‘’Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’’ Essay examples

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

She tries to relate to sex through popular music that romanticizes relationships and life. The short reveals how it affects Connie when she is listening to a popular radio station, “…bathed in a glow of slow-pulsed joy that seemed to rise mysteriously out of the music itself and lay languidly about the airless little room” (Oates 424). Additionally, Connie felt her date with Eddie was similar to “the way it was in movies and promised in songs”(Oates 424). She felt she was living the dream and was beginning to relate to this sexualized, romantic media. In Marie Mitchell and Olesen Urbanski’s literary review of the story, they state “the recurring music then, while ostensibly innocuous realistic detail, is in fact, the vehicle of Connie's seduction and because of its intangibility, not immediately recognizable as such” (1). However, Arnold Friend was quick to remind her of her young age and innocence at the end of the story.

This story is a glimpse of the behavior and conditions of the youth of the time as represented by Connie in the story. Though Connie is represented as somewhat naïve and vain, the story’s treatment of her is mainly sympathetic. She is obsessed with her own beauty, spends her time mulling over “trashy daydreams” in her head and flirting young men. Yet Oates recognizes and sympathizes with Connie’s excitement over her growing freedom and entry into adulthood.

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

“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

In 1970, Joyce Carol Oates published a short story titled “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates writes about the life of Connie, a girl whose parents are uninvolved and unaware of the true intentions Connie as when leaving the house with her friends, mingling with the older crowd and meeting boys. Out with her friends one night, she sees one boy in particular Arnold, who wants to get to know Connie and goes to drastic lengths to meet her. Connie’s experience with Arnold reminds me of my experience with an older guy.

In this essay, I argue that the main theme of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is internal conflict. The main character, Connie, struggles with multiple internal conflicts throughout the short story. Some of these internal conflicts include a search for independence, internal judgment, and fantasy versus reality.

The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is essentially about a young woman’s strive for independence, which eventually leads to conflict. Oates portrays a social issue that relates to today’s society by using symbolism and characterization. She takes you on a journey throughout a teenagers life, tells about her thoughts and feelings while also relating to naïve girls today. Connie is a symbol of young girls who try to rush and grow up too fast. The ones who want to be popular with all the boys.

During the conversation between Connie and Arnold Friend, she experiences a dramatic moment so intense that it cannot be avoided or ignored. Her attempt was creating a sexy appearance and fascinating the boys in the local diner delivers as her experiment to analyze new fields as well as a new side of herself. However, until Arnold comes into the story, her expeditions have always been closed into security. She may go into an dark alley with a boy for a short period, but no matter what happens there,

In the beginning of the story you are introduced to Connie whether it is narcism or insecurity or both, she looks towards her family with hatred and, she makes it very clear she doesn't want to be with them. A wish she is granted but probably hoped she could go back on it. The story starts off first establishing the tensions between Connie and her mother as well as Connie’s elitist habits. “She was fifteen and she had a quick, and nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right. Her mother, who noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn’t reason any longer to look at her own face, always scolded Connie about it.”(Oates Page 1) Although this quote is more to establish the relationship between her and her mother it does in minor way foreshadow coming events in the story. The

     Nobody really knows what the future holds. We all live day by day wondering what God’s will is for our lives. Yet we carry on and make decisions that may or may not shape what our lives turn out to be. In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where are you going, Where have you been?,” we meet Connie, a fifteen year old beautiful girl. Connie like most teenagers is a little boy crazy and at times rebellious. She and some girlfriends would get together and go to a local drive-in restaurant where older kids would hang out. (153) One night at this drive-in a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible caught Connie’s eye. (154) Connie had never seen him before. He made the sly statement of “Gonna get you,

Life is a path of accomplishments and achievements as well as distress and confrontations. It has its own ups and downs. But every human being lives it and has to live it as there is no other option. What we learn as we age making right choices and using the support that we have around, like our parents, grandparents, and friends makes us who we are. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie is a typical human being who has to deal with all the situations that come in her life. Situations like dealing with people whom she has never met and if gone out of hands, controlling the situation using intelligent methods. Even though Connie a normal teenager, who loved her friends, went to school, and enjoyed

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

In the American society, when individuals reach adolescence, they begin to search for their identity by exploring their interests and opening their mind to new notions and ideas. This is the psychological and physical human development that ultimately leads them to their adulthood. Joyce Carol Oates' short story depicts a fifteen year old girl with typical teenage concerns. She has to face the realization of the meaning of maturity in the American civilization when she is ripped out of her childhood by Arnold Friend. In the short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates suggests that when teenagers are in the coming of age, they are easily fooled and taken

Again, the audience is not presented with a perfect copy of such a personality in the character of Norma Desmond; her “appeal” is arguable, considering her hefty age of fifty, and her deception is not exclusive to her victim, but has cast a much heavier net upon herself. However, Norma is still manipulative in the sense that she uses the appeal of her wealth to keep Joe under her control. In this way, she strips him of his pride and manhood by taking him on as her dependent, and eventually into her “boy toy” (for lack of a better term) by inducing his guilt with her suicidal threats. Whether or not she deserves the audience’s pity is no matter—Norma fits her role as the femme fatale since she uses Joe entirely for her own purposes, and eventually brings him to his very literal demise.