“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, a short story by Joyce Oates, is about a teenager named Connie. In this story Connie is a typical rambunctious and rebellious teenager, whose risky activities lead her into trouble. The most important theme in this story is actually one of Connie’s bad habits, which is her inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Throughout the story it is mentioned several times that Connie derives her ideas about boys from the music she listens to. The preconceived notions Connie has about romance, have caused her to surround herself with a fantasy world from which she cannot escape. In this fantasy world Connie portrays herself as an adult, whose desire is able to draw the attention of all boys
“Connie had long dark blond hair that drew anyone’s eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out and the rest of it she let fall down her back”(Oates,1). This physical description aids the reader in understanding Connie’s character a little more. Her insecure vanity is apparent throughout the story as Oates described her constantly looking into mirrors and contemplating her looks. “[...] she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right.” (Oates,1). This reinforces the stereotype of adolescent girls who are preoccupied with their looks. We soon learn that Connie has two sides to her, she behaves very differently when she is out with friends and when she is at home. “ Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out”
Each of us experiences transitions in our lives. Some of these changes are small, like moving from one school semester to the next. Other times these changes are major, like the transition between youth and adulthood. In Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", the author dramatizes a real life crime story to examine the decisive moment people face when at the crossroads between the illusions and innocence of youth and the uncertain future.
The short story, “ Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, an award-winning author, is known for unmasking the evil within everything and presenting it to the world through a fictional story. In what is thought to be her most terrifying yet highly acclaimed short story, Oates references many fairy tales that help carve the short story into a realistic allegory. She models the short story after the real-life murder of a teenage girl by the American serial killer Charles Schmid also known as the “Pied Piper of Tuscon .” Knowing this information allows a greater sense of reality opposed to fiction because the events throughout the story are fairly similar to the tragic horror that took place on May 31, 1964. The story deals with the temptations and the coming of age of a teenage girl while challenging the perception of America during the 60’s. Oates references several fairy tales throughout the story to help guide the reader and give a sense of an allusion. There were three fairy tales that stood out the most in the story: Cinderella, the Beauty and the Beast, and Little Red Riding Hood.
Joyce Carol Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? " The reader is left with a chilling feeling as they read it's haunting content. In this short story, the theme of fantasy vs. reality is explored through the protagonist Connie's journey of self-realization as she leaves behind her naive self. Though the story follows Connie closely, the third person omniscient point of view allows for a developed story as Oates writes a warning to young girls everywhere.
Connie is no exception to the fact that music does deeply influence people. Before Arnold came to her house, Connie had been listening to Bobby King, a soul singer. When Arnold pulled up to her house, Connie heard the same Bobby King song playing in Arnold’s car that she had been listening to before. The lyrics in Bobby King’s songs endorse dark and romantic ideas. One song, “At the Dark End of the Street,” tells the story of how two lovers meet up in a dark alley. These songs that talk about outlandish versions of love muffle her understanding of true love. So, when Arnold often says phrases like the ones found on page 47, “Yes, I’m your lover. You don’t know what that is but you will,” Connie believes him. Also, because she has an opaque understanding of love, she doesn’t understand that the world is full of people who will use young people that are still trying to comprehend the world. When Connie finally realizes that particular people will use her own incompetence about love and how music influences her against her, the situation had gone too far out of Connie’s hands. Similar to how Connie doesn’t understand true love, Connie doesn’t understand how to act around
Joyce Carol Oates short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” follows the story of a 15-year-old girl, in the summer of the late 1960’s named Connie; who loves to act older than she actually is. And by doing this, she attracts the wrong kind of attention, in other words, she succumbs to her own vanities and insecurities. It is clear that the portrayal of Arnold Friend represents an incarnation of evil or Satan himself, who tries to lure Connie into his world of sex, drugs, and false promises. And the harsh reality is, Oates connects the story to real life scenarios, in which young girls, or even grown women are lured and taken away, due to false promises and a good time. Arnold Friend represents an incarnation
Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” leaves readers wondering what exactly happens to Connie, the main character, at the end of the story. Connie is a typical teenaged girl who would rather listen to music and flirt with boys than allocate any of her precious time to her family. While Connie is home alone on a warm summer day, a man in a convertible jalopy arrives at her house. She recognizes the man from the night before and he encourages Connie to go for a ride with him. As Connie’s hesitation grows, the man’s tone becomes more threatening, leaving Connie in a panicked state. Indistinct detail used by Oates leaves the ending of the story open to interpretation. The attack on Connie and the events leading
The overuse of biblical allusions throughout the story helps to expose the naive nature of Connie that reveals her as a victim of evil which shows that lust often transgresses on an individual’s identity. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates expressed the subjective ideas by symbolizing Arnold Friend as a devil that tempts a clueless teenage girl Connie, who wanted to experience love.
Connie is described as being an attractive fifteen year old girl whose actions are stereotypical of what one might expect from a girl her age. She spends her time listening to music, shopping, daydreaming, having fun, and trying to meet boys. Her friends share the same interests and when they are together they, ?would lean together and whisper and laugh secretly?. ( ) Connie puts on two different shows, one to her friends and a completely separate one to her family. ?Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home.?( ) Connie does not show any real affection ...
Music acts as a bridge between the physical world, where she is constantly fighting with her parents and sister, to a fantasy world where she is in control of whatever happens. Oates takes this even further though portraying the incident with Arnold Friend as neither quite reality nor fantasy. Oates fills Connie’s head with ideas taken from the songs on the radio about love and boys and in general just being a teenager. When she finds herself in a situation with Arnold, her knowledge about attraction fails her. No longer is it the romantic words that are in her favorite song but instead a creepy old man looking at her like prey. **analyze song lyrics??** Arnold demonstrates a sort of omniscient presence in the story by knowing every little detail of Connie’s life, including what her family was wearing that day when they were at the barbeque. He seemed to know about all of her family members, not just her mother, father, and sister. He also asked about one of her neighbors. Knowing all this stuff makes
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is told from the point of view of a girl with “long dark blond hair that drew anyone’s eye to it” named Connie. Connie was a very pretty fifteen year old girl, which loved to go out with her friends and meet new people. Laura’s, the best friend of Connie, father “drove the girls the three miles to town and left them at a shopping plaza so they could walk through the stores or go to a movie”. It became a lifestyle for Connie which eventually became a problem being that she met a suspicious
In Conclusion, I would like to say that a fifteen year old girl passed through psychological and social pressures in her life to the seek for independence and that’s a lot for her to go through. Also her parents should've taken better care of her, at least teach her how to face such a situation. It’s not all the family's fault but mostly it is. In addition, we have to remember that Connie is just an average teenage girl. She is vain (as are many teens). She feels invincible. But, ultimately, she is not more powerful than an older man. Furthermore, Oates’s Short story narrates the typical rebellious behavior that teens, especially females tend to go through. The fact that her mother is the source of her rebellion further exposes Connie to dangers that are hidden in plain sigh
Connie has the need to be viewed as older and as more mature than she really is, all the while still displaying childlike behavior. She shows this childlike behavior by “craning her neck to glance in mirrors [and] checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates 323). This shows that Connie is very insecure and needs other people’s approval. Although on one side she is very childish, on the other side she has a strong desire to be treated like an adult. This longing for adulthood is part of her coming of age, and is demonstrated by her going out to “bright-lit, fly-infested restaurant[s]” and meeting boys, staying out with those boys for three hours at a time, and lying to her parents about where she has been and who she has been with (Oates 325, 326). “Everything about her ha[s] two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates 324). Even her physical movements represent her two-sided nature: “her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearin...
The short story where are you going, where have you been is about a teenage girl who is, vain, self-doubting and affixed in the present. She does not know anything about the past or doubts it and has no plan of the future. She argues with her mother and she thinks she is jealous of her. The start of the plot is not very dramatic rather it is more like an introduction. We get a good description of the story’s Protagonist, Connie at the beginning of the story and through out. She is familiar, the typical American teenager, who dream, fantasize and have difficulty differentiating the real world from fairytale. Kozikowsky compares the story to the popular recent Disney tale “Cinderella” (1999). In “Where are you going, where have you been?” the setting of the story is not revealed at the beginning. The reader slowly learns about Connie’s family and her living condition throughout the story.
Themes of adolescent challenges, naveté, 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 is portrayed by the author as a typical teenage girl. These descriptions involve her spending time with her friends, meeting up with boys, going to the mall, and worrying about her physical appearance.