Summary Of The Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been'

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates is a well thought out short story full of different elements and literary devices hidden between words and sentences. A few elements that are prominent enough to focus on throughout the story are symbolism, setting, and themes. To begin with, symbolism is used a few times throughout “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. One symbol is Arnold Friend’s car which is “painted so bright it almost hurt her eyes to look at it”. It is symbolic of something not being right with Arnold himself, of hiding a secret. After viewing the car the narrator then says, “She looked at it for a while as if the words meant something to her that she did not yet know.” Connie seeing the car that’s

Connie constantly had to listen to her mother complain about how her sister was one way and Connie was another; “June did this, June did that, she saved money and helped clean the house and cooked and Connie couldn't do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams.” By not conforming to her mother’s wishes this shows a certain level of independence achieved. Connie and her friends would often be dropped off at the mall by her friend’s father and they would be by themselves until eleven at night. Sometimes they would watch movies or walk through the stores which was what they would say they were doing. Sometimes they would walk across the street to the diner that was earlier mentioned. At the end of the night the father wouldn’t even ask what they had done, not questioning their actions. This leads the young adults to believe they’re mature and not think about the consequences of their actions by going to the diner with the older kids. They didn’t think about their actions of hanging out at “…the maze of parked and cruising cars to the brightlit, fly-infested restaurant, their faces pleased and expectant as if they were entering a sacred building that loomed up out of the night to give them what haven and blessing they yearned for.” They didn’t care if it was a low end restaurant, they just wanted to hang out with the grownups to act as if they were mature as well. The final act of independence Connie shows was at the end of the story when Connie has to make the choice of going with Arnold Friend or risk her family being hurt by him. In the end, in her dazed confusion of being pressured, she decides to go with Friend. “She put out her hand against the screen. She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway,” during this moment of her walking out she