A nagging mother, an overachieving sister, and a fifteen year old girl that just wants to live. Joyce Carol Oates's short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", is a story that portrays almost every teenager girls life. The desire to get out and experience the world is what creates a whole new conflict for the main character, Connie. Connie is a protective daughter that will go to great lengths to save her family. Connie is a fifteen year old girl trying to live up to her mother's standards. Her mother would constantly compare Connie to her older sister, June. Connie was prettier than June, and she knew it. Connie's mother constantly scolded her about it. Connie would check her appearance regularly. "Her mother, who noticed everything …show more content…
and knew everything and who hadn't much reason any longer to look at her own face, always scolded Connie about it"(Oates, 199). Connie's mother would always say, "Stop gawking at yourself"(199). Connie knew that she was pretty, and that is why she was confident around boys her age. "Connie had long dark blond hair that drew anyone's eye to it"(200). She met with many boys throughout her visits to a drive-in restaurant. That is exactly where she unknowingly met Arnold Friend. When Connie was at home, she acted different than when she was out.
Just like many teenage girls, Connie has a life and personality that her parents know nothing about. The way she acted and looked was very different in public than at home. "She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home"(200). Connie knew that her mother would not approve of the things she did or the way she dressed, so had two sides to her personality. Oates makes it easy for the reader to relate to that part of the story, because most teenagers have hidden something from their parents, or act a different way when they are away from home. Connie does start to feel bad about keeping secrets from her mother. "Her mother was so simple, Connie thought, that it was maybe cruel to fool her so much"(201). Connie knew it was bad to lie to her mother so often, but she thought it was …show more content…
best. Connie was always looking out for what was best for her family, even if they did not always get along.
When Arnold Friend approached her at her house, Connie did what she had to do to protect her family. She knew that he was bad. She tried to call for help, but Arnold Friend threaten to hurt her family if she touched the phone. Arnold tried to manipulate her into thinking that her family did not care about her. "They don't know one thing about you and never did and honey, you're better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you"(210). After saying those words to Connie, she walks out and leaves with him. She knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to turn her against her family. It did not work. She did what she had to do in order to protect her family. She had to leave with Arnold Friend. She left with him so willingly because she knew deep down that her family would do whatever it took to find
her. The title "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" has great meaning. The first part, "Where are you going" is what her parents say when when they get home safely from the barbecue. They start to panic and call the police. They search and search, and finally find Connie. The second part of the title, "Where have you been", is what Connie's parents ask when they are finally reunited with they brave daughter. Connie's character in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", is a brave and courageous teenage girl. She displays the love and protectiveness that many girls have for their families. She is easy to relate to because she has two sides and secrets that her parents have no idea about. She does not get along with her mother very well, but when it comes down to it; she will do what it takes to keep her family safe.
That’s right. Come over here to me… Now come out through the kitchen to me, honey, and let’s see a smile, try it, you’re a brave, sweet little girl’”(Oates 7). “She put her hand against the screen. She watch herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewherein the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited”(7). What had gotten into Connie, why would she go out with Arnold knowing that all he is going to do is hurt her. Readers may think she is a state of shock and the only thing she can do to protect her family is by going with Arnold.
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.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Backpack Literature. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2010. Print.
However, as I continued to read the story I began to wonder if maybe Connie’s life was not in any way parallel to my own. I have a younger sister where she has an older sister, but that is where the similarities end. Her mother is always telling her that she should be more like June, her older sister. It seemed to me that June living with her parents at her age was unusual, but the fact that she seemed to enjoy this and was always doing things to h...
Connie's actions also played a big role in her abduction. Connie liked to go out and hang out with guys. She liked to hang out with different guys, not the same one every night. Guys talk about girls like this and spread nasty rumors about them. These rumors probably did not escape the ears of Arnold Friend. So even before he saw Connie for the first time he probably had the idea that she was easy. He said as much towards the end of the story when he started naming people she knew and telling her that they told him things about her (Oates 983).
In the short story, Connie is a young, naïve, sassy, little girl who hates her mom and sister. According to Oates, “Connie wished her mother was dead” (324). Connie enjoys going out with her friends and going to a drive-in restaurant where the older kids hang out. Connie is innocent, but thinks about love and sex. She is desperate to appeal to boys and succeeds at it when a boy with shaggy black hair says to her, “Gonna get you, baby” (325). Her encounter with this boy will change her life forever, because he is the antagonist that influences Connie’s loss of innocence. On a Sunday afternoon, the boy, Arnold Friend, visits Connie and asks her to come for a ride, which she declines. But, Arnold Friend won’t take “no” for an answer and threatens to go in the house. For example when Connie says she will call the cops, Arnold says “Soon as you touch the phone I don’t need to keep my promise and come inside”
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.
”Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates, which explores the life of a teenage girl named Connie. One of the issues this story divulges is the various stresses of adolescence. Connie, like so many others, is pressured to conform according to different social pressures, which displays the lack of respect female adolescents face. The music culture, young men, and family infringe upon young female minds to persuade them to look or act in certain ways, showing a disrespect for these girls. While some perhaps intend their influence for good, when put into practice, the outcome often has a negative effect. Moreover, this can lead young women to confusion and a lack of self-respect, which proves
In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the description of the characters June, Connie, and Arnold Friend reveal the true nature of the characters and underlying motives. June is the older sister to Connie who shapes the relationship between Connie and her family, while describing the differences between Connie and June. The description of the protagonist Connie reveals the struggle between childhood and adolescence with the desire to be desired by those of the opposite sex, but also the obsession with childhood fantasies. Arnold Friend also represents a struggle for Connie with the fact that he repulses but also allures her with his fulfillment of her fantasies.
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.
Joyce Carol Oates is known for stories that have an everlasting effect on readers. Oates writing style was explained best herself, “I would like to create the physiological and emotional equivalent of an experience, so completely and in such exhaustive detail, that anyone who reads it sympathetically will have experienced that event in his mind” (Joslin 372). Oates’ short story Where are You going, Where have you been? perfectly fits the description of her work by placing the protagonist of the story Connie in a very uncomfortable situation with the antagonist Arnold Friend. The story focuses the aforementioned Connie and Arnold, Connie is 15 year old girl who loves the spotlight and all the attention that comes with it. Her beauty and vibrant
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.
When approached by Arnold Friend at first, she was skeptical but was still charmed by him. As she began to feel uneasy, Connie could have used her intuition to realize that he was trouble. Once she had been engaged by Arnold, her life was over. The influences on Connie and her lack of instilled reasoning led to her down fall. Her family’s fragmented nature was echoed in her actions; consequently, she was unable to communicate with her parents, and she was never was able to learn anything of significance. She felt abandoned and rejected, because no one took the initiative to teach her how to make good decisions. Connie was unable to mature until she was faced with death and self sacrifice. In the end, her situation made it difficult for her to think and reason beyond the position she was in. By not being able apply insight, she fell into Arnold Friends lure. Misguidance by the parents strongly contributed to Connie’s
Connie’s clothes and infatuation with her own beauty symbolize her lack of maturity or knowing her true self, which in the end enables her to be manipulated by Arnold Friend. Connie was enamored with her own beauty; in the beginning of the story Oates states that Connie “knew
Rubin attempts to convey the idea that Connie falls asleep in the sun and has a daydream in which her “…intense desire for total sexual experience runs headlong into her innate fear…” (58); and aspects of the story do seem dream like - for instance the way in which the boys in Connie’s daydreams “…dissolved into a single face…” (210), but the supposition that the entire episode is a dream does not ring true. There are many instances in which Connie perceives the frightening truth quite clearly; she is able to identify the many separate elements of Friend’s persona - “… that slippery friendly smile of his… [and] the singsong way he talked…” (214). But because of the lack of attachment with her own family, and her limited experience in relating deeply to others, “…all of these things did not come together” (214) and Connie is unable to recognize the real danger that Arnold Friend poses until it is too late.