Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been: A Literary Analysis

Joyce Carol Oates is a renowned American author. She has many great works, and among them are her short stories “Life After High School” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. These two stories have some similarities, like the fact that they both essentially have the same theme: society’s incessant need for conformity leads to dire consequences for the youth of America. Despite the similarities, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is the superior story due to its flawless incorporation of literary techniques, its thematic ambition, and the fact that is it almost completely literary.
“Life After High School” has many shortfalls that lead it to be the less superior story. The characters in the story are stock characters. The

main character, Barbara “Sunny” Burhman is the typical All-American good girl, loved and cherished by everyone, who could do no wrong. As a pure, “Devout Christian”, Sunny has it all; she is ninth in her graduating class, involved in multiple extracurricular activities, and is popular. (Oates) She is the ideal protagonist in many stories- the girl who could do no wrong. On the other hand, you have Zachary Graff, who is more of a modern day stock character portrayed in many youth novels and visual works. He is the school weirdo who obsesses over the popular girl, professes his love for her, and once rejected, acts out in a drastic way. Both of these characters are used repeatedly throughout multiples works across the board; their unoriginality gives a subtle blow to the overall execution of the story as the reader becomes bored with the predictability of their thoughts and actions. While it is understood that the late 1950’s were part of the age of conformity and superficiality, Oates could have attempted to make her characters more three dimensional rather than so flat. The downfall of Sunny is that no one is completely pure as she is described in the book. In reality, people are a mixture of many characteristics, which makes them all the more interesting. It is true that Sunny qualifies as a dynamic character in that she changes by the end of the story, but her flatness is still in the forefront. However, Zach isn’t as flat as Sunny; he does have some depth to him as he struggles to fit into a world that would quickly reject him if they knew the truth. The story could’ve been somewhat redeemed had Oates possibly added narration from Zach to illustrate his dilemma- it would’ve increased the depth to the story. But since the reader is left only to follow Sunny- what little substance there is to her- the story falls short of superior literary expectations.
Not only is there an abundance of predictability from the characters in the story, but the plot of “Life After High School” drowns in a pool of predictability. The storyline is one that is heard quite often- much like the characters within it. The weird boy falls for the popular girl, but doesn’t take rejection too well and acts drastically. It has been used in mainly commercial works as a way to bring more drama to the piece. It was easy to guess what would happen next when reading the story, which took away from the enjoyment of getting to read it. As well as with being too predictable, the plot was too straightforward. Oates left the reader with little suspense, as everything was easy to predict and was ultimately explained by the end. The only true suspense within the entire work was the last sentence of the story, in which Barbara- stripped of her former self as Sunny- asks Tobias, “What do you think Zachary planned to do with the clothesline?” (Oates) The ending is quite cliche, as the reader is left to try and answer the question if they care enough to do so. Also, the surprise ending was not deserved. There were hardly any hints or foreshadowing throughout the story to lead the reader to the conclusion that Zachary was gay. He seems as if he is simply a loner that truly wanted to be with Sunny, despite the obsessive and creepy way about his actions and words. Due to the lack of hints, the surprise that he was actually gay seemed like somewhat of a cop-out for the author, therefore undeserved. As a whole, “Life After High School” was less thematically ambitious. The plot was underdeveloped and too straightforward to create any real pleasure in reading the story. While there is still room to classify it as literary what with the underlying theme that was represented poorly, for the most part the story seems mainly commercial, as it appears to be mostly for dramatic entertainment purposes. The theme is a serious one, in which there are extreme consequences when dealing with society’s need for conformity. In the end, the execution of the theme and of the plot was rather droll, and all of these flaws combined made for “Life After High School” to be the obvious choice for the less superior story.
As for “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, it was the clear choice for the more superior story. The characters were much more round, and three dimensional. There is Connie, the protagonist who portrays the dilemma of some of the youth during the 1960’s. There is the allure of the counterculture, in which sex and music are all too enticing. But she hides that from her family, who are the typical suburban family of the time, rejecting everything that is against their beliefs. Oates illustrates how Connie has a split life as she dulls herself down around her family, but is a completely different person around her friends. Connie is born through direct representation, as the author vivifies Connie as a beautiful, conceited young girl. She is one of loose morals, which is inferred from indirect representation. This inference comes from lines such as “...the boy she had been with the night before...how sweet it always was…” and how “...all the boys fall back and dissolved into a single face, not even a face…” (Oates) These statements show that Connie isn’t conservative like the rest of her family, but has succumbed to the seduction of the sexual counterculture. Towards the end of the story, Connie faces the consequences of her alternate lifestyle, landing her in physical danger. The 180 in which Connie changes around certain people gives her more dimension as a character because this is relatable among the readers, who in some instances, may also act differently in certain situations with certain people. Unlike Sunny from “Life After High School”, Connie is more humanistic; Sunny remains completely good throughout the entire story, something very few people in reality actually do. As well as with Connie, Arnold Friend, the antagonist, is a unique and round character. He doesn’t seem like the average kidnapper/rapist. He refuses to take action in his attempts to capture Connie. His friend Ellie suggests doing so, but is immediately shut down by Arnold, who prefers to lure in his victims through his persuasive word. He tries- and essentially fails- to act like a boy half his age, in order to appeal to Connie more. Despite his cruel intentions, Arnold is quite charismatic in that part of Connie is tempted to leave with him. His persuasion and charisma are so intoxicating that Connie finds it hard to resist his advances, and in the end, fails to do so. With the well developed characters of both Connie and Arnold, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” surpasses “Life After High School” as the superior story.
Not only do the developed characters make “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” superior, but so does its use of mulptiple literary techniques, combined with the fact that it is overall more thematically ambitious than its counterpart, “Life After High School”.

To start off, Oates incorporates allegories into her story. The entire story is essentially allegorical as its theme consists of a moral message. The theme of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is similar to “Life After High School” in that society’s incessant need for conformity leads to dire consequences for the youth of America. Had Connie not conformed to the counterculture, she may not have consequently been kidnapped and raped. Arnold Friend is also somewhat of an allegory as well, in that he sends the message that there are consequences of what can happen when one attempts to conform to the standards of society in America as a youth. If Connie didn’t try to conform to the counterculture she may not have become one of Arnold’s victims. Had she made better life choices and had better friends who influenced her in a more positive way, she may not have been subject to such consequences that she faced. Not to say that it is her fault completely- Arnold shouldn’t be a creep- but that due to her choices, she made it that much more possible for her to become a victim of such actions. Oates also includes suspense and foreshadowing in her story as well. Connie encounters Arnold long before he shows up at her house; when she is leaving with one of her many escorts, Arnold yells from his car to her that he is “Gonna get [her], baby.” (Oates) This foreshadowing creates a level of suspense in that the reader is now curious as to what is going to happen later in the story with this stranger. The ending also provides suspense, as Connie and the reader have no idea where Arnold is taking her. Oates doesn’t explicitly state what happens to Connie once she is in the hands of Arnold, but through prior

threats made by him, it is safe to infer that he rapes her. Other than that, the reader is left up to their own imagination as to what happens to Connie. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is also thematically ambitious. Due to Oates’ heavier use of literary techniques, she was able to tie the theme together perfectly. The execution of the story seemed better developed due in part to the amount of subtlety. In “Life After High School”, Oates was very straightforward with the details of the plot. There wasn’t much left for the reader to think about as it was almost all laid out before them. However, in this story, Oates left a lot of the details up to the reader to infer on their own which made it more enjoyable for the reader. Overall, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is rather literary. With the support of the literary techniques and the thematic ambition, the story had much more significance and importance, and with that was literary in almost every sense. While reading “Life After High School”, despite the attempts made to be literary, not every element of the story was able to contribute correctly to the literary purpose. Because of this, it seemed more commercial; it seemed as if it was more to be dramatically entertaining for the reader rather than didactic and literary. Because of the overall execution of the story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is substantially more superior than “Life After High School”.
While Joyce Carol Oates incorporated some similarities between her short stories “Life After High School” and “Where Are You Going. Where Have You Been?”, it is clear that one story is superior to the other. Despite its attempts at literary content and an overall perfect execution of the story, “Life After High School” failed to be superior. In the end, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is superior due to Oates’ advanced inclusion of literary techniques, thematic ambition, and the fact that it is essentially entirely literary.