Summary Of Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

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.

In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” both characters, Connie and Arnold, suffer from having dual identities. Connie is an individual who acts completely different outside her home, where she tries to portray an image of being sexually appealing. However, she is the complete opposite within her home, where she hides her sexuality and acts more like the adolescent she really is. Arnold is a mature man, something Connie is looking for in life and this intrigues her. Both characters have trouble with their dual identities, Connie’s leads her to being vulnerable to growing mature in an unpleasant manner by the force of Arnold, while Arnold’s unknown character proves to not be genuine, as Connie brings out his violent nature in her quest to be an independent adult.

In spite of the way that Connie tries to show the nearness of being a created woman who has learned about men, her involvement with Arnold reveals this is only an execution. She has made an engaging grown-up personality through her dress, hairstyle, and general direct and gets the thought she hopes for from young fellows. Regardless, Connie dumbfounds her ability to summon thought from young fellows with her longing to truly have

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.

In Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" it portrays the confusing nature of sexuality. A story set in the America of mid-1900s. A conflict of morals characterized this time, especially sexually related ones. There was a hot debate on the topic of sexuality among adolescents. The roles of women were being challenged and quickly changing. This story describes a psychosexual episode between a male predator and the protagonist, a female

“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.

Regardless, after the incident Connie’s will is broken and she is overcome with feelings of emptiness. After Connie denies to go with Arnold; “This is how it is honey; you come out and we’ll drive away, have a nice ride. But if you dont come out we’re going to wait till your people come home and then they’re all going to get it”(Oates 12). Arnold threatens Connie with her Family which makes her scared and the fear going through her body makes her react devoted and she then gives herself up for the sake of her family. Connie was motivated to stay a live

In the short story “Where are you going,Where have you been”,the author uses three types of imagery techniques throughout the short story. The author makes the story much more appealing by integrating kinesthetic,visual,and auditory. The author creates movement in the short story by adding words for movement. Joyce Carol Oates writes, “They must have been familiar sights, walking around the shopping plaza in their shorts and flat ballerina slippers that always scuffed the sidewalk, with charm bracelets jingling on their thin wrists; they would lean together to whisper and laugh secretly if someone passed who amused or interested them”(pg1). In this quote from the short story,the author uses action verbs like scuffed,walking and lean to describe what the two character are doing in the story.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is not your typical sympathetic toned short story. The tale takes place in the 1960’s suburbs, most likely a modest town in America. The reader can assume this is a small metropolitan neighborhood, since the setting is abundant with movie theaters, drive-in restaurants and shopping malls. Houses in this town are described as ranch-style homes, and almost allow the reader to feel a sense of security. The story begins with Connie, a 15 year old narcissistic, know-it-all whose mind is filled with trashy daydreams. Connie is the story’s central character, and can be defined as a teenager who wants to be seen as a mature young lady, rather than a child. She is constantly trying to create an attractive grown-up persona through the way she dresses, and how she behaves aiming to get the attention of older boys. Although Connie is a pretty girl with flowing blond hair, she deceives her parents, who pay little attention to

Have you ever wondered how common it is for a human to have a psychological disorder? According to studies in 2016, approximately 54 million Americans suffer from some type of mental disorder each year; that’s 17% of the United States population. Knowing these statistics, it doesn’t come as a surprise to find out that Arnold Friend, the antagonist from Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” also obtains a mental disorder. The author doesn’t tell the reader he has one, but by the context and his actions, it’s obvious. The main questions I have and hope to uncover are:

Connie was a rebellious teenager wanting to escape her parents; whereas, Heaney was rebelling because he did not want to live the life of his father and grandfather. Oates, talking about Connie leaving home to go out with friends, says, “Sometimes they went across the highway … where older kids hung out” (507), showing Connie’s rebellious behavior. Connie’s parents would not let her go to a restaurant where the older kids congregated, which is why she is a rebel. Connie was a rebel, like many of the teenagers during her lifetime. The time of social change was in the atmosphere and generations were at a crossroads between traditional values and new values.

Freud’s wish fulfillment theory began because he believed that the wishes in adult dreams were disguised in order to reduce their anxiety tendencies. Freud theorised that dreams are disguised by a “censor” of sorts, in four cognitive processes he collectively called the “dream-work” (Freud, 1900) these include; displacement, whereby highly charged thoughts are transferred to minor elements in the impending dream. Condensation then compresses several different dream thoughts. These two are then joined together by the regard for representability, which changes abstract thoughts into a form that is applicable for the sensor. Finally the dream is shaped by secondary revision which basically gives the dream content an understandable pattern. (Freud, 1900).

In Joyce Carol Oates short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” writes about a young fifteen-year-old girl named Connie. Connie often lives in the shadow of her older sister June due to her mother’s disapproval of Connie’s main focus. One night while she is out with a friend, they ran across the freeway to a restaurant where older high school teens would hang out. She met a boy named Eddie and they go out for a ride in his car. While at a stop light she can’t help but notice a strange man in a gold convertible. She ignores this man’s advances and continues on with her night. A few days late while her family is at a barbecue, the strange man, Arnold Friend, ends up showing up at her house and tries to talk her into running away

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates is told from Connie’s point of view. Connie, the main character of the story, is fifteen years old who is preoccupied with her appearance. Her mother usually scolds her for her behavior and restricts for everything she like to do. She even wishes sometimes that she and her mother were dead. This restriction motivates Connie to become even more desperate for her freedom. When she got chance to go outside, she often sneak across highway to restaurant and meet boys.