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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Symbolism

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“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 …show more content…

“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

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However, this is countered when Connie notes that “he was much older—thirty, maybe more” (315), a fact that frightens her. What Arnold is to Connie is a challenge of her want to be an adult, and a trail of her ability to deal with adult issue. Such as a man who singles her out sexual reason. Her wish to be an adult is something she seeks while passively avoiding it. Her avoidance is marked by day dreams of puppy love romance, like a typical teenager; yet, her attractive flaunt to be mature is presented as if she seeks to be an

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