Symbolism In Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?

783 Words2 Pages

The Unknown In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the story of a young girl involving her life style, family and friends. Connie is a typical girl that many of us could relate to, outgoing, friendly and a pretty but, she didn’t have the best relationship with her family. In the story a doorway is being used to represent Connie leaving behind the known to what could be her worst fear. Arnold Friend, comes to put in a valance Connie’s believes and the love for her family. At the beginning of the story Connie’s family is been introduced, her mother is very judgmental with her, always comparing Connie’s to her sister June, which is a lot older than her. In page 286, Oates stated, “Her mother had been pretty once too…but now her looks …show more content…

I see it as what could be Connie’s worst fear, “And Connie paid close attention herself, bathed in a glow of slow pulsed joy that seemed to sire mysteriously out of the music itself and lay languidly about the airless little room, breathed in and breathed out with each gentle rise and fall of her chest.” In this part I started to believe that Connie was having a dream, she started to describe what she was afraid of, and how her family wasn’t involved enough in her life to protect her from it. As well, her innocence demonstrated to what she believes is the evil, a monster cover up as a man. We can also appreciate the love that Connie has for her family, even though they didn’t have the best relationship she preferred to give herself to protect them. “She thought for the first time in her life that it was nothing that was hers, that belonged to her, but just a pounding, living thing inside this body that wasn’t really hers either.” meaning that she gives herself to “Arnold

Show More
Related

  • Connie’s Choice in Where are you Going, Where have you Been?

    468 Words  | 1 Pages

    I think in some strange way Arnold becomes to Connie the way to escape into her fantasy. When she learns his true intentions she is scared to death at first but eventually that fear gives way to "an emptiness." Connie thinks, "I'm not going to see my mother again... I'm not going to sleep in my bed again.

    Read More

  • Reality is Like A Dream in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...tomy between reality and dreams quite well throughout her piece. She provides the reader with two ways to experience the story: either as reality or as reality that turns into a nightmare. This dichotomy that Oates creates “allows the reader to escape this story, and allows this story to end” (Hurley 374). The end of the story shows Connie entering the new world of experience, and Oates wants the reader to sense her fear. Oates intricately provides the reader with clues that help see why Connie’s experience with Arnold is just a nightmare. She also allows the reader to see how this nightmare is meant to scare Connie into making the realization that her decisions have consequences. I hope that anyone reading this learns from Connie that not everything we do is good for us, and we have to think about the consequences of our actions, whether good or bad, before we act.

    Read More

  • Carol Oats' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    Connie's character plays a big role in what ultimately happens to her. Connie is a vain girl that thinks the way you look is everything. She plays the stereotypical part for girls in today's society. She thinks that as long as you are pretty and dress a certain way then you are everything. This comes across when Oates writes "Connie thought that her mother preferred her to June because she was prettier" (980). By flaunting her looks she could easily give a guy like Arnold Friend perverted ideas about her. It could make them see her as easy, which he did.

    Read More

  • Death and Reality in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    Connie is only concerned about her physical appearance. She can be described as being narcissistic because "she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirror or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right" (Oates 148). Connie wants her life to be different from everyone else's in her family. She thinks because she is prettier, she is entitled to much more. She wants to live the "perfect life" in which she finds the right boy, marries him, and lives happily ever after. This expectation is nothing less than impossible because she has not experienced love or anything like it. She has only been subjected to a fantasy world where everything is seemingly perfect. This is illustrated in the story when Connie is thinking about her previous encounters with boys: "Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been, how gentle, the way it was in movies and promised in songs" (151).

    Read More

  • "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    "I mean, anybody can break through a screen door and glass and wood and iron or anything else if he needs to, anybody at all, and specially Arnold Friend.” (Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been, Joyce Carol Oates, pg. 8) Oates manages to make the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” a true horror, because it is relatable. The story leads us through the life of Connie until she encounters Arnold Friend and Ellie Oscar, who pressures Connie into leave her home and leaving thus leading to her murder. Throughout the story we have three main characters: Connie, Arnold Friend, and Ellie Oscar. We relate to Connie, we know people like Arnold Friend exist, and we could be Ellie Oscar.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Joyce Carol Oates Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    Being sexualized by the boys around her, Connie is self-conscious and finds her worth in beauty. The story even states, “She knew she was pretty and that was everything” (Oates 422). She is concerned about her appearance and what others think of her because she has been taught that she lacks any value outside of physical beauty norms. Arnold Friend, even tells Connie, “...be sweet like you can because what else is there for a girl like you but to be sweet and pretty and give in?” (Oates 432). Between this coaxing and the consistent message about the importance of beauty, Connie is nearly forced to conform to this mentality, which displays the lack of respect for young females as human beings. This in turn leads women to self-degradation as they are consistently viewed as sexual

    Read More

  • Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the main character, Connie, experiences life not having an actively participating mother or father. Most adolescents struggle with the transition from teen-age years to adulthood. For many, this is where the parents step in. Parents are meant to support and help an adolescent when needed, especially during this difficult transition; however, this is not always true. In Connie’s case, her parents allowed her to make the change alone and endure hard times. As a result, she lacked the values needed to survive. Such values are used to equip a young person for the real world and the tragedies that come with it. As seen in “Where are you going, Where have you been?”, Connie was a victim of poor guidance and empty judgment. The dysfunctional family’s behavior was reflected in Connie. Her mother envied her, and her father was not an active figure in her life. Connie 's

    Read More

  • Where are you Going? Where Have you Been? by Joyce Carol Oates

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oates takes us to a journey of rebellion as the protagonist sorts through self-created illusion in order to come to terms with her own sexual inexperience. Connie’s desires for attention from the opposite sex, her vanity and immaturity blind her to think of the real intentions of guys, in this case Arnold Friend. A character that many critics argue is real, yet, others argue it was created by Connie’s mind.

    Read More

  • Judith Ortiz Cofer's Abuela Invents The Zero

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    At one point in the story, Constancia confesses that she is adamant about staying as far away as she possibly can from her grandma, in order to seem as if she didn’t know her. Explaining that Connie is ashamed of her grandma, the author states, “I try to walk far behind them in public so that no one will think we’re together”(Ortiz-Cofer para. #4). Connie is almost afraid of how society will react to her hanging out with her “ridiculous” grandma. She is feeling uneasy and anxious about being with her in fear that someone that she knows will be right around the corner and will see that Connie is doing something that isn’t socially common, or something that she can be mocked or taunted for doing. Based off of Constancia’s actions, it isn’t “cool” to be hanging out with your old grandma because it can ruin your “reputation”. So, when Abuela says that she absolutely has to attend church, Connie is unwillingly forced to escort her grandma there after her mother falls ill with the flu. After they arrive and walk up the stairs, Abuela picks a seat, but soon gets lost. According to the passage, “She can’t find her way back to the pew. I am so embarrassed that even though the woman next to me is shooting daggers at me with her

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the midst of a heartbreak, crisis, celebration, or milestone, we use music to help express the emotions that we feel or may have felt during that time. Music allows for us to escape our reality, though only for a moment in time. It has an adverse reaction on our emotions. Music can trigger feelings regarding a past experience, a loved one, etc. Music is universal. Regardless of the lyrics, tone, or time period of the song music is an incredibly powerful work of art deeply connected with human emotions. Joyce Carol Oates uses pop music as a symbol and motif throughout her short story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” In her short story, Joyce Carol Oates' music references illustrate Connie's life and journey throughout the story.

    Read More

  • Allusions In Joyce Carol Oates 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been'

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    The overuse of biblical allusions throughout the story helps to expose the naive nature of Connie that reveals her as a victim of evil which shows that lust often transgresses on an individual’s identity. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates expressed the subjective ideas by symbolizing Arnold Friend as a devil that tempts a clueless teenage girl Connie, who wanted to experience love.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is told from the point of view of a girl with “long dark blond hair that drew anyone’s eye to it” named Connie. Connie was a very pretty fifteen year old girl, which loved to go out with her friends and meet new people. Laura’s, the best friend of Connie, father “drove the girls the three miles to town and left them at a shopping plaza so they could walk through the stores or go to a movie”. It became a lifestyle for Connie which eventually became a problem being that she met a suspicious

    Read More

  • Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Analysis

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Have you ever been so focused on achieving your dreams that you become unaware of your current situation? When we focus on the goals ahead of us, we fail to see the obstacles and dangers that are in front of us. In order to achieve our goals we involuntarily put ourselves in an unwanted situation. Connie, herself, struggles to achieve her goal of being a desirable girl that turns heads when she walks into the room. She becomes so set on being this girl that she doesn’t realize the danger of the situation. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates utilizes metaphors, diction, and imagery to show how Connie is in a constant tug between her reality and her dreams, and how this confines her freedoms in a world that is surrounded with malevolence.

    Read More

  • Where Are You Going?

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    Connie’s clothes and infatuation with her own beauty symbolize her lack of maturity or knowing her true self, which in the end enables her to be manipulated by Arnold Friend. Connie was enamored with her own beauty; in the beginning of the story Oates states that Connie “knew

    Read More

  • A Womans Right To Freedom In Kate Chopin's The Story Of An Hour

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    Once she overcomes the initial shock and sadness, she takes refuge alone in an upstairs room. At first she sits in silence, waiting fearfully for something she can’t quite accept. The “open window” and “the open square” which she overlooks symbolize freedom and trigger a

    Read More

More about Symbolism In Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?

Open Document