Adolescent Challenges and Deceptions: A Study of Oates' characters

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Recommended: Essays on women in literature

Edwin Surio, Jr.
Professor John Lynch
English 2
March 5, 2017
Connie and Her Fantastical Friend The work “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is a story of a young girl that faces certain coming-of-age experiences in a matter of a few days. Themes of adolescent challenges, naïveté, and fate, along with the idea of an exterior and a false façade, are prominent ideas that appears throughout the story. With the protagonist, Connie, at the center of the story, the reader sees the world around her in a very curious way.
The short story centers around the life of a beautiful girl named Connie and eventually, her vivid interaction with a man named Arnold Friend. Through descriptions of her actions and daily life, she
She is described as someone who “was twenty-four and still lived at home.” The inclusion of the word “still” in the previous sentence gives a negative impression of June. The characters do have good qualities, but they are all shown in relation to the more negative ones. The author is so clear on the flaws of the characters that their good qualities are accentuated when they are mentioned. For example, it is not too evident, but Connie actually loves her mother very much. During the chaos of Connie reaching for the phone, she cries out for her mother. Then, as she is laying on the ground, she thinks to herself, “I'm not going to see my mother again.” It is an incredibly drastic contrast to her earlier disliking of her mother that is seen in the line: “…Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over”
First, there is the name of the antagonist. “Arnold Friend” provides a great contrast to the actual personality of the character because he is anything but a friend. The fact that this name is posted on his car door shows that the author mindfully thought about the name of the character and how it shapes the readers’ view of him. The same car is so loud and flashy that it seems almost unreal. The car is such an important part of the story that, in a way, it seems to be its own character. Friend also draws an X in the air during his interaction with Connie. It is an ambiguous symbol but at the same time very fitting for his future

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