Fantasy Vs. Reality Where are you going, Where have you been Essay

In 1966, Joyce Carol Oates published her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. Oates was inspired to write this story after reading about a serial killer that was referred to as “The Pied Piper of Tucson”. Oates was disturbed by the number of teenagers that this killer was able to persuade to help him and keep his secrets (Oates 1). Oates uses irony, imagery, and symbolism to support her theme of evil in this short story.

Where there is desire, there is hope, despair, and struggle. Joyce Carol Oates illustrates animatedly the asphyxiated struggle of desire in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” The story narrates the life of a young girl, named Connie, and her fated and enigmatic confrontation with a strange man. Feeling trapped in her own home with her own family, Connie, a self-conscious and rebellious teenager, tries to figure out a way to identify herself with the world around her. Her desire of escaping the reality fuels her struggle to enter adulthood. Through the physical form of Arnold Friend, who embodies both the hope and the despair in Connie’s struggle, the author metaphorically portrays a vigorous and psychological pressure that Connie has to endure. The story is scripted to allude to the danger of identifying oneself through sexuality in young girls. To better understanding this cryptic story, it is important to follow the psychological processes and conflict of Connie’s character, which help unveil the allegorical meaning of a young girl’s rite of passage through sex.

Adding on to that, Connie’s shortfall that rock music has molded her has come to light when Arnold Friend gives sexual advances to her. Joyce Carol Oates shows this by writing, “It was the same program that was playing inside the house. “Bobby King?” she said. “I listen to him all the time. I think he’s great.” “He’s kind of great,” Connie said reluctantly.” “Listen, that guy’s great. He knows where the action is.” (p.3-para.2). This shows how Connie feels shocked that Arnold was also listening to the same music as she was when she was inside the house last time. Since she was incompetent in realizing how teenagers interpret the music than adult figures, Connie is vulnerable when Arnold threatens her to come to him because of the rock music that is being allotted to teenagers. To sum it up, the sexual song lyrics and the image of rock music that is normally played and embraced in the American culture has influenced Connie, a teenager, physically and mentally; therefore, she is taken advantage of by Arnold because of her immaturity and youth.

Her knowledge of her beauty allows her to draw attention to it from many guys of many ages. She loves the attention that she gets from these boys, and that often seduces her into the decisions that she makes. Her first encounter with Arnold Friend occurs when she is in the car with one of the boys she met, Eddie. She glances to her right and sees Arnold, in his car, staring at her. Arnold spoke with his lips to tell her “Gonna get you, baby”, and perhaps it is this threat that causes Connie to symbolize him as a jeopardy to her innocence that the reader sees in her nightmare (Oates 28).

In this essay, I argue that the main theme of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is internal conflict. The main character, Connie, struggles with multiple internal conflicts throughout the short story. Some of these internal conflicts include a search for independence, internal judgment, and fantasy versus reality.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is a short story originally written by Joyce Carol Oates. It was first published in 1996 and immediately faced sufficient criticism and public discussions. This story involves both surreal myth and deep psychological realism which obviously distinguish this writing among other works of the author. In the center of the narration is a young girl named Connie. She is fifteen years old and is experiencing quite a turbulent period of her life. Her mother constantly compares her to her older sister and this factor only intensifies Connie's feeling that her mother does not understand her. In the story, the world of Connie is quite contradictory as well as her character itself. Nevertheless, it remains interesting to explore until the very last page of Oates' writing.

Connie, the protagonist of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, is a character who goes through a traumatic experience in her life. Her encounter with the antagonist, Arnold Friend, permanently changes her selfish innocence and challenges her way of thinking. With an unsupportive family and shallow friends, Connie lacks a strong moral foundation and is self-absorbed. Connie’s character, by the end of the story, changes through her encounter with Arnold Friend. Connie transforms from a selfish, shallow character to one of self-awareness.

Joyce Carol Oates is an excellent writer who is well-known for her work. In her short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” she managed to deliver a piece that is pleasant to read, but filled with evil. This essay will discuss, the form which the evil takes, its origin, and how this story is aesthetically “beautiful” despite that evil.

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

When a reader first reads “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the story may seem to be “realistic or naturalistic”; however, when interpreting Oates’ short story biblically, the work becomes an “existential allegory” of humanity realizing they cannot control an “externally determined fate” (Urbanski). Through the use of dialog, descriptive imagery, and symbolism, the reader may conclude “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is an allusion to the biblical story of Adam and Eve.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, is one of the many short stories written by Mrs. Joyce Carol Oates that has become highly recognized. It was inspired by a magazine story about a serial killer. It quickly it became very popular andwas even the basis for the 1985 hit movie, “SmoothTalk”. Like many other short stories and novels written by Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is a story that is consumed by evil, the theme. In the story evil is projected through the eyes of the characters.(Weinberger 207) Joyce Carol Oates has been labeled by many as a, “writer of psychological realism”(Wegs 69), which is seen in this story. Tied

Joyce Carol Oates was born in Lockport, New York to a Catholic family in 1938. While attending Syracuse University, she won a “Mademoiselle Magazine Award” for fiction. She also graduated with top honors at Syracuse University. After she graduated from Syracuse she received her master’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin. With this degree, she went on to teach at several universities such as Detroit, Windsor, and Princeton. As a writer, she has produced more than twenty-five collections of stories, and forty novels. Joyce Oates was a winner of a National Book Award in 1970. Some of her novels include “Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990)”, “Black Girl/White Girl (2006)”, “The Gravedigger’s Daughter (2007)”, and “A Fair Maiden (2010)”. She writes poetry, plays, and literary criticism as well.

Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” begins with the introduction of it’s main character, Connie, a fifteen year- old girl. Oates makes Connie’s vanity

Holmen, Nicole. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue: Psychoanalyzing Connie in Joyce Carol Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'." Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 2.02 (2010).

The story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" is a short, eerie tale written by Joyce Carrol Oats. It is about a fifteen year old girl named Connie who is caught in a horrific situation in which she is lead out of her house, presumably to her rape and death. Connie is a relatable young girl who let her naivity and vanity get the best of her. When introducing Connie the narrartor states "She knew she was pretty, and that was everything"(par.1). Connie's relationship with her father and mother is shaky, and she subtly implies that her mother may envy her for her beauty. Connie even admits that she secretely believed her mother preferred her to her older sister because of her beauty. Her mother often compares Connie to her older sister, June, who is described by Connie as "plain and chunky and steady"(par.3) and is ultimately better at everything in her mothers eyes. Connie is described as having two sides-- "one for home and one for anywhere that was not home"(par.5). Because of Connies limited honesty and accountability for her actions, one may presume that her own behavior and stupidity led her into this tragic predicament.