Summary Of The Story 'Where Are You Going?' By Joyce Carol Oates

“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.

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,”

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

The short story written by ,Joyce Carol Oates called “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” takes place in the 50’s (possibly earlier/later) in a remote area where a young fifteen year old girl named connie learns she’s not as grown up as she thinks and needs the protection of her family when their safety is threatened.Connie is a wild teenager dressing the part,taking a liking to boys, and disobeying her parents.Her parents try to keep Connie tame using her older sister June as an example of what Connie should be.She has regular conflict with her mother constantly fighting because of her appearance and actions like lying about where she goes, and again her interest in boys trying to protect Connie from getting into trouble at a young age.Connie and her friends regularly go to the “mall” where they sneak across the street to a drive-in restaurant full of kids out of high-school over eighteen.Connie gets more than she bargains for when a man called Arnold Friend notices her and takes

Where is Here? was written by Joyce Carol Oates. Joyce wrote novels and stories concerning individuals whose ordinary lives are suddenly upset by mysterious forces beyond their control. The mysterious force in this story is the stranger. The family is interrupted in the preparation of supper by the stranger who wants to look around his childhood home. The mysterious force of the stranger brings into question whether or not he is a ghost or time traveler, and what has happened to the sister.

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.

Connie’s identity is shown at the end of the story, but who she was at the beginning of the story differs to who she became at the end of the story. To start, Connie was a fifteen year old girl who was beautiful and adventuress, but failed to acknowledge and grasp the idea of a real family. Connie’s family or her mother is not the exact loving and caring mother some people have experienced. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Connie sated “Her mother, who noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn 't

“where are you going, where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates is a short story about a teenage girl named Connie. She lives a fairly normal life but then one evening she gets caught up with suspicious man who doesn’t want to leave her alone. The man who goes by the name “Arnold Friend” drives into Connie’s driveway, and after some very brief small talk he tries to coerce her into going on a date with him. the mood swiftly goes from uncomfortable to sinister.

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.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” written by Joyce Carol Oates is an unsettling and incredibly formidable story of a young woman’s loss of innocence during a time of social change and turbulent times. The story’s protagonist is Connie, a self-absorbed, yet beautiful fifteen year old girl, who not only is at odds with her family but also the conservative values handed down by her family. She, unknowing to her parents, spends her evenings exploring her independence and individuality as well as by flirting and picking up boys at a local diner. One evening she catches the attention of a strange, creepy boy who drives a gold, dilapidated convertible. While alone at home one Sunday afternoon, this same creepy boy driving the gold

Oates writes Connie as a typical sixteen year old girl. She argues with her mother because she wants to be seen as a woman and not the child she is. During am outing with a friend that is told to the parents they are watching a film Connie entertains a boy name Eddie. When she does this we meet the antagonist of the story. “Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn't help glancing back and there he was, still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, "Gonna get you, baby," and Connie turned away again without Eddie noticing anything” (Oates 1). She is intrigued by the man who is observing and could not help looking at him. His line is a sign that he will resurface in the story. However the reader does not know

We all have been there. After a long days work, all we are thinking about is getting home. As you head towards your car, you notice the darkness around you and suddenly feel that you are not alone. Your pace increases and you begin to sweat mildly. If you could just get there, you’d be safe. Suddenly, you hear a noise and decide the best thing for you to do is ignore it. As you approach you car and unlock it, you sigh with relief that you’ve finally have made it. For many, our minds play tricks on us when we feel a moment of fear, however for others it may turn out to be their worst nightmare. In the story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, a young girl is forced to make a decision

Through building Connie’s character qualities and her personality, Joyce Oates does a great job of presenting the mannerisms and

There are things that happen when we are growing up that change us when we are grown. There are things that change us forever. Every human being is different, and there is a reason why . All of us had a childhood and all kinds of experiences some good, some bad, some full of joy but also others very painful. Eventually we grow childhood and mature depending of what we have gone through. The way we are able to handle situations is very important because one thing leads to another. We can't rely on intuition, we need to have logic in what our choices are. We can’t just punch someone in the face just because we don’t like a certain individual, or go up to

A short story by Joyce Carol Oates called “Where are you going, where have you been?” reflects the writer’s point of view of the way society looked to women in the sixties. The story takes place in the 1960’s when almost everything reached a turning point at that time. It talks about a teenager who wanted boys’ attention, but she ended up leaving her family house with a stranger. Connie represented most teenage girls, and their destiny at that time. The story can be looked at from many different points of view such as feminist, social, psychological and historical (Purdue (OWL)). The time this story had taken place is what makes it important. The story was written when the feminist movement was established, and the American society