Literary Analysis of, Where are you going, Where have you been
By: Joyce Carol Oate’s In Joyce Carol Oate’s, “Where are you going, Where have you been”, a young teen by the name of Connie is in a stage of what appears to be rebellion. Along with many other teens, Connie’s parent’s oblivion to what she does outside of the house allows it to continue and worsen. Since Connie not being held accountable for her actions, it leads her down paths of destruction. Are Connie’s bad decisions really her fault? Typically, teens do not rebel for fun but there is a deeper meaning behind the actions. In this story, Connie goes out and rebels in search of better things than what she has at home. 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.”
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
After spending time with her elderly relative, the girl sees that the worst thing you could do to another person “is to make them feel as if they are worth nothing” (Ortiz 3). This ordeal causes her to learn that what she says and how she behaves could be hurtful and upsetting to others. Because of this event, Connie would most likely become more thoughtful of them. In addition, the teen starts “to consider a number [she] hadn’t thought much about” (Ortiz 3) and begins to understand Abuela better. The girl feels terrible and sorry since she had made her grandmother feel like she was worthless. Zero becomes a more significant number to her life, and she realizes that she should not act towards others like she had. In conclusion, Constancia’s experiences with her grandparent made her more mature and considerate, changing her self-centered
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
Considering she feels rejected by her family, in that she will never share the same qualities as June, Connie desires that both her mother and herself were dead. As Connie states, “He [her father] didn’t bother talking much to them, 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 (664).” These repressed feelings of resentment that form against her mother unlock essential information into Connie’s differentiation of self. As Sarah Eden Schiff explains, “A person with a well-differentiated ‘self’ recognizes his realistic dependence on others, but he can stay calm and clear-headed enough in the face of conflict, criticism, and rejection to distinguish thinking rooted in a careful assessment of the facts from thinking clouded by emotionality (24).” Since Connie does not realize that she remains dependent on her mother, her differentiation of self is not formed to its fullest potential because she continues to think emotionally. Through emotional reasoning, Connie’s differentiation of self leads her to become vulnerable to outside
Connie?s mother was probably criticized when she was young too, she used to be pretty too. Children who lacked attention by their parent when growing up, tend to mistrust others or themselves. There is no doubt Connie plays two different personalities, one when hanging out at the shopping plaza with her friends, when she didn?t feel threaten by her mother, ? Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home?.? and behaves sexualized, desirable, immature, and flirtatious.
Connie isn’t old enough to actually know how to deal with or know anything about a real-life situation. But she eventually learns after continuously disobeying her mother. She is neither a courageous hero or a helpless victim. Connie put everything onto herself.
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates we the readers see the conflict of a teenage, conceited, superficial girl when faced with a situation that brings her to an entire new understanding of life. We see Connie in the beginning without a care in the world other than looking good for the next guy she will hook up with. Oates explains, “She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit or craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates Web). I really enjoy Oates’s expression of how strong Connie’s arrogance is, especially because this totally changes by the end of the story. By the end of the story Connie is way less selfish and more aware
In the story, “Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?” the author, Joyce Carol Oates, uses literary devices to convey a message about the loss of innocence. To be more specific, Oates’s characterization of the protagonist, Connie, specifically shows the actions leading to her innocence being taken from her. The literary device of characterization gives a clear picture Oates thoughts at the time she wrote the story, expressing concern for young girls who are at risk of having their innocence taken from them.
The late 1950s was a time of cultural revolution which had a large influence on the American youth. “As the next decade drew near, issues such as civil rights, war, women 's rights, and the sexual revolution would deeply affect many American teenagers. The conservative family values and morals that predominated in the 1950s were just beginning to be challenged as the decade came to a close” (Moss and Wilson 3). As a result, many teenagers lost the conservative morals of the 1950s and became more independent. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie represents the result of this cultural revolution. Criticized by her mother for her promiscuity, Connie is an independent girl who often hangs out with her friends trying to attract boys. In doing so, she attracts a sexual predator named Arnold Friend who visits her at her home to try to get her to leave with him to presumably rape her. At the end of the story, Connie chooses to go with him. Connie gets into this dangerous situation because of a mistaken belief on her self-worth, the loss of morals by her and the adults in the story, and the influence of the 1960s popular music. Looking at “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” through the historical and feminist lenses, suggests that the story is really about how the misconceptions on self-worth and the diversion of 1960s society from
Moral and social beliefs were being challenged and the youth of America, while coming of age, were rebelling against their parent’s ideals and creating their own culture. The birth of a social movement was upon the world and issues such as sexual freedom, feminism and other civil rights were hot topics during the years prior to Oates writing this story. It is these social changes and society’s interest in them that creates the foundation for the setting that breathes life into this story. Without this foundation, the coming-of-age story of Connie, not to mention American society, and her journey from the innocence of the 1950s into the bitter reality of the turbulent times of the 1960s would have been lost.
Oates’ View on Women’s Revolution The traditional housewife is dying out, and the sex object is becoming more and more popular; suddenly, women are showing skin and acting promiscuously. The article “Overview: ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” explains these events occurring in the 1960s, the time that Oates’ protagonist, Connie, begins and continues to develop, by claiming that “women began to challenge cultural, societal, and legal restrictions that had been imposed upon them for generations.” As a teen maturing during this time period, Connie pursues this lifestyle which just as anything else comes with its positive and negative aspects. Connie chases fun and excitement through her desire of male attention which she receives on some level, whether in her dreams or the town’s drive-in restaurant, without worrying about the consequences of her actions. Through her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Joyce Carol Oates expresses her belief that the harmful consequences of this transformation of
Connie is a pretty girl, and “her mother had been pretty once too”, but she is not so much anymore and almost anything Connie does aggravates her (Oates 369). This rigid relationship pushes Connie further away the older she gets. Everything about Connie has “two sides to it,” her shirt “would look one way at home and one way when she was away from home”, she was not fully herself anywhere she went (370). This act shows the way Connie lacks a sense of self. She feels as though she has to behave differently when she is with her family compared to when she is with her friends. The fact that Connie does not have a positive relationship with her mother has a direct effect on how she acts as a young woman. The lack of support and positive attention from a female role model leaves her seeking it out from other
Joyce Carol Oates plays upon the stereotypic female gender role through her adolescent character, Connie, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” The story was written at a significant time in America’s history. It was a season when social and moral conventions were challenged. This period experienced the rise of women struggling for sexual freedom and gender equality in a patriarchal society. Oates portrays the protagonist, Connie, as naive, unaware and inexperienced; she has yet to find her identity and fully understand her place as a women in the world. She believes she has learned to play the game of the sexes and that she has the upper hand. This belief, though, is quickly subverted when she is confronted by Arnold Friend, a man who works to reinforce patriarchal standards by punishing Connie for acting outside stereotypic female role boundaries, she then realizes as a women, she has very little power.
The Transition from Childhood to Adulthood in Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
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.