More handpicked essays just for you.
The role of women throughout English literature
The role of women throughout English literature
Where are you going where have been analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The role of women throughout English literature
The Search for Independence The short story, Where are you going? Where have you been? Written by Joyce Carol Oates is about a young girl, fifteen of age. Who is vulnerable and occupied with her physical looks, yet has a lot of confidence in herself also because of her pretty looks. Connie always has conflicts with her family, especially with her mother because she thinks that her mother mistreats her due to her pretty looks and always have comments about everything she does. She hates the idea of her mother always comparing her to her big sister, June, who is 24 years old, with hideous looks. Connie always tries to appear to look older so she can attract older men too. Everything in Connie has two sides, as when she is home, Connie is this young childish that has manners and behaves well when her family is around and tries as hard as she can to hide her sexuality. …show more content…
Further, She had been pretending to be this old mature lady but when Arnold Friend started to sexually flirt with her, she was frightened and so "sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it - the telephone was clammy and very heavy and her fingers groped down to the dial but were too weak to touch it. She began to scream into the phone, she cried for her mother"( 431) However, when Connie started to call for her nobody was there to help, She even called for help from her mother as a child does, but she didn’t get any help. By that time she felt so weak and the only safe place she was seeing in front of her was going with Arnold Friend. To come to a conclusion, Connie 's experience with Arnold Friend had put her in the adult world where she finds out that she is on her own
In Joyce Carol Oates’, “ Where are You going Where have you been,” it was a sunday morning when Arnold continues another one of his daily routines. The main girl, Connie, is a self-centered and shy girl, whose mother is always puts her in the background and makes her feel excluded. For instance, her mother says rude comments like “you think your so pretty” and “you don't see your sister using that junk” (1). Then a guy came into her life. “Where are You Going Where Have You been illustrates a man who uses charms and good looks to get young or middle aged women to satisfy himself, but with this one girl he has some trouble along the way.
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.
“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
Arnold Friend takes advantage of Connie’s teenage innocence for something of a much more sinister purpose. Connie thought she had it all figured out until Arnold Friend came into her life and up her driveway on one summer, Sunday afternoon and made her realize how big and scary the world can be. Arnold embodies everything that Connie has dreamed about in a boy, but is in the most malevolent form of Connie’s dream boy. She always wanted to get away from her family because she has always felt as if she didn’t belong and Arnold can make this possible just in the most predatory way. She always thought sex would be sweet (and consensual) and that she would be in charge of how it progressed, Arnold strips her of the authority she’s held in any other encounter with a boy. The moral of the story is always be careful what you wish
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie is a normal teenage girl who is approached outside her home by a guy named Arnold Friend who threatens to harm her, and she obeys, if she does not get in the car with him. Connie is the main character in this story who teaches us that sometimes we might search for adult independence too early before we are actually ready to be independent and on our own. Connie is so focused on her appearance that she works hard to create a mature and attractive adult persona that will get her attention from guys. This search for independence conflicts with Connie’s relationship with her family and their protection of her. Connie’s insecurity and low self-esteem is triggered by her fear of intimacy. Connie confuses having the attention of men with actually having them pursue her in a sexual way.
The short story where are you going, where have you been is about a teenage girl who is, vain, self-doubting and affixed in the present. She does not know anything about the past or doubts it and has no plan of the future. She argues with her mother and she thinks she is jealous of her. The start of the plot is not very dramatic rather it is more like an introduction. We get a good description of the story’s Protagonist, Connie at the beginning of the story and through out. She is familiar, the typical American teenager, who dream, fantasize and have difficulty differentiating the real world from fairytale. Kozikowsky compares the story to the popular recent Disney tale “Cinderella” (1999). In “Where are you going, where have you been?” the setting of the story is not revealed at the beginning. The reader slowly learns about Connie’s family and her living condition throughout the story.
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.
A mysterious car pulled into Connie’s driveway and the driver proceeds to get out of his vehicle, showing that he belonged there, not recognizing the car Connie opens the door to her house and leans out it. “She went into the kitchen and approached the door slowly, then hung out the screen door,” (2). Without even knowing who or why this person has come to her house, Connie opens her door and leans out to possible talk to the driver, who would turn out to be Arnold Friend and wants to take her on a “date”. Connie’s ignorance towards Arnold and his arrival almost immediately puts her in a vulnerable state without her even realizing it, this vulnerability would be the first event to foreshadow Connie’s inevitable kidnapping. After greeting and talking to Arnold for a little, he proceeds to ask Connie if she wants to go for a ride in his car. Instead of turning down the offer since she barely, if at all, knew Arnold, Connie somewhat debates it. “Connie smirked and let her hair fall loose over her shoulder,” (3). Though she lacks any information about Arnold, Connie kind of debates taking up his offer to go for a ride, further letting her ignorance towards the entire situation usher her into an even more vulnerable
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.
“In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, the story revolves around a 15 year old girl named Connie. She tells us in the beginning about how her relationship with her mother and the rest of her family is, and how they interact with each other. It focuses on this girl and her activities of being defiant. She goes out with her friends on a weekly basis and continues to hang out with guys that she interacts with when she’s out, and sees this guy in his car that left an impression on her. Whenever her family leaves for the day to go to a barbecue, that guy comes to her house, and she ends up terrified of him. In the end, she is not herself and walks into something that is different in her eyes, like a place she had never seen before. In this story, I think there are many different ways to interpret what is happening and what is being said. What I read was a story of a girl who lost her way and a man, somewhat resembling the devil shows up to her door and coerces her into leaving her old life behind.
Where Are You Going, Where have you been? is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. The 75 year old American author and professor at Princeton University, introduce the story of 15 year old Connie who is rebelling against her mother’s whishes. A very arrogant and selfish girl that in her world the only thing that matters is how many heads she can turn when walking into a room. Through the story life gives her a test, to confront Arnold Friend, the antagonist of the story; who possesses a nefarious power beyond her own experience.
When approached by Arnold Friend at first, she was skeptical but was still charmed by him. As she began to feel uneasy, Connie could have used her intuition to realize that he was trouble. Once she had been engaged by Arnold, her life was over. The influences on Connie and her lack of instilled reasoning led to her down fall. Her family’s fragmented nature was echoed in her actions; consequently, she was unable to communicate with her parents, and she was never was able to learn anything of significance. She felt abandoned and rejected, because no one took the initiative to teach her how to make good decisions. Connie was unable to mature until she was faced with death and self sacrifice. In the end, her situation made it difficult for her to think and reason beyond the position she was in. By not being able apply insight, she fell into Arnold Friends lure. Misguidance by the parents strongly contributed to Connie’s
Rubin attempts to convey the idea that Connie falls asleep in the sun and has a daydream in which her “…intense desire for total sexual experience runs headlong into her innate fear…” (58); and aspects of the story do seem dream like - for instance the way in which the boys in Connie’s daydreams “…dissolved into a single face…” (210), but the supposition that the entire episode is a dream does not ring true. There are many instances in which Connie perceives the frightening truth quite clearly; she is able to identify the many separate elements of Friend’s persona - “… that slippery friendly smile of his… [and] the singsong way he talked…” (214). But because of the lack of attachment with her own family, and her limited experience in relating deeply to others, “…all of these things did not come together” (214) and Connie is unable to recognize the real danger that Arnold Friend poses until it is too late.
At first Connie’s description toward Arnold Friend is pleasurable. She describes him wearing nice jeans, boots and attractive muscles (208). Altogether this twisted story is more related to a religious metaphor. As the story unrolls, she find out who she is dealing with. She realizes that she is dealing with super natural forces (Ubranski), as he says: “Do you know who I am.” She realizes how his voice transforms and how his smiles fades (209). It is a folkloric belief that the Devil comes in disguise, deluding who he wants (White). The Devil himself came for Connie, as he marks her with an X, perhaps already knowing that her soul was his. The devils’ desire to devour Connie is insistent. He calls her his
Joyce Carol Oates’s“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a story of a young fifteen-year-old girl named Connie. She was judged by her family members and was conceited in regards to her outward appearance. Since Connie was always held to high standards at home, she eventually became a rebellious teenager. “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home (Oates, 507).” On a particular Sunday, Connie’s parents and sister were going to a barbecue, Connie did not want to attend the family gathering and stayed home. Shortly after, two teenage boys named Arnold Friend and Ellie, showed up at her house. Arnold Friend begins telling Connie about facts that only she is aware of. Furthermore, Connie