There is a point in everyone’s life where transitions are unavoidable. These passages may be large or small, voluntary or involuntary. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", written by Joyce Carol Oates, examines the definite moment people endure when at the crossroads between the delusions and purity of youth and the unknown future.
When readers join their analysis together with Joyce Carol Oates' goal, her intended life message is best understood. This kind of literary analysis is known as Reader Response. In Reader Response, the importance is fixed on "the ideas that various readers respond in various ways, and therefore the readers as well as the authors ‘create' meaning" (Barnet). In this story full of transitions and
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important events, it’s most important that the reader has a reliable reaction to Joyce Carol Oates' intentions in order to fully understand the meaning.
This explains why literature is a combination of the intentions of the author and the response of the reader.
The life message starts with the title of the work. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” itself portrays the passages in time people live. “Where are you going” conveys a time that’s to come while “where have you been” suggests a time that has past. The plot and characters also carry on Joyce Carol Oates’ message. The main aspects of the work are from a 1965 crime, happening just a year before “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was published. “The parallels between the two tales are so numerous that Oates' borrowing of them is unquestionable" (Coulthard). Even Oates confirmed the relation, saying that she wrote the work "after having read about a killer in some Southwestern state in a magazine” (Reaske and Knott). Oates’ use of the 1965 real-life crime in her piece of the work proves the effect it had on her. In 1965 Charles Schmid raped and murdered a young female whose name was Alleen Rowe. Connie who plays the victim in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” closely resembles Alleen. Each of the young girls was 15 and had
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just completed cleaning their hair. They were both home by themselves at the time of the encounter with their attackers. Each of the girls was taken from their houses by the attackers. Connie and her attacker were headed towards the wilderness, while Alleen was really brought there. Alleen was raped and murdered, while with Connie the reader was left to decide what happens with Connie. Connie’s attacker gave readers an insight as to what happened next after telling her, "I'm your lover. You don't know what that is yet, but you will" (Oates). Not only did the victims have much in common, but so did their attackers. Each of the attackers went by harmless false names. Alleen’s attacker, Charles Schmid, went by Angel Rodriguez. Connie’s predator in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” went by Arnold Friend. Similarly, each of the attackers pretended to appear younger by performing like teens and wearing make-up. Mr. Rodriguez was thought to have an accomplice with him at the time he murdered Alleen. Mr. Friend had Ellie with him at the time of abduction. Both accomplices were not directly involved in the rape and murders. "She did not bother to look around at them" (Oates). Each predator was not tall and seemed to walk funky. Alleen’s attacker would put things in his shoes to make him taller, while Friend seemed to do the same. Just when one thinks they couldn’t be more similar, they each drove the same gold Jalopy and had the same shaggy, black hair. Even their personalities were the same. Angel was said to be a chatterbox who always bragged. Friend displayed having these characteristics while telling Connie, "I'm your lover . . . you couldn't ask for nobody better than me . . . and you'll love me" (Oates). Although the 1965 rape and killing of Alleen Rowe was extremely alarming it was helpful in Oates’ story when showing the arrogance of youth and the time when reality proclaims its demise.
Since “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” has been proven to be based on the real-life 1965 murder of Alleen Rowe it serves as a reliable representation of Oates’ message regarding the end of innocence. Angel went on after Oates’ story was published to kill two more girls. Had Oates known this I still don’t think that the ending of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” would change. The story ended with Connie "moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited" (Oates). It ended feeling a bit unfinished adding to the point of the work. The work visited the transition between an adolescent dream world and the beginning of something anonymous. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” ended at that transition in the victim’s
life. Joyce Carol Oates’ story contained two different main focuses: the world in which the protagonist lived and the time everything in it suddenly took a different course. Readers were first introduced to the world in which Connie subsided. Since the story was written in third person, the reader was able to see into the mind of Connie, the heroine and the protagonist. Connie served as the typical attractive, fifteen year old teenager who was into what all teenagers are. She enjoyed listening to music, hanging out with her friends, and having fun. Connie and her friends have a common enthusiasm when it comes to boys and "would lean together and whisper and laugh secretly" (Oates). Like most kids in their teenage years, the main character in this story lived two lives. One of these lives was seen by her family while the other one was seen by her friends. "Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home" (Oates). "She is constantly at odds with her family" (Gillis). To the readers it seemed as if Connie did not have any emotional connection to her family. She did not tell her family anything in regards to her friends. Her dad was always working so she never saw him. She viewed her family to be embarrassing. In fact, June, Connie’s sister, worked at Connie’s school. "And if that weren't bad enough - with her in the same building" (Oates). Connie saw her sister as ugly and this was important to her being that Connie was consumed in her own looks. Connie, like most teenagers, also lived in a world full of fantasy. She would daydream about boys and her encounters with them. Her mom told her "her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams" (Oates). Connie’s view of her real and fake connection with boys was "sweet, gentle, the way it was in movies and promised in songs" (Oates). Each of the boys faces combined and "dissolved into a single face that was not really a face" (Oates). It was apparent that Connie was oblivious to the real world, that is, until Friend. Connie’s innocence of youth ended the day that Friend enters her driveway. Prior to him arriving Connie awoke from a dream hardly knowing where she was. She saw her house more aged and tattered than she did before she went to sleep. This is just the beginning of the reality Connie faces that day. Friend’s invasion is an "invasion at several levels" (Gillis 245).
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates wants to show a more intellectual and symbolic meaning in this short story. Oates has many symbolic archetypes throughout the short story along with an allegory. Oates uses these elements in her story by the selection of detail and word choice used. Oates does this because she wants to teach her audience a moral lesson.
Quite often in life we wish for things bigger than ourselves. Seeming to get wrapped up in our own minds we do not pay attention to reality. As reality comes full force we are not sure how to take it, so we let it take us. In the writing “Where are you going, where have you been?” we see Oates craft archetypes and allegories into the work through detail and word choice in order to help the reader understand the shocking outdistancing of day dreams and the overshadowing sockdolager called reality. These archetypes and allegories provide a way for the reader to join Connie in the story, but also to see the danger of what Connie doesn’t see.
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.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a short story that is about a fifteen year old pretty teenager named Connie, who does not get along with her mother and is irritated by her sister. Her sister can do no wrong in her mother's eyes while she is constantly getting criticized. Connie enjoys listening to music, watching movies, and spends a lot of time going out with her best friend and meeting boys. Until one day, a creepy guy, she had seen out one night shows up in her driveway when her family is out. He introduces himself as Arnold Friend and insists that Connie go for a ride with him and threatens to harm her family if she doesn't. In the story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates portrays Arnold Friend as a rapist; he creates the climax of the story in which Connie is taken from her home and family, by him through violent means.
Gale Kozikowski, Stan. " The Wishes and Dreams Our Hearts Make in Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'. " Journal of the Short Story in English. 33 (Autumn 1999): 89-103.
Agatha Christie once stated, “Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions” (Thompson). In a perfect world, there is no such thing as crime and every action committed by a person has a positive outcome. But knowing there is no such thing as a perfect world, incidents happen. The Federal Bureau of Investigation declared recently that crime has risen .7 percent since 2011 (Department, U.S Justice). With a brief love for crime and violence, Joyce Carol Oates conveys these unjust acts of disobedience into short stories. Though her stories prove intriguing, and her details of physical characteristics are exact, she lacks the realistic details of an actual killer. Presented in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates character Arnold Friend lacks the potential to kill in comparison to Charles Schmid. The real life serial killer Arnold depicts. Schmid is a much scarier killer with a more demented mindset.
The author begins her message with the title of her work, which conveys the idea of passages of time in life. The phrase "where are you going" suggests a time in the future, and the phrase "where have you been" evokes the past. Oates' message continues through the plot and characters. The basic elements of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" are rooted in a true story of a 1965 crime. Occurring just a year before Oates' 1966 story was published, the "parallels between [th...
Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is about a young girl's struggle to escape reality while defying authority and portraying herself as a beauty queen; ultimately, she is forced back to reality when confronted by a man who symbolizes her demise. The young girl, Connie, is hell- bent on not becoming like her mother or sister. She feels she is above them because she is prettier. She wants to live in a "dream world" where she listens to music all day and lives with Prince Charming. She does not encounter Prince Charming but is visited by someone, Arnold Friend, who embodies the soul of something evil. Arnold Friend symbolizes "Death" in that he is going to take Connie away from the world she once knew. Even if she is not dead, she will never be the same person again, and will be dead in spirit. With the incorporation of irony, Oates illustrates how Connie's self-infatuation, her sole reason for living, is the reason she is faced with such a terrible situation possibly ending her life.
In her famous short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates shows the transition from childhood to adulthood through her character Connie. Each person experiences this transition in their own way and time. For some it is leaving home for the first time to go to college, for others it might be having to step up to a leadership position. No matter what, this transition affects everyone; it just happens to everyone differently. Oates describes Connie's unfortunate coming of age in a much more violent and unexpected way than the typical coming of age story for a fifteen year old girl.
Joyce Carol Oates intrigues readers in her fictional piece “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by examining the life of a fifteen year old girl. She is beautiful, and her name is Connie. Oates lets the reader know that “everything about her [Connie] had two sides to it, one for home, and one for anywhere but home (27). When Connie goes out, she acts and dresses more mature than she probably should. However, when she is at home, she spends the majority of her time absorbed with daydreams “about the boys she met”(28). This daydreaming behavior is observable to the reader throughout the story. From theories about dreams, theories about subconscious thought, and the clues that Oates provides, the reader is lead to believe that Connie’s experience with Arnold Friend is a nightmare used to awaken her to the consequences that her behavior could result in.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is a great Southern gothic because of how we, the audience, can relate to the main characters. We know people like Arnold Friend from the newspaper clippings and books about notorious serial killers like Charles Schmid, Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson. We could be an accomplice like Ellie Oscar as Milgram’s experiment, the Stanford Prison Experiment, and Susan Atkins shows us. Finally, we are Connie. Connie is a normal person, living a normal life, until it is ended by a cruel kidnapper which we know could be reality from the kidnapping stories of Elizabeth Smart, Anne Sluti, and Jaycee Dugard. Oates story is scary because it has the ability to be true and we, the audience, can identify with each character Arnold Friend, Ellie Oscar, and Connie.
”Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates, which explores the life of a teenage girl named Connie. One of the issues this story divulges is the various stresses of adolescence. Connie, like so many others, is pressured to conform according to different social pressures, which displays the lack of respect female adolescents face. The music culture, young men, and family infringe upon young female minds to persuade them to look or act in certain ways, showing a disrespect for these girls. While some perhaps intend their influence for good, when put into practice, the outcome often has a negative effect. Moreover, this can lead young women to confusion and a lack of self-respect, which proves
During the teenage years they no longer want to be labeled the “child; matter of fact, they have a strong desire to rebel against the family norms and move quickly into adulthood. This transition and want for freedom can be a very powerful and frightening thing as there are evils in this world that cannot be explained. Most parents try to understand and give their teens certain freedoms, but at what expense? Joyce Oates gives us a chilly story about a teenager that wanted and craved this freedom of adulthood called “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. This is a haunting story of a young girl by the name of Connie who gives us a glimpse of teenager transitioning from childhood with the need for freedom and the consequences of her actions. Connie is described as a very attractive girl who did not like her role in the family unit. She was the daughter who could not compare to her older sister and she felt her Mom showed favoritism towards her sister. Connie is your average teen who loves music, going out with friends, and she likes the attention she receives from boys. During this time, Connie is also growing into her sexuality and is obsessing with her looks as she wants and likes to be noticed by the opposite sex. Her sexual persona and need to be free will be what is fatal to her character’s life and well-being.
Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” clearly illustrates the loss of innocence adolescents experience as they seek maturity, represented by Connie's dangerous encounter with Arnold Friend. Connie symbolizes the many teens that seek independence from their family in pursuit of maturity. Connie’s great desire to grow up is apparent from the beginning of the story, as she experiments with her sexuality. However, it is clear that Connie is not interested in pursuing a relationship, but relishes the maturity she feels after being with the opposite sex. After following a boy to his car, she was “gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place” (2). This suggests that Connie's exploits
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” tells the tale of a fifteen year old girl named Connie living in the early 1960’s who is stalked and ultimately abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. The short story is based on a true event, but has been analyzed by many literary scholars and allegedly possesses numerous underlying themes. Two of the most popular interpretations of the story are that the entire scenario is only dreamt by Connie (Rubin, 58) and that the abductor is really the devil in disguise (Easterly, 537). But the truth is that sometimes people really can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Connie, a victim of terrifying circumstance will be forever changed by her interactions with Friend.