Isolation Theme

Isolation is a common and necessary theme in traditional American coming of age stories. Joyce Carol Oates uses familial isolation in both of her short stories to enable the main character to grow up. In “Where are you going, Where have you Been” Connie has bad relationships with the other women in her family, and so she separates her familial life and her social life because “everything about her had two sides to it one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Where 1). Connie has done this to herself to get away from her judgmental mother and her perfect, frumpy older sister. This separation is initially what Connie thinks being an adult is, and as such she does not need her family’s opinion or approval and does not need to go to

In “Where are you Going, Where have you Been” Arnold makes it a point to tell Connie “he [Connie’s father] ain’t coming, they’re [Connie’s family] all just sitting around” (Where 8). He reveals that he knows that no one is coming for her, showing her that she is alone and there is no one for her to fall back on for help. This isolates Connie and forces her to make decisions on her own, knowing that she has no one but herself to rely on. The author needed to make Connie alone for the scenes with Arnold Friend, because it is he that pushes the doors of adulthood open and he is the catalyst responsible for Connie’s abrupt presence in the adult world. If Connie had not been alone in these scenes, or the scenes to come she would not have faced the harsh reality of adulthood. She would have fallen back into her false sense of maturity of flirting with boys and doing things ‘independently’. The author had Connie be alone in this scene to force her to grow up by facing a new, terrifying situation by herself, even if the author does not show how Connie matures as a result of her

In “How I Contemplated the World”, the narrator and Simon redeem their actions-showing growth as a character-further proving that this short story is a coming of age novel. The redemption of the narrator is through her epiphany. After the assault in the bathroom of the correctional facility, the narrator realizes that she does not belong in the city of Detroit and “whatever restlessness, or desire that drove her there and into Simon’s arms has evaporated” (Piedmont-Marton 4). This realization is how the narrator grows as a character. The narrator says “this is my home, I love everything here” (Contemplated 169) as she realizes that her home is her safe haven once she returns from her detrimental experiences presented to her in Detroit. The narrator finds where she belongs just like many protagonists in coming-of-age