Analysis Of Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

Oates emphases that Connie is in her adolescence, who is trying to transition into thinking like an adult. Connie, who is obsessed with her appearance, is constantly “craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right”(Oates 1). She is starting to

In the beginning of the story, the way Oates describes Connie’s behaviors help construct Connie’s state of mind as a doubtful and vulnerable young girl. The author perfectly capture the essences of Connie’s character by illustrates how Connie has, “a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right,”

“I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love” (Marilyn Monroe). Joyce Carol Oates is the author of the realistic allegory story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. The story is about a young girl named Connie, who likes seeking attention from men, as a distraction from her problems at home. She meets a man named Arnold Friend, he goes after Connie, claiming he has to take her for a ride, but it is obvious he wants to do other things. Because of this character’s actions, it is determined that he is a representation of the devil. Through plot, characterization, and dialogue, Oates successfully portrays Arnold Friend as a symbolic Satan.

Connie does not want to be the nice and innocent pretty girl. She wants to be known for being very sexual. In the story she makes fun of her sister June because she is very modest and not sexual and causes conflict with their family. Also June is overweight twenty-four years old and still living at home. But she also does chores and does them without complaining to her parents. While Connie is a way from home she has two totally different ways of acting. Be that as it may, Arnold friend ‘s landing in her home drives her two sides to consolidate fiercely. As it were, Connie is not completely sexual until Arnold's interruption into her home until then; her sexuality was something outside of her "actual" self, the self that she permitted her family to see. Arnold also has a friend named Ellie. While Arnold drives up to Connie’s house Ellie stays in the car and she listens to music while Arnold speaks to Connie. Also Connie’s mother shows a large amount of frustration towards her and the way she acts and dresses. Connie and her mother fight constantly. But towards the end of the story when Connie is attacked my Arnold she cries out to her

Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where are you going? Where have you been?" 'runneth over' with Biblical allusion and symbolism. The symbols of Arnold Friend, his disguise, and the music that runs through the story contribute to an overall feeling of devilishness, deception, and unease.

The beginning of the short story enlightens the reader into the relationship that Connie has with her mother. Connie’s mother does not agree with her admiration for herself. This is due to Connie’s mother’s own insecurities. Oates writes, “Her mother had been pretty once too, if you could believe those old snapshots in the album, but now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie” (Oates 3043). Connie was aware that her mother was jealous of the way she looked and envied her young adolescence. Her mother was nagging her daily and constantly comparing her to her sister. The constant comparison and nagging left Connie to deal with internally judging herself. Oates expresses Connie’s strong unhappiness with her mother by stating “…but around his bent head Connie’s mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over” (3043). Connie’s frustration with her mother lies deep within her internal judgments. She repeatedly obsesses over her mother’s words and desires attention from older males. Even though she does not feel as if she fits in with her sister June, there are some characteristics that she likes about her sister. One of these characteristics is that June is older. Since June is older, Connie is allowed to go out when her sister does which allows her to embrace her rebellious adolescence. She wishes she was older and battles with her internal misconception of her age. In the story, Connie is at an age where she is experimenting with her surroundings. Young girls are regularly comparing themselves to their friends and their elders. The obsession of comparison leaves Connie continuously striving to be better and to increase her attractiveness. Her misconceptions suggest to her that she needs to be more sexual. Her varying internal conflicts leave her with a void that she tries to fill otherwise.

Many people live life in a “fantasy world” and sometimes when they dream, that fantasy could end up like it is really happening. In the short story,Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates there is a likely chance that Connie’s encounter was a dream. Through further analysis it is revealed that Joyce Carol Oates’ short story is merely a dream in which Connie’s odd wish is fulfilled, all of which is achieved through setting, characterization, and plot.

In the short fiction Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? tells a story about a young 15-year-old girl named, Connie. Connie spends her time meeting boys, lounging around the house and going out with her friends. One night an unusual man makes a threatening gesture to her in the parking lot of a local drive-in restaurant. Until, one day the unusual man pulls up in her driveway in a gold colored car. The man introduces himself as Arnold Friend and asks Connie to join him for a ride. During their conversation, Connie is aware that Arnold is dangerous; his language becomes more sexual and violent, and he warns her that he will hurt her family if she calls the police. In the end, she leaves the house and joins Arnold. Connie is stuck between the lines of her sexual daydreams and reality up until she is entangled among by Arnold Friend and his infatuating music playing in his car. Everything about her had two aspects to it, one when she was at home and one for anywhere but home.

life she have been living with her parents and want to live a fulfilling life in her kingdom or

Throughout many cultures, age has been seen as a determinate factor of maturity. And with this maturity, comes power. This belief is clearly defined in Joyce Carol Oates’ short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. In this story, the main character, Connie, struggles to reach maturity. Wielding her sexuality in hand, Connie charges into the battle for power, leaving her vulnerable to Arnold Friend’s temptation. Through the use of a symbolic figure, Arnold Friend, who represents the devil, Oates is able to manifest the power struggle between youth and maturity and how Connie strives to obtain the power that comes with maturity.

There are some stories that capture the reader’s attention and which keep us riveted from the beginning to the ultimate line of the tale. ‘’Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’’, a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates in 1966, is one of those. Inspired by the mythic song of the phenomenal singer Bob Dylan entitled ‘’It’s all over Now, Baby Blue,’’ the author describes the main character as a 15-year-old girl named ‘’ Connie’’, who is obsessed by her beauty and does not get along with her family. The heroine of the story ‘’Connie,’’ engages in an adolescent rebellion against her entourage by acting to appear older. This increases her vulnerability through the story and at the end

In certain cases, especially in one of Joyce Carol Oates most renowned pieces of writing, you’d wish you had never left home. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a modern classic short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. Oates decided to dedicate the short story to Bob Dylan after hearing his song, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. His song was Oates inspiration to the most anthologized of all of her works, based on a real-life serial killer in the 1960’s, Charles Schmid. Oates modeled her realistic story after the real people and events, into a powerful imaginary work of fiction (Quirk 413). Oates purpose was for the reader to be able to identify the parallels between the magazine reports of the real life criminal and her story representing the death of an American Dream (Quirk 413.)

The author puts Connie out to be a bad kid but is she really? Yeah, Connie is not the most respectful or well-behaved kid but who is at the age of fifteen. The author shares some instances where Connie does not make the best decisions. The author shares, “She spent three hours with him, at the restaurant where they ate hamburgers and drank cokes…and then down an alley a mile or so away” (Oate’s. 109). The quote shows how Connie put herself in situations that a girl her age should have never been in. The author gives Connie the identity of not being confident in herself when she says, “Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything.”

I think that Oates uses this point of view to only give details of all the other character to show how they affect the main character and the conflict at hand. In this point of view she is able to give details about the other characters without losing focus on Connie. Although the other characters in the story are not the focus, their individual components help develop Connie through the course of the story. An example of this can be found on page 316 when her mother says, ““Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?””, and Connie responds in a mocking eyebrow raise (Joyce Carol Oates 316). The author later reveals that Connie does know that she is pretty and to her that is everything. From the conversation with her mother, Connie has developed into a teenage girl who knows her mom is jealous of her beauty. From this the reader begins to see the first phase of Connie’s character and will continue to see the metamorphism of her character throughout the

Joyce Carol Oates wrote a short story in 1966 “Where Are You Going, Where have you been” and the short story was based on serial killer Charles Howard Schmid she used the report of “Pied Piper of Tucson” that how he used to convince young boys to help him in killing of young girls and then how he use to bury them. Joyce Chopra and her husband Tom Cole in 1985 directed and produced the film “Smooth Talk” based on Oates short story which was a classic cult. However Chopra and Oates portray several difference between character of Connie her dad and Arnold friend.