Nicole Zajac
Mr. Nowakoski
World Literature A¾
March 22, 2017
Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is an odd and troubling short story that presents a convincingly realistic portrait of a shallow normal teenage girl who is kidnapped and somewhat forced to comply with a strangers orders. Connie is pretty, vain, and a boy-crazy teen seemingly so air-headed and majorly influenced by images of romance from movies and pop music that, as her mother says, her mind is "all filled with trashy daydreams". Oates short story is viable for multiple interpretations. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" may be seen as a realistic representation of a girl's seduction or entrapment by a disturbed man who will presumably rape
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Both short stories present a parallelism between one another. Parallelism is demonstrated within these two short stories when the antagonists of “Where Are You Going, Where have you been” and “Little Red Riding Hood” mask themselves to portray other figures to gain advantage of the girls. Both protagonists, Connie in ““Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” ” and the girl in the “Little Red Riding Hood”, are being stalked by the evil ominous antagonists in which the girls just cannot escape. Sigmund Freud developed a theory of human personality in which he believed there are three components of the human mind: the id, the ego, and the superego. His theory of personality can be used to understand Connie’s and Little Red’s psychological process. In Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Connie’s decision on whether she will or will not go for a ride with an older man exemplifies the argument between the id and the superego, and her ego trying to balance the two. Ultimately Connie’s ego is unable to …show more content…
We can see her desires shown through the way she looks at herself, her relationship with her family, and her connection to friends and other boys. Her main desires that she wants to fulfill is to acquire the attention from others. In the first paragraph of the short story, Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates Connie’s obsession with her looks: “…she had a quick nervous giggle habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates...). Connie constantly checks other people’s faces for assurance that she is always looking better than they are. This quality of her personality is related to her id and her need for attention from others. It is also possible that her need for attention derives from her life at home because at home she does not get much attention from her family. Her mother is always on her back, telling her that she needs to be more like her older sister who helps out at home and is “plain and chunky.”, as Connie likes to say. Also, her father is rarely around at home and when he is, he reads the newspaper, eats supper, and then goes to bed. As opposed to her family, Connie had a different way of dressing, walking, and laughing when she was with her friends. When Connie is with her friend, she leaves with a boy where “she spent three hours with him, at the restaurant where they ate hamburgers and drank cokes in wax cups that were always
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' "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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Connie Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is told in chronological order with the third person point of view. The story mainly talks about how naive Connnie, the main character grows up and become a mature girl. In the beginning of the story, the writer describes Connie as a confident, pretty, and young girl. Connie does not like her sister June because her mother always compare her with her sister. She even wishes her sister to be dead. Her father only hangs around with family when they are having a dinner, but he only read newspapers and when he is done, he just leaves and go to bed. From here, the exposition of the story ended and the inciting event occurs. She often hangs out with her friends outside and one night, they go out and meet a boy Eddie and a man
For the majority of the story, Connie appears to be a static character who remains the same. The first sentence of the story immediately portrays Connie as someone who is very vain and conceited, “She was fifteen and she had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was alright” (626). It is clear that Connie’s appearance is something extremely important to her. If she is not looking at herself in mirrors, she is looking for other people’s approval of how she looks. As Connie is trying to discover herself, she feels the need to constantly check her appearance. Connie’s static and vain character changes once she realizes the danger she is in, “He ran a fingernail down the screen and the noise did not make Connie shiver, as it would have the day before” (636). The narrator openly tells the reader that there has been a change in Connie. Previously, she would have shivered when hearing the sound, but now she no longer shivers. Also prior to her confrontation with Arnold Friend, Connie appeared to be someone who did not particularly enjoy her family’s presence. Connie also disliked the way her sister, June, was praised all the time by her other family, “Connie had to hear [June] praised all the time by her mother and her mother’s sisters” (626). Based on the negative tone of Connie’s voice, she feels hostility towards her family. Connie wants to be her own person which is why she disapproves of being compared to her sister. Not only does the way Connie speak lead to the inference that she does not like her family, but also her actions. When Connie’s family is going to a barbeque, Connie opts to stay home alone instead, “Her parents and sister were going to a barbeque at an aunt’s house and Connie said no, she wasn’t interested, rolling her eyes to let
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.
Oates’ writing style is described by Kalapakian as, “Drastic acts with drastic consequences…doomed love, destructive sex, fear, evil, madness.” (Kalapakian) This is especially present in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” considering the fact that it is inspired from a murder and rapist (Oates 205). While telling this fabricated situation Oates leaves an underlying fear in Connie that is repeatedly brought up in different ways, such as her mothering comparing her to her sister. “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister…You don’t see your sister using that junk.”(Oates 194) making it evident that Connie is worried she may never live up to be like her sister and may never please her parents or herself. Joyce Oates’ writing may have been unorthodox but in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” she addresses a reoccurring phenomenon in adolescents that is too often
At first glance, Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” seems to be the story of a typical young girl, obsessed with boys, struggling with her mother for independence and exploring her sexual identity. However, the typical story of the growing pains of youth, it is not. It is not the story of a well-adjusted teenager fighting for self-identity but instead, the story of an insecure and vulnerable young woman who uses her looks to validate her self-worth. It is the story of a girl whose own mother, in her constant criticism, further diminishes her self-esteem. In the very first paragraph of the story, Oates describes Connie looking in the mirror as she does often, to confirm she is still beautiful and her mother observing and saying “Stop Gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?” (Oates 1). And while Oates continues to write: “she knew she was pretty and that was everything” it is clear, in her constant attempts to attract boys that Connie is seeking validation. She’s figured out that her looks are a weapon and that she can use them to control the people around her.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Backpack Literature. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2010. Print.
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.
In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of the symbolism of Connie’s clothes, her fascination with her beauty, Arnold Friend’s car and Arnold Friend himself help to understand the story’s theme of evil and manipulation. The story, peppered with underlying tones of evil, finds Oates writing about 15-year-old Connie, the protagonist of the story, a pretty girl who is a little too into her own attractiveness, which eventually gets her into trouble with a man named Arnold Friend. The story is liberally doused with symbolism, from the way Connie dresses to the shoes on Arnold Friend’s feet. In “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” the reader can pick up on some of the symbols very easily, while others need deeper thought. The subtle hints of symbolism throughout the story create a riveting tale that draws the reader in. Connie finally succumbs to Arnold Friend at the end of the story, it then becomes obvious that he represents the devil and the symbolism of her clothing and Arnold’s car all tie together to create a better understanding of the story.
Oates also points out that “the pretty girl Connie, who was fifteen with a quick, nervous giggling habit of constantly checking her appearance in the mirrors always compare herself to other people by making sure she is all right.” The author portray her writing to the way society transformed Youngers’ appearance. Throughout her story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates describes in details nowadays teenagers