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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Character Analysis

694 Words3 Pages

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie, the protagonist, is a 15-year-old girl living in the suburbs, who conveys the qualities of a typical teenager: she listens to music, goes out with her friends, is obsessed about her looks, likes getting attention from boys and is intrigued with her sexuality. On one typical night out with her friends she notices a mysterious guy making suggestive gestures to her in the parking lot of a drive-in restaurant, but she remains unfazed and leaves with a guy named Eddie. Then one Sunday afternoon, her family leaves to go to an aunt’s barbecue leaving her home alone, but soon after the mysterious guy pulls up in a gold colored car in her driveway with his friend. He proceeds …show more content…

“A girl justly desires in the purity of her heart to be pretty, to feel good, to gain attention, and to be cherished…” (Kozikowski 3) She takes great pride in the fact that boys and even men find her attractive. She has groomed herself to be sexually appealing despite those mannerisms only being temporary. “Connie had long dark blond hair that drew anyone's eye to it. [...] Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not at home”. (Oates 5) She tries hard to prove her maturity but despite her attempts but she proves to the readers that she is not as mature as she pretends to be. She so desperately wants to be attractive to older men but once she actually gains the sexual attention from Arnold, she is terrified. She has created a false image of what the reality of adulthood actually is and prefers to lose herself in the childlike ideas of the romance talked about in her favored pop songs. Her two sides exist in conformity from child to woman and back again effortlessly. However, the “two-sidedness of Connie” are conflicted with the arrival of Arnold Friend. (Gillis

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Arnold Friend’s sudden appearance in Connie’s life takes her from childhood to adulthood in the blink of an eye and she ultimately becomes a passive victim. Not many fifteen-year-old girls are considered mature at that age and Connie is certainly no exception to that. She is presented as quite vain in her views of herself and those around her. Her mother, once a beauty herself, is constantly nagging at her and telling her to stop gawking at herself in the mirror. Connie considers her older sister June to be somewhat of a spinster who is described as “plain and chunky” (Oates

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In Joyce Carol Oates’ highly acclaimed short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates tells the story of a fictional adolescent girl named Connie that has a run in with pure evil itself in the shape of a man named Arnold Friend. Arnold Friend, a man dressed as a boy that she once saw at a drive-in, shows up at Connie’s house one afternoon when her family is away and tells her that if she does not come out of her house and go away and have sex with him then he will kill her whole family. Throughout the story Connie is shown to be an extreme narcissist, constantly staring at herself and basking in her profound beauty. Connie is a typical teenage girl that only seems to care about boys what others think of her

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When Connie refuses he starts making threats to the wellbeing of her family. Connie who feels powerless in the situation decides to go with Arnold Friend. A reader can see Oates’s interest in being young and reckless when “they went across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road, to a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out” (para.6). Connie and her friends ran across a

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Through careful characterization and symbolic imagery, Oates invites readers to navigate the depths of Connie and Arnold's relationship, offering insights into the underlying societal expectations and power

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842 Words | 4 Pages

She starts by being a confident and, in essence, care-free person who transitioned into someone who was scared and helpless. This development is directly affected by Arnold Friend, the main antagonist. At first, he addressed her in an attempt to seem like a friendly and desirable guy. This attitude changes as his intentions become more clear.

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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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Connie's choice of life style and attitude shows her lack of morals. Connie constantly has conflicts with her family. She is beginning to break away from them. Because the mother is jealous, she likes to put Connie's self esteem down: " Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you?

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Joyce Carol Oates’s, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is a short story that follows a teenage girl named Connie who is at a crossroads between childhood and adulthood. She encounters an unfamiliar man named Arnold Friend, who symbolizes the loss of innocence from the harsh realities of the adult world. In this paper, I will argue how Oates’s use of dramatic irony displays the vulnerability of young girls. Throughout the story, Connie is made vulnerable by being depicted as a typical teenage girl who craves attention and validation. Oates begins the story by describing Connie as a fifteen-year-old girl who “[H]ad a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right.”

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The beginning of the story illustrates Connie as a shallow and vapid young teen, placing an immense amount of value on her looks and ability to attract the attention of those around her. Near the end of the story, during her encounter with Arnold Friend and his companion, Ellie Oscar, the author expresses Connie’s nervousness by describing that, “her heart was almost too big now for her chest and its pumping made sweat break out all over her” (Oates). Connie is no longer comfortable with the attention and realizes that the looks that she once valued so greatly, likely brought danger to both herself and those around her. The dichotomy between Connie in the beginning of the short story and Connie near the end of the story is subtly foreshadowed when it mentions that, “ everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates). By the end of the short story, the audience is able to identify the two new sides of Connie.

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The way Connie dressed attracted Arnold Friend, a much older guy that is bad news. He also said to Connie that he was her lover, in which the way she presented herself as a mature woman, could have made Arnold Friend think that Connie already knew what comes with being an adult. Connie’s appearance of trying to look older shows her immaturity of what being a mature adult really consist

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He begins by looking and acting like everything Connie values, but as his dialogue with her becomes more threatening her uneasiness grows. By the time she realizes how much danger she’s in, he’s manipulated her into surrendering to him seemingly of her own free will. An Analysis of Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where are you going, Where have you been?” through the feminist lens suggests that the author is portraying Connie without a concrete identity and in order to demonstrate that the traits that make women most vulnerable to predators are those they are universally pressured to perform for society, while simultaneously presenting Arnold with a crafted identity and specific manipulation techniques to illustrate how Arnold and the danger he embodies is a creation and extension of the culture Connie lives and breathes because of her

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877 Words | 4 Pages

Like most teenagers she is thinking only in the moment and what is going to please her. Basically Connie and her friend go to a restaurant and this creepy guy named Eddie came in to talk with them, obviously Connie isn’t thinking straight and she leaves the restaurant with this stranger Eddie. Leaving her friend behind. In the book she states “I just hate to leave her like that” (Oates, 391).

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441 Words | 2 Pages

The relationship between the two was so bad that Connie had homicidal and suicidal thoughts, “Connie wished her mother were dead and she herself were dead and it would all be over. “(86) Some of the harassment from the mother seemed to come from jealousy. Oates shares some insight into the mother’s past and says she was pretty at one point in time “but now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie. ”(85) Her relationship with her father wasn’t much better. In fact, Oates tells us that he didn’t give much thought to anyone in the family because “he didn’t bother talking much to them.”

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984 Words | 4 Pages

Connie’s first encounter with Friend was at a diner when he stated to Connie, “Gonna get you, baby”(pg.1142). Because Connie was use to this type of attention, she did not view it as strange that an older man was calling her in such away. However, if Connie had seen Friend as dangerous instead of just another man, her kidnapping might have been prevented. Later in the story when Friend showed up as Connie’s house, she walked outside and talked to him instead of questioning how he knew where she lived or calling the police. Oates described Connie's interaction with Friend by stating,“Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed: tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pullover shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard muscles of his arms and shoulders”(pg.1145).

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In the coming of age story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses symbolism, conflict, and the third person to foreshadow fifteen-year-old Connie’s unfortunate, yet untimely fate. While one may think that the conflict stems from Connie’s promiscuity, it is clear to see her promiscuity is only a result to a much bigger conflict, her mother’s constant nagging and disapproval, alongside the lack of attention from her father. the author paints a vivid picture of what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl such as Connie goes elsewhere to find to find the love, attention, and approval that she lacks at home. All which is vital for her growth and wellbeing as a person.

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