Joyce Carol Oates' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

1540 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on use of dystopian novel in society

Joyce Carol Oates' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Joyce Carol Oates was born in 1938 in Lockport, New York. She started writing very young and that the age of fifteen she submitted her first novel, but it was rejected for being 'too dark';. This style of writing is common on many of her works including 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'; Oates graduated from Syracuse University and then went on to get her master's degree from the University of Wisconsin. Oates 'turned much often in her writing to everyday characters, which she often placed in situations that were both psychologically and socially terrifying.'; (Short Stories For Students 258) Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is based on a killer in the southwest names Charles 'Smitty'; Schmid was charged of rape and murder of three young girls in the fall of 1965 in Tucson, Arizona. 'Oates wrote the story after hearing Dylan's song 'Its All Over Now, Baby Blue'; Oates also has dedicated the story to Dylan which has brought about a fair amount of mystery and speculation. (Joyce Carol Oates, Raines)

Connie, a fifteen year old girl who likes to go off and have fun with her friends, meet and dream about boys and the idea of a perfect life and relationship is the main target of a clever malicious stalker, a man who intends to kidnap, rape and murder her. 'She (Connie) is caught between her roles as a daughter, friend, sister, and object of sexual desire uncertain of which one represents the real her.'; (Short Stories For Students 259) Creighton writes 'Oates captures so well the viciousness, cheapness and narcissism of life for Connie and her friends who have nothing better to do than to stroll up and down a shopping center plaza looking for excitement.'; Connie is blind to the real world which surrounds her and ironically enough, it leads to her death. She opens up herself too much to life and believes nothing will ever hurt her. The music and movies she enjoys are her ideals of how her life will be for her in the future.

Connie is first aware of Arnold Friend when she is out on a date and she noticed a 'a boy with black hair and a gold 'jalopy'-a beat up sports car- staring at her.'; (White) Death and the Maiden was the original name for this story. Oates chose that to 'allocate the fatal attraction of death (or the devil) for a young woman who is seduced b...

... middle of paper ...

...e, anytime, danger can come around. We all have sympathy for Connie in the fact that she cannot see what is going to happen to her, and Arnold Friend takes on the roll of a person we have all learned to hate. We can now see the greater meaning of 'it can happen to anyone';.

Sources Cited

Creighton, Joanne V. Contemporary Literary Criticism Volume 19. Pgs. 348-51. Gale Research Company. Detroit, Michigan. 1981.

Collins, Stephanie. Devilish Qualities Of Friend Apr. 24, 1998. Apr. 19, 1999. Online

Publishing.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? An Introduction To Literature Eleventh Edition. Longman Publishing New York. 1997.

Piwinski, David J. Explicator Volume 49, Number 3, Spring 1991. Heldreff Publishing. Washington, DC. 1991.

Raines, Linda F. Joyce Carol Oates Online Posting. 1996. Apr. 22, 1999.

Short Stories for Students. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Volume 1. Pgs. 257-276. Gale Publishing, Detroit Michigan. 1997.

White, Terry. Allegoric Evil, Existential Choice In O'Connor, Oates, and Styron Pittsburgh State University 1993. April 23 1999. Expanded Abstracts.

Show More
Related

  • Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown versus Oates' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

    1590 Words  | 4 Pages

    Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Celestial Timepiece. July 2007. U of San Francisco. 15 Mar. 2008.

    Read More

  • Archetypes In Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.

    Read More

  • Little Red Riding Hood by Bill Delaney

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oates, Joyce C. "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" Compact Literature. By Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2013. 505-16. Print.

    Read More

  • Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis Essay

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    As teenagers, we feel like we know all the complexities of life, and that the changes we experience during puberty are the ultimate variabilities of our lives, but the irony of this is that they still have so much more to learn. The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by Joyce Carol Oates, an influential, feminist author in the 1960s. The story was inspired by the real-life serial killer, Charles Schmid, also known as the “Pied Piper of Tucson”, who like the antagonist in the story, Arnold Friend, preyed on young girls as his victims (Sharma 5). An important element that influenced the story is that it was written in the 1960's, a period known as the Second-Wave of feminism, this was a time when women across America began to break free from the patriarchal system and assert their rights as citizens outside of the home (The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers

    Read More

  • Comparing Where Are you going, Where Have You Been and Hills Like White Elephants

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Behind the facade of a killer: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oates, Joyce Carol. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. By Frank Madden. 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 436-48. Print.

    Read More

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

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Connie´s Coming of Age

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Backpack Literature. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2010. Print.

    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

  • Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story, Connie is a young, naïve, sassy, little girl who hates her mom and sister. According to Oates, “Connie wished her mother was dead” (324). Connie enjoys going out with her friends and going to a drive-in restaurant where the older kids hang out. Connie is innocent, but thinks about love and sex. She is desperate to appeal to boys and succeeds at it when a boy with shaggy black hair says to her, “Gonna get you, baby” (325). Her encounter with this boy will change her life forever, because he is the antagonist that influences Connie’s loss of innocence. On a Sunday afternoon, the boy, Arnold Friend, visits Connie and asks her to come for a ride, which she declines. But, Arnold Friend won’t take “no” for an answer and threatens to go in the house. For example when Connie says she will call the cops, Arnold says “Soon as you touch the phone I don’t need to keep my promise and come inside”

    Read More

  • Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

    1230 Words  | 3 Pages

    Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" written in the late sixties, reveals several explanations of its plot. The story revolves around a young girl being seduced, kidnapped, raped and then killed. The story is purposely vague and that may lead to different interpretations. Teenage sex is one way to look at it while drug use or the eerie thought that something supernatural may be happening may be another. The story combines elements of what everyone may have experienced as an adolescent mixed with the unexpected dangers of vanity, drugs, music and trust at an early age. Ultimately, it is up to the reader to choose what the real meaning of this story is. At one point or another one has encountered, either through personal experience or through observation, a teenager who believes that the world is plotting against them. The angst of older siblings, peer pressure set upon them by their friends, the need for individualism, and the false pretense that at fifteen years of age, they are grown are all factors which affect the main character in this story.

    Read More

  • Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. Backpack Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia. 4th ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2006. (323-336). Print.

    Read More

  • Where Are You Going?

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Epic of Beowulf

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abrams, MH, et al. Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.

    Read More

More about Joyce Carol Oates' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Open Document