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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Theme Essay

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Joyce Carol Oates dedicated “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” to Bob Dylan, the story was influenced by Dylan’s haunting song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” Many aspects of Bob Dylan are mirrored is the character Arnold Friend. Author considered them as a physical double; In the 1960s, people had an idea of Dylan being otherworldly or messiah person. However; Arnold Friend was a darker version of this type of figure. In the story, Arnold came to take Connie away, and she is ultimately powerless to defy him. Oates’s recreation of Bob Dylan is purposeful, and meaningful particularly during the time period in which it takes place. In the 1960s, when Oates wrote “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” a social revolution was happening. American women were stating with confidence about their rights and getting independence from men. Also, people were claiming their sexuality rights. One of the discussed topics was youth age and the struggles or anxieties that many young girls suffered as they lost their innocence and …show more content…

The theme of the story moves from realism to supernatural theme. Arnold Friend uses the love to music and the desire to explore sexuality as a tool to achieve his devilish work. He targeted a young innocent girl with sexual dreams physically and emotionally which again reveals his motives. At the end of the story Connie is described as feeling possessed, having her heart pounding, and the feeling of not owning her body. The ending kind of creeps the reader and it sounds more like a science fiction or horror film. As it is written in the song “Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you. Forget the dead you have left, they will not follow you”. The story prepares us for an ending that is extraordinary. The most important question in this story is what really happens at the end. “Strike another match, go start anew. And it is all over now, Baby

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Oates’ “Where are you going, where have you been” opens with

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“At its most basic, every story is an attempt to answer the question What happened?” (Norton 85) One of the most significant elements in a short story is plot. Plot is construct by authors and they rearrange the character’s action in a consequential way to shape our response and interpretation (Norton 85). In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates and "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, they use similar plot styles that contributes to the process of maturation for characters in the stories.

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In Joyce Carol Oates fictional short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the majority of the story lies beneath the surface. More specifically than just the story, you realize that there is more to the character Arnold Friend than what may appear. The author has always remained silent and ambiguous about the real meaning of Arnold Friend’s true nature and she leaves room for the readers to make their own interpretation of him. Readers can analyze Arnold Friend and see him as the devil, he could just be the personification of popular music imagined by Connie in a dream, but Arnold Friend could also be the result of drug use.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

In Oates’s Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Stephen Slimp, he goes in depth of what this story means to him. Slimp explains how to him one of the best qualities of this short story is “…the way in which the American culture is conveyed with an almost palpable intensity. One can visualize the squalid hamburger joint, hear the blaring of Ellie’s radio and the touch of Arnold’s finger on the screen door. Most amazing, the reader experiences, even with multiple readings, a tightening of the stomach and quickening of the pulse as it slowly becomes clear exactly what Arnold is up to” (179). Slimp believes that Oates writes this narrative in a way portray her belief of the circumstances of American culture in the late-twentieth century.

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Connie’s Parents, neglectful and somewhat abusive throughout the story, by means of their apathy and resentful badgering drive her to seek escape away from home. This evidenced in Christina M. Gillis’s ““Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” : Seduction, Space, And A Fictional Mode” by the quote “Connie is then, constantly at odds with her family, ever looking forward to her excursions to the drive-in...” As a result of the constant parental neglect and verbal abuse Connie feels unsafe unloved and unwelcome at home forcing her to seek refuge and some semblance of being loved in her outings with friends to the mall, drive-in, and other local “hangouts”. Connie herself, capitulating to the pressures

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694 Words | 3 Pages

In Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” the main protagonist finds herself in a very hostile situation. With an all most fateful encounter with a man known as Arnold Friend. Forcing her to choose whether to run off with him or taking her by force. This man known as Arnold Friend to the reader comes off as almost a demon. A person who uses many temptations, word play, and threats to take advantage of the young protagonist Connie.

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1203 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Flowers”, Alice Walker explores the woods through the eyes of a little girl named Myop, but she soon realizes the world isn’t as nice as flowers. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Joyce Carol Oates follows a young girl named Connie who is focused on others and her own appearance, until she is introduced to the world in a unexpected way. Both Walker and Oates use young girls to show the harsher sides of the world and how their childhood changes to adulthood in different ways. The main thing that Myop and Connie have in common is that they are both females, but their looks and the way the live are totally different.

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1428 Words | 6 Pages

Home is where the heart is, but what if home is no longer safe? Joyce Carol Oates explores this concept in her 1966 short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. On surface level, this story appears to discuss a rebellious young girl named Connie and her confrontation with Arnold Friend, a stalker. The ending leaves the reader to assume that Arnold Friend plans to sexually assault the young girl.

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1203 Words | 5 Pages

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is about a teenage girl named Connie who is in the mist of her adolescent rebellion. She wants to prove her maturity to others and herself. In the story, Oates describes that Connie always lets her mind flow freely in between her daydream. She even creates and keeps dreaming about her ideal male figure in her mind to make her happy and satisfied. Oates allows the reader to step into Connie’s “dream world” through the appearance of Arnold Friend.

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984 Words | 4 Pages

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is about a teenager named Connie who is trying to come to terms with her transformation from childhood to adulthood. Through this process, Connie attempts to act older than she is an tries to gain the attention of boys. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Oates portrays Connie as obsessed with men to symbolize how one’s obsession and narcissistic attitude can cause danger to seem surreal. In the short story, Carol Oates describes Connie as having two different personalities, one being a narcissistic attitude.

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854 Words | 4 Pages

Arnold Friend’s Biblical Allusions In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Joyce Carol Oates tells a story of a young, innocent teenage girl, Connie who enjoys listening to music and begins exploring her sexuality and being with boys “the way it was in the movies and promised in songs” (Oates 198). In fact she catches the attention of Arnold Friend one night while at the mall meeting up with a boy. Not knowing he would appear in her life, Arnold strangely shows up at her house assuming they made plans to get together. His character is seen as the devil.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.

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700 Words | 3 Pages

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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693 Words | 3 Pages

In John Updike’s “A&P” and Joyce Oates’s “Where are you going, where have you been” there are multiple intriguing similarities and differences between both protagonists. Both stories involve an adolescent 's main character who goes through a type of struggle, however, the severity of their struggles differ greatly. “A&P” includes a young man named Sammy who loses his job grows an attachment to a small group of girls that are regular customers at the shop he works at. The situation in “Where are you going, where have you been?” is much more grim for the protagonist, a young teenage girl, Connie. She is put into a set of circumstances that put her life in danger.

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Fantasy V.S. Reality In some cases an individual can perceive something as the complete opposite of what it truly is. People create the illusion or the fantasy on what they believe something to be.

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