Character Analysis Of Joyce Carol OatesWhere Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" by Joyce Carol Oates (1966) Is a story of a fifteen year old girl named connie who is naive and self-centered, through her search of independence she is murdered.

A door to the beginning of her outcome is all that divides Connie in, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” from Arnold Friend, the devilish predator. Symbolism takes a big part in this story that gives a deeper meaning to Connie’s choices that ultimately extent to giving herself to Arnold. The author, Joyce Carol Oates in the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” represents Arnold Friend as the real world by being challenging and malicious, and Connie as the innocent world by being defenseless and naive.

In Joyce Carol Oates’s, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, character development is a key element throughout the story. As the main character, Connie is a very dynamic character as the story progresses. In the beginning, Connie is a very vain and frivolous character, giving the reader a negative impression. But, as the story continues, the reader learns about Connie’s indifferent and neglectful family and how popular media raises her, rather than her own family. This leads the reader to understand Connie’s personality better, and how the lack of love from her family makes her like this. By the end, Connie performs a heroic act, in which she saves her family by offering herself

Adolescence, the part of life we are most willing to forget. The awkward years of being stuck between, not yet an adult but certainly not a child. These years, however awful they maybe, are essential to the character that later develops. During adolescence we make decisions that shape the course of our life, from the personal interactions between friends and family to the academic decisions that impact future career, choices you make as a young adult impact you forever. Partially due to the importance of these short few years, it is not surprising how often children can make poor choices that derail their entire life. Increasing at startling frequency, these stories foretell of a dismal future. Due to this cautionary tales of adolescence have been rising in pop-culture. One of these is “Where are you going? Where have you been? By Carol Joyce Oates. This story tells of Connie, a young adult trying to make the leap to adulthood. Connie in her attempt to breach the gap ends up in drawing attention of Arnold Friend sealing the fate of her poorly executed coming of age. Connies ill fated coming of age in “Where have you been? Where are you going?” by Carol Joyce Oates acts as a cautionary tale about modern perils of adolescence.

The antagonist of “Where are you going, Where have you been” written by Joyce Carol Oates, is no ordinary guy. Arnold Friends,a dynamic, round character with a charming but controlling personality, seems to be the embodiment of Atropos. A greek deity known as the moirai who is said to be the controller of fate, or specifically, one’s death. He talks a lot but reveal nothing about himself, a sign of emotionally manipulative person, someone who is able to zero in on one’s weakness, like Connie’s romantic fantasies.) Like the typical bad boy archetype he offered to take her away from the dull drone of her suburban life. But that explain how it links to arnold being atropos lmao/how death takes you away. With the quality of a calm and deep, sing-song

Joyce Carols Oates highlights the importance of developing relationships in families. Connie’s future could’ve had a completely different outcome if she would’ve been raised with attention, love, and communication. Arnold would’ve never had the opportunity to manipulate her if she had her family’s protection; however, that was not the case. Connie’s family must live with a guilty conscience knowing that her kidnapping could’ve been avoided if only they were less neglectful towards

Connie, the girl that every guy wants but only a few are lucky to get, is quite possibly one of the most cliche characters in literature. She’s a two-faced, insecure girl with a smart mouth and resentment towards her family members. In the beginning of the story, Oates sets the scene with Connie out with her friend, whom she then ditches to hang out with some random guy she met at the diner. Everything seems to be going predictably, until the unimaginable happens when Arnold Friend pulls into her driveway, beckoning her to come outside since he knows her family isn’t home. He knows this because he has convinced himself that Connie is in love with him, and he wants her so bad that he has been stalking her for who knows how long. In Where are you going, Where have you been?, Oates uses the cunning and charismatic Arnold Friend along with the insecure Connie to foreshadow the horrible fate that is met.

Throughout the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie is a conceited young girl who tries to portray herself as a sexual persona, though she is a young woman who is attempting to seem older than she is. The story portrays her in a negative feminist lens as well as an archetypal lens because of the recurring events that happen.

In her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates depicts the journey of Connie, a beautiful, mistreated, 15 year old girl yearning for attention and the loss of her innocence along the way. Oates creates this story around four murders by Charles Schmid and retells them with her own style, giving internal events the excitement, suspense, and climax normally associated with external events. Oates utilizes the demonic adversary, Arnold Friend, to awaken Connie from the self absorbed world she lives in, to display the true colors of herself through internal events he inflicts upon her. These incidents occur in Connies home and the mall where she often visits to escape reality, they reveal a change of

Imagine yourself on a nice, sunny day. You are sitting outside in a lawn chair waiting for you hair to dry when suddenly, a boy comes to ask you to take you out. Joyce Carol Oates presents this image in “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” Not only is this a famous short story, it also presents symbols, motifs, and themes that people who read the story can relate to. Oates shows teenage rebellion and bliss in her short story. The title can provide significance with the relationship between Connie and Arnold Friend. Oates provides themes in the story that makes the reader wonder where Connie is going with her life including her independence, her maturity, and her world that’s fantasy against reality.

In the short story, “Where are you going, where have you been”, by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie’s family refuses to accept her attempts to create an identity different from her older sisters; ultimately causing her to form repressed thoughts regarding her family and herself. These repressed thoughts become the motivating force behind Connie’s daydreams and implementation of her defense mechanisms, when confronted by Arnold Friend and Ellie. Once Connie recognizes her repressed thoughts regarding Arnold Friend, she undergoes reality anxiety. Although her efforts to escape Arnold Friend are futile, she uncovers the truth behind her newfound: that it was hollow and self-centered. Therefore, the short story, “Where are you going, where have you been”,

Joyce Carol Oates story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” can be interpreted in many ways. The character of Arnold Friend can be read as a “symbolic demon” whose access to Connie turns out to be the result of the immoral differences of the adults in the story. Arnold can represent Connie’s unconscious or alter ego, thus representing an uncontrollable nightmare or her fear of passage from adolescence to adulthood. Connie seems to be in an inward quest to find her own personal identity because she has been deprived by her family and society. Connie’s character belongs to a generation that was exposed to the simple realism of society without being exposed to fairy tales. The story of Connie suggest that women are exactly where their

Joyce Carol Oates, author of the fictional short story, "where are you going, where have you been?" Emphasizes a taunting tone to convey Connie 's restrained reaction towards Arnold Friend 's presence. The film “Smooth Talk” portrays the visual imagery in the short story “where are you going?, where have you been?”helps the audience understand each character 's personality in the movie. Oates purpose was to make the audience view connie’s personality as a eager fifteen year old girl back in 80’s, who wasn’t really intelligent. Connie’s parent didn’t really care about her, so that also has an influence on her attitude in how she acts around boys. Oates portrays Connie mother as a mean and wicked mother who puts her daughter down. Connie’s sister June was viewed as the favorite child who was always compared to Connie. Oates made Connie’s friends as sneaky, and rebellious just as Connie was. Arnold friend’s character is as usual weird personality. Which made Connie uneasy when Arnold started talking to her.

In Joyce Carol Oates's short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the main character, Connie fills her life with bad choices; one of her choices and her endless vanity leads to her death. Connie fills her life with many bad influences and sneaks out late to hang out with older boys. Connies was confronted by a man named Arnold Fiend one night at the restaurant and he said “Gonna get you, baby.” He comes back into her life and seems to be very suspicious, he seems to know a little too much about Connie, more than he should know. Connie is sucked into his trap and is dragged into what becomes her certain death.

Life is a path of accomplishments and achievements as well as distress and confrontations. It has its own ups and downs. But every human being lives it and has to live it as there is no other option. What we learn as we age making right choices and using the support that we have around, like our parents, grandparents, and friends makes us who we are. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie is a typical human being who has to deal with all the situations that come in her life. Situations like dealing with people whom she has never met and if gone out of hands, controlling the situation using intelligent methods. Even though Connie a normal teenager, who loved her friends, went to school, and enjoyed