Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

She tends to be the one who looks at people, but with Arnold, he gazed at her while she was nervous. He showed up to her house with sunglasses on so that he could see her, but she could not see him. At the end, “she watched herself push the door open slowly”(635). Now she is looking at herself because she is no longer in control of what is about to happen to her. Her search for independence end with her looking at “so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it” (635). In summary, through the author’s use of certain symbols and contrast between Connie’s two sides, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” becomes a story with a lesson that certain things, independence in this case, are not always what they seem to

There is much temptation in the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.” Joyce Carol Oates tells the climactic story of a fifteen year old girl named Connie; a reserved individual, who lives a double life. When a strange man named Arnold Friend and his buddy Ellie show up in Connie’s driveway and they ask if she wants to take a ride with them, will she sacrifice herself and go with them? Or is the whole story just a dream?

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol, Oates we have a story of a teenage girl named Connie who is talked in to going for a ride with a guy who she has never meet before. In the story we get to see how this extremely intelligent guy named Arnold Friend gets her to do what he want without forcing her. Connie shouldn’t be blame for getting into Arnolds car, because she is only a teen and doesn’t know any better also, Arnold uses his knowledge of Connie and her family to manipulate her into doing what he want.

Although some may argue that the short story, “Where are you going, where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates, reveals that Connie’s materialistic ideals drove her actions which caused her ultimate demise, this position limits the importance of Connie’s repressed thoughts. Connie’s repressed thoughts, identified through daydreams and inner dialogue, reveal her psychological efforts to protect herself from the imminent danger ahead. Connie’s repressed thoughts form as she strives to achieve a differentiation of self from her older sister, yet her newfound identity becomes superficially based off of how she believes she should behave around her peers. When Arnold Friend appears at her doorstep, even though Connie deploys her defense mechanisms

Since she has such low self-esteem, it makes her considerably easier to persuade in dangerous situations which is exhibited in her second encounter with Arnold Friend. When Connie tried to call for help on the phone, her pent up anger and sadness was released along with her screams: “A noisy sorrowful wailing rose all about her and she was locked inside it the way she was locked inside the house” (Oates 14). This sudden screaming fit represents Connie’s desperation to escape but cannot since she is figuratively trapped in her house. She is held back by her mother’s constant criticism, her father’s oblivion and ignorance, and the consistent comparison to her exceptional sister. So even though Arnold coaxed Connie into his car for the most part, it could be that Connie, in a sense, willingly went with Arnold. There is a chance that Connie was conscious of her decision since she even thinks to herself “She thought, I’m not going to see my mother again. She thought, I’m not going to sleep in my bed again” (14) which shows how helpless she feels and how she sees this as her only way to escape the place where she feels both suppressed and

The Cultural Revolution and Sexual Desires in Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”

Through its contrasting reality and dreamlike scenes, Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” uses details from a true American horror story to convey a message about society, youth and a loss of innocence. Arizona native Charles Schmid murdered Alleen Rowe on May 31, 1964. Schmid was considered a serial killer and was subsequently arrested and convicted of the heinous crimes that he was accused of. The profile of Schmid as a short man who wore makeup, wigs and altered boots to make

We were all created to be different. Some may have similar physical features, but no two persons have the same DNA. I like to think of written stories in the same way, because although two stories can share many literary devices, no two stories will be identical, because they each reveal a larger theme. Each individual has a distinct perspective in which they see and comprehend, and that is why I believe that each story is open to endless unique interpretations by various individuals. Literary devices are what grab and captivate the readers, because they give the story purpose and meaning, in essence leaving the story to be interpreted by various perspectives. In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates,

Charles Baudelaire once said, “la plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas. (the devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist).” The deceit that Connie experiences throughout the story influences the behaviors and perspectives that she has on her own life, changing the initial thoughts that she had towards her family. In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie encountered a guy named Eddie where they spent a few hours in a restaurant that later led them to being in an alley. Though this moment seemed to of little significance to Connie, an incident with a strange man, Arnold Friend, later on in the story left Connie with an unsettling

This chain of events could have been altered at any moment, however Connie’s attributes caused her to come to this tragic end. In the story, “Where are you going, where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the main character, Connie, was kidnapped at the end of the story due to her naivety,

Based on the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the setting reveals Connie’s deep desire in her dreams to be with someone like Arnold Friend. Joyce Carol Oates states in the story that “when she opened her eyes she hardly knew where she was”(Oates 2). This quote shows that this is a dream because Connie wakes up and is confused about where she is at. Almost as if she’s in another world and is lost. When you dream you’re confused sometimes because it can feel so real but at the same time you don’t recognize what is going on and where you are so it confused you just as Connie was. Through setting, Oates uses setting to prove Connie is in a dream. Oates states that “She shook her head as if to get awake”(Oates 2). This quote shows how Connie tries to wake herself up from a bad dream. You can tell because she was shaking her head like she was having a nightmare. That nightmare would be Arnold Friend trying to get her to come

In “Where are you going, where have you been”, Joyce Carol Oates presents a theory to the reader that undeniable affects the way you read the short story. Throughout the texts you are given many reasons to believe that the main character, Connie, is in a dream or that she is having an out-of-body experience. Her incident almost seems like a cut out of a horror movie, and although it seems to like a dream, but to me it is to real to be something imagined.

In the short story "Where are you going where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oats and the song Wake Up by EDEN, the author and the artist both show the thematic concepts on how fantasies come to an end, and when reality hits, it hits hard.

Between the two short stories both written by author Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” “Life After High School”, it is clear that the story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been, is the more superior story when comparing literary elements found throughout the story. Joyce Carol Oates uses symbolism, simile, metaphor and imagery to explain what Connie went through.

Dreams are theorized to express your desires, but what if you found out they unknowingly taught you life lessons within? Joyce Carol Oates implies in her short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” that this is the case. Through characterization, plot, and dialogue Oates uncovers that Connie has actually been dreaming, as Sigmund Freud once thoreorised.