Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Literary Devices

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oats is a short story that is based on a true event that happened in the 1960’s. The allegory came from the man named Charles Schmid, who was a serial killer in which he was known for his ability to get the girls to fall for him. As for the story, Connie, the protagonist, wants to grow up and live in a fast pace and experience adulthood. She soon meets up with a guy named Arnold Friend, the antagonist, who is in search of finding someone to kill or looking for another innocent soul to take. In terms of the story, the author uses a type of writing that differentiates what is reality versus fantasy by using the literary devices of symbolism of Arnold Friend, setting of the music Connie

The music is contain to be a pervasive motif in the story, from the 'jingling' of the girl's bracelets, to the music at the drive-in restaurant "that made everything so good…like music at a church service" (Caldwell 2). Everywhere Connie is going, she always is playing music herself or she hear music from her surrounds, in which it distracts her from whatever she is doing. This shows how she is very dependent on music. “The music serves as an immediate bridge between the two parties, opening the door to their conversation” (Caldwell 2).” Leading Connie with music gets her “turned-on” to Arnold Friends because he plays the same music as what she was playing early. Overall, the music shows how it could be also metaphorically described as a drug because Connie would be in her own zone not knowing where she was

The allusion shows up on Arnold Friends car with the numbers of 33, 19, and 17. It is from the bible of “the Old Testaments of Judges 19:17 and Genesis 19:17. The idea of the number 33 is referring to the fact that Judges is the thirty-third book from the end of the Old Testament” (Piwinski 1). Judge 19:17 states "And when he raised his eyes, he saw the traveler in the open square of the city; and the old man said, “Where are you going, and where do you come from?” in the New International Version. In the sentence itself, it shows where the title gets it significance. Although in those chapter, it is explained how Abraham is leaving in search of the “promised land,” and in just like him Connie left her entire family to be with Arnold Friend. Also, “the numbers 33, 19, 17 painted on the car may be a secret code to the ages of Arnold Friend's previous victims, suggested to Oates by the ages—seventeen, fifteen, and thirteen—of the girls killed by Charles Schmid” (Coulthard 4). In that being said, the author I might be showing a message on how it doesn’t matter what age you are, that once you get into the concept of meeting a psychopathic killer, life is at your own