Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Characters

One way to interpret and analyze the short story called “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is to compare it to the story of “The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.” In Oates’ short story, the main character is a problematic, pretty, teenage girl named Connie who “couldn’t do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams” (Oates, 1). Throughout the story, Connie is described as someone who is detached from her family and feels as though she is misunderstood. There is not much that excites her except for music and the drive-in restaurant that she refers to as her “sacred building” and a “haven and blessing they yearned for” (Oates, 1). In the story of the Big Bad Wolf, the reader is told that after the first two pigs built their houses out of hay and sticks, “They… sang and danced all day.” Just like

When talking to her, Arnold Friend said things that sounded good, but did not exactly make sense during their conversation. This is shown by one of the first things that Arnold says to her: “You’re cute” (Oates, 2). Out of context, it appears sweet and spontaneous, but just before he said that to Connie, he had asked her to go on a ride with him. Arnold Friend starts to come off creepier and creepier as his threat escalates and he becomes some sort of broken record that sputters out words that sound right, but have no real meaning behind them. This is seen in the last words that he says to Connie at the very end of the story when he says, “My sweet blue eyed girl” (Oates, 6). This would seem less eerie if the color of Connie’s eyes were not brown, but Arnold Friend is now saying things normally heard in songs that appear to the listener as sweet and gentle when in reality, it can be dangerous and filled with malice if not listened to with caution and a personal reality