Symbolism In 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 “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” we are faced with a stalker-like, demonic man who becomes obsessed with a young teenage girl. This is all too common in reality where we face rapist, stalkers, and murders so the average reader would probably believe he has intimidated this young, naïve girl into allowing herself to be kidnapped. But some may agree that Connie was intimidated and forced into leaving with Arnold Friend, while other may think this was a satisfaction of her fantasies. According to Oates, “Connie couldn’t do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams” (Oates Web), those of which were more than likely daydreams filled with thoughts of boys as well as being somewhere far away from her much hated household. Arnold comes along and grants Connie with a proposition of taking her far away from the home she hated and making her seem above her family, he says “…you’re better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you.” Connie is not excited about what is taking place, in fact she feels empty and emotionless at this point, but in a strange, disgusting, creepy way Connie has gotten exactly what she wanted in the beginning which was a guy to be obsessed with her and could take her away from her what she once believed to be the worst life

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.

Connie does not want to be the nice and innocent pretty girl. She wants to be known for being very sexual. In the story she makes fun of her sister June because she is very modest and not sexual and causes conflict with their family. Also June is overweight twenty-four years old and still living at home. But she also does chores and does them without complaining to her parents. While Connie is a way from home she has two totally different ways of acting. Be that as it may, Arnold friend ‘s landing in her home drives her two sides to consolidate fiercely. As it were, Connie is not completely sexual until Arnold's interruption into her home until then; her sexuality was something outside of her "actual" self, the self that she permitted her family to see. Arnold also has a friend named Ellie. While Arnold drives up to Connie’s house Ellie stays in the car and she listens to music while Arnold speaks to Connie. Also Connie’s mother shows a large amount of frustration towards her and the way she acts and dresses. Connie and her mother fight constantly. But towards the end of the story when Connie is attacked my Arnold she cries out to her

In conclusion, the search for independence caused the world to change in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. With many things going on with drugs, alcohol, and sex, it is easy to see why Joyce Carol Oates chose this theme for Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Connie fell in to the trap of the sexual desires that she wanted for herself, only with it ending badly. Her maturation along with sexual radicalism and capitalism sexually repressed the masses in the interests of its life negating and exploitative goals. With all of this

Once someone crosses the redline, there is no way to go back. Peoples actions are not reversible, what is done cannot be undone. In both the short story by Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and the movie “Smooth Talk” directed by Joyce Chopra, the screen door is portrayed as a transition and a boundary although sometimes it is interpreted in different ways. If Connie crosses the boundary, it will lead to many bad consequences. When Arnold Friend reaches Connie’s porch, the conflict is between the protagonist Connie and the antagonist Arnold Friend who is trying to lure her out of the house to go for a ride with him. Arnold is taking advantage of her youth and vulnerability. The screen

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 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

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

In Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the author sets the feeling of danger and uncertainty stemming from events occurring throughout the story with the utilization of themes from Thomas C. Foster’s “ How to Read Literature Like a Professor” specifically with references to seasons, the bible, and significant symbolisms.

The suspenseful short story has a theory where Connie could of been dreaming the whole thing. Through “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, A short story Joyce Carol Oates writes how it could be a suspenseful dream. In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” Joyce Carol Oates shows that it is all a dream by use the plot, imagery , and setting throughout the story. Work on spacing by commas

The teenage rebellion, which most of people experience during the puberty, always worsens the relationship between parents and children. Written by Joyce Carol Oates, the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” describes the condition and consequence of a family whose child is rebellious. Through the characterization, plot, and dialogue, Oates successfully exhibits the thesis that Connie’s bad ending is the consequence of her parents’ attitude and actions.

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.

To begin with, Joyce Carol Oates had the idea of using irony from the beginning of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” to the end of the passage. The irony used shaped emotions of specific characters such as Connie to represent the moments of personal realization of regret during dangerous or risky situations. Connie’s family, especially herself, is shown to have a distance from a church or any religious values. Connie was also shown to have no morals through her rebellious acts with her friends. Oates even expressed that “one Sunday Connie got up at eleven…” and that “...none of them bothered with church…” (pg 3). The teenager was also involved in the evolution of music in the 60’s and always heard music wherever she went. It

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.”