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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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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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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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