Joyce Carol Oates' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Another symbolism of evil is that Arnold tells Connie that he will not come in her house. He has come to take Connie away but “he may not cross a threshold uninvited” (Wegs 2). Arnold threatens Connie by telling her that if she does not come outside then he will wait till her family gets home “then they’re all going to get it” (Oates 481). Arnold ultimately lures Connie out by promising that her family will be unharmed if she gives herself to him (Oates 1). We do not know how Connie sacrifices herself. As Oates states in her article, we only know “that she is generous enough to make it”.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was published in 1966 by Joyce Carol Oates. The story follows a girl, Connie, who encounters a mysterious man. She catches him watching her walk away with another boy, but doesn’t bother to think of him. As the days pass, she is stuck home alone to do whatever she wants; she enjoys her day relaxing—daydreaming about boys—until a car drives up to her house. Who might it be? The man… the man we soon call as Arnold Friend. Connie’s failure to look beyond her fantasies makes her prone to manipulation and deception; so one of her major character flaws is naiveté.

Arnold Friend’s layers of deception. Connie’s blindness is the pretext of her loss of innocence

When Connie first hears a car pulling up in her driveway, her attention is immediately directed to her hair and looks. She isn’t concerned as much about who is outside or what they want, but how see will look to them. When she initially sees Arnold she is attracted to his style and car. He is muscular in tight faded jeans and a drives a bright gold jalopy. His image is everything that Connie has fantasized about and can relate to. Arnold is even playing

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.

The encounter that Connie experiences with Arnold Friend involves a series of events that would lead someone to believe that he in fact was a figment of her subconscious, or a nightmare. Before their rendezvous, Connie had been sitting “with her eyes closed in the sun”, daydreaming (29). This is the first clue Oates presents the reader to show that Connie falls asleep. In addition to this, when Connie “opened her eyes she hardly knew where she was” (29). When a person is involved in a dream, it is common that they

As stated previously, the screen door is considered a boundary between Connie and Arnold. Arnold stands outside the house with his arms wide open as if he is waiting for Connie to come out and Connie is inside the house. When Connie opens the screen door at the end of the story, she hesitates because “she put out her hand against the screen. She watched herself push the door slowly open” (56). When she opens the door even though she is hesitant, she is acting mature by accepting her fate to go for a ride with Arnold (she will not come back the same after the ride). If Connie keeps the screen door closed and stays inside the house she would still be the same girl, a fearful young innocent teenage girl who is afraid to face her own fate. Being mature also means sacrificing valuable things in life, Arnold Friend implies that he is going to threaten Connie’s family when he tells her that they do not need to get “involved”. Connie sacrifices herself for her family, which shows a kind of maturity. Even though she feels detached to her family, they mean a lot to her since they were the ones who always stood beside her and took care of her. The inside of the house is a safe place for Connie, but she leaves the safe area as a mature (sacrifice-taker) version of herself, a different person. Once she opens the screen door to go for a ride with

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.

The characterizations of Connie’s family members have great effects on Connie. And Connie’s mother’s characterization is the main motivator for Connie’s rebellion. She always compares Connie with June, who is the “ideal daughter” in her eyes, and blames Connie for some little things, such as improper dressing and not having a tidy room. Oates suggests that the reason for Connie’s mother prohibiting Connie to dress up like an adult is that “ Her mother had been pretty once too” (Oates 1), but now “her looks were gone and that was why she always after Connie” (Oates 1). Therefore, she is jealous about Connie’s beauty and feels uncomfortable when seeing Connie wear beautiful outfits. Meanwhile, she likes June so much because June is obedient and plain, which makes her feel that she is dominant in the relationship. In the short story, Connie’s father is not given much description by the author, but

In her sorrow for the behavior of her daughter Connie, the mother often expresses a bit more appreciation and consideration for the older sister June. She declares somewhere in the story, ‘’Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed-what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using that junk’’ (Henderson ). It is well-known that anything in excess is harmful, but Connie does not seem to have been aware of this. Connie’s behavior, far away from doing good to her, exposes her to her sexual predator as an easy prey.

She would say” (Charters, 1989, p. 651). When it comes to Connie’s family she strongly dislikes her mother because she always compares her to her sister June. Her father works and does not spend as much time with the family. Connie does not get enough freedom at home because her mother is always telling her things that she needs to do, however, when it comes to boys Connie has some freedom. When Connie met Arnold Friend he completely changed her outlook on independence, and her hatred

Both the movie and the story emphasize the dramatic separation of understanding between Connie and her mother. The apparent lack of depth in Connie and her father’s relationship dims in comparison to the almost-tangible hatred Connie seems to feel toward her mother, her mother “who had been pretty once too, but now her looks were gone, and that was why she was always after Connie” (Oates 148). Despite the anger she feels, however, it is her mother that Connie cries out to for help in both versions as she sees herself forced to give into Friend’s wishes in an attempt to spare her family the evil he hints will come

Some of the best literature of all time comes from experience. Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is one of her many very famous short stories. “Where Are You Going…” was taken from the inspiration of a serial killer named Charles Schmid. It is obvious in this case that the authors work was reflected on her biography and life experiences. While Joyce Carol Oates experiences’ growing up in the 1950’s may have inspired her work, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was mainly influenced by the American serial killer Charles Howard Schmid.

coquetry cannot direct – absolute forces over which she has no control” (78). Connie had to give up, just like any other women at the time and listen to what the man said. “At the end the terrified girl finds herself moving irresistibly toward him” (Winslow

Predominantly, during the story there is always a sense of suspicion, the reader is always thinking about what might happen next whether it is because Connie is not seen as a good daughter, or because Connie is going on dates with boys in dark alleys, or maybe because Connie is always out