner dialogue, reveal her psychological efforts to protect herself from the imminent danger ahead. These thoughts form as she strives to achieve a differentiation of self from her older sister, yet her newfound identity becomes superficially based off how she believes she should behave around her peers. When Arnold Friend appears at her doorstep, even though Connie deploys her defense mechanisms of repression and denial, she remains vulnerable to Arnold because she does not acknowledge her repressed thoughts and only considers his superficial appearance. Once Connie’s repressed thoughts surface, her reality anxiety allows her to uncover Arnold Friend’s true intentions with her and shed light on Connie’s fatal flaw: her differentiation of self.
She and that girl and occasionally another girl went out several times a week, and the rest of the time Connie spent around the house-- it was summer vacation-- getting in her mother’s way and thinking, dreaming about the boys she met (Chopra).” Being a young teenager, Connie is just starting to experience feelings of romance and
The Stranger In the beginning of “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” Joyce Carol Oates reminds the reader of how carefree it is to be a teenager without any responsibility. One can quickly see that Connie is like many teenagers of today behaving to much like a grown woman. Connie appears to be growing up to fast before our eyes. She is in a stage of teenage rebellion, acting on things too fast.
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, to some, the story of Connie seems that of a naïve girl turned into a heroine, where she gives herself to Arnold for her family to be unharmed. To others, like Tom Quirk, Connie leaves with Arnold in a form of rebellion against society. It could be both, depending on how the reader takes in the words. Nonetheless, this rebellion that is mentioned by Quirk is apparent in most youth and it’s mostly displayed as defiance against the norms. This way of acting is all led by influence.
“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.
Connie spends most of her time “dreaming about the boys she met. But all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face, but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music” (Oates 305). Needless to say, Connie privately harbors innocent dreams of love, illuminating her humility. Like many adolescent girls, she “sleepwalks through life listening to music only she seems to
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” the main character, Connie also led a double life. At home she was a typical teenage daughter, only concerned with typical adolescent things. She was obsessed with her looks, friends, and boys, especially older men. When she was away from home she would explore her sexulaity. She would change the way she looked, walked, and even laughed to make her appear more sexually
