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Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Decent Essays

After coming to the realization she is not safe, Connie utters “What are you going to do?”, which is her last word. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates and Connie portrays the protagonist. Connie’s parents were present in her life, which made her stray away and become independent. She wants attention from boys, until she realizes that may not be a good idea when Arnold Friend shows up at her house while her parents leave the house. Friend, around the age of 30, tries to get her to come with him until she ends up being taken out into the woods by him and his friend to be possibly raped and murdered. Absent parents who had the wrong priorities led Connie to grow up quickly and left her independence …show more content…

At the beginning of the story, readers will notice the roles her parents fall into. Her dad is absent from her life and her mom prefers Connie’s college-aged sister June. Her mom picks at her, making statements like, “‘Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?’ she would say. Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints-” (Oates 1). Parents play a huge role in a child's life. Connie’s mother making complaints about Connie will affect the way she grows up. When parents express to their child negative things about them, they will break down and become insecure. The child will not want to remain close to their parents. That results in the child not being able to get advice from the parents. Without the presence of parents, Connie was forced to grow up very quickly. Charles May supports this by saying “Connies shut the door on childhood. Oates seems to suggest that if either one of her parents had made the effort to communicate, Connie could have remained safely a child until old enough to choose the future” (May 4547). A teenager’s brain is still developing and that can “make an adolescent—especially a girl—susceptible to exploitation” (Wilson 261). Children need parents to be active in their lives to help rear their child in the right direction. If Connie’s mom and dad appeared more often, there would be change and more …show more content…

That will allow the child to grow up and learn from the mistakes from the reality they can be presented with. If done right, those concepts can be very positive, but they can be used harmfully. Since Connie’s parents decided to be absent from her life, that led her to chase down boys. Once faced with the repercussions, Connie’s reality led her to never see her family again. She became forced to grow up so quickly and use her independence for the wrongs and not the right. If her parents made an effort to communicate, they would be able to talk about how it’s great to be independent if done in a safe way. “Goodbye Mom.” Could have been Connie’s final words before she leaves for school or to start a new life. Instead, her parents led her in the wrong direction and led her to the end of her

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