Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Connie Quotes

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.
Arnolds uses his charms and good looks when he enters to start off his adventure. It is clear that Connie enjoyed

some of the things he said because it made her feel like she is one of a kind. Connie, being insecure, fell for it all until she noticed that noticed something. He calls out the number on the car “33,19,17” but conney doesn't suspect anything. As the story continues, Arnold starts to get frustrated. He changes from being the kind man and trying to get the girl in the car to being verbally forceful. The thought of being disobeyed made Arnold realize that she knows what is going to happen and what he wants from her. At that point Arnold knows that Connie “ain't telling the truth” (5). As Connie observes the words and movements of Arnold, she knows that he is not leaving without her regardless of what she says. Arnold tries every chance he has to get Connie into the cars. Connie would describe Arnold as a stalker and a stranger but in some way he is familiar to her. If Arnold is familiar to Connie, then why not go with him? As Arnold watches Connie, he starts to take different precautions.
As Arnold decides other precautions are necessary, he starts to demand Connie and threaten her.

The first example of threatening her is when he says “Connie, don't fool around with me. I mean- I mean, don't fool around(7).” He starts to make Connie feel scared and nervous. He refuses to let her go and for them to leave. It seems as if he is on a mission to capture as many women as possible such as the numbers might represent. In the same way, it seems as if connie is letting him because she is lonely and she did catch his attention. Arnold portrays a guy who knows how to persuade people and then when he doesn't get his way it leads to violence. His personality and tactics are different from a normal stalker or stranger. At one point in the story he mentions how he is going to “come inside[her] where it's all secret and [she'll] give in(8),”. When he said that he was finally labelled as a kidnapper, rapist, or still a stalker officially. Connie knew what was going to happen and she wanted to do something but she couldn't. All the things Arnold says and does didn't help him in the long run because he had to turn into the mean old man or eighteen year old, like he said, and it ruined his chance of being able to capture

her.
As we go toward the end of the story, it is known that Arnold is a strange ambiguous character. He ends up showing his true character by “how thick the lashes were(7)” because she could tell that he paints his face. Connie realizes that Arnold's intentions are to not just take her for a ride but to “come inside her” and to do unnecessary things to her. He says thing to her such as “The place where you came from ain't there anymore, and where you had in mind to go cancelled out,” robs her of her teenage years. Arnold gets more and more demanding as it reaches the end. The end of the story leaves people thinking that Arnold is nothing but an antagonising old man.
Through Arnold’s attempt to get Connie into his car, he made himself look good and kind at first then turn out to be an evil manipulated person. In “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been,” Arnold represents a man or women in everyday life that goes around and tries to get children, teenagers, and young adults into their car. Had Arnold been less unusual toward Connie and try to talk to her before instead of show up, he would of been able to get her into the car. As Arnold reaches the point where he uses force, he shows that he is insensitive towards people and he doesn’t care how they feel. Connie does, at the end of the story, get forced into the car. She doesn’t know what she is getting herself into. Today people like Arnold walk around and steals or assaults people, and sometimes are not stopped. People like Connie are vulnerable.