Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Symbolism

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”

In the short story written by Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, the main character is Connie. Connie is a typical fifteen year old, she acts older than she is and has a split personality when it comes to how she acts around certain people. In the story Connie's mother resents her because she was once pretty just like Connie. Her mother seems to be unhappy with the life she's living and doesn't want Connie to be just like she was at that age. Connie notices this when she looks at her mother. “Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment.” (938 Oates) While

“The back yard ran off into weeds and a fence-like line of trees and behind it the sky was perfectly blue and still. The asbestos ranch house that was now three years old startled her—it looked small. She shook her head as if to get awake.”(941 Oates) “"My sweet little blue-eyed girl," he said in a half-sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes but was taken up just the same by the vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him—so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it.” (949 Oates) All of this comes together to create the place she feels she is going to die at. The blue sky she was looking up at connects to Arnold calling her his blue eyed girl.

The short story has allegory, everything has a double meaning like the dent in Arnold's car “Done by a crazy woman driver”, and how the only drivers are male. Connie’s father drives the family to the barbeque and Connie's friend’s dad drives them to the shopping plaza. The story most likely took place in the 1960’s because of all the events going on. The drive in restaurant, how women don't drive and Connie’s mother and her daughters take care of the cleaning and