Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

1447 Words3 Pages

Roles of women have altered over time from working as a homemaker to holding careers in the work force and in some cases, the head of the household. According to Lois Tyson, a feminist critic would dissect "...the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women". While reading short stories through the feminist lens, I narrowed my focus directly to analyzing the role women have in their families, relationships, careers, and society. In the short stories “Where are You Going? Where have you Been?”, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “Barn Burning”, the female characters are overpowered by a dominate male character that uses fear to gain control …show more content…

Where Have You Been?” follows a fifteen year old girl named Connie and her encounter with a much older man, Arnold Friend. Arnold stalks Connie at her house and visits her while she is home alone. He wants her to get into his car and ride with him, but in reality, he will rape and kill her. In order for Arnold to lure Connie into his car, he manipulates her by his language. Arnold smoothly states her house “is nothing but a cardboard box I can knock down at any time” to convince her that she is not safe. Later Arnold threatens Connie saying, “Soon as you touch the phone I don’t need to keep my promise and can come inside. You won’t want that”, manipulating her thoughts in order to guarantee she will not call the police. Overwhelmed with fear, not for her own life, but for the life of her family, Connie emotionally understands that the only way to save her family is to leave with Arnold. As she travels to the screen door, Arnold continues manipulating her thoughts by encouraging her, “That’s a good girl. Now you come outside” in an almost hypnotizing manner. As soon as Connie steps out of her now unfamiliar house, she is no longer herself, nor does she own herself; she is one hundred percent overpowered by Arnold. The dominating Arnold Friend, reaches his goal of getting possession of Connie by taking control of her weak, young mind. Oates modeled Arnold after “the serial killer Charles Schmid, who, like the story's villain, was an older man who preyed on adolescent girls” using the same dominate scheme. Although some readers understand this story as Connie getting a well-deserved punishment for her actions and behavior with boys, they are not correct. For instance, those critics cannot use text to support the claim they made and they do not consider the young and inexperienced teenager that cannot weigh consequences before acting. Connie is a classic teenager that wants to do more mature things and rebel against her parents

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