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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been By Joyce Carol Oates

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The fictional story “where are you going where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates follows the life of Connie. Connie is a young 15-year-old girl. Like most girls, she was very self-conscious. Not because she didn’t think she was pretty but because she always wanted to make sure others thought she was. “She was fifteen and she had a quick, 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” (Oates, 157) She loved going out with friends to hang out with older teenagers. Connie and her friends loved the feeling of getting attention, but what they loved most was feeling in control of the attention. If a boy tried talking to them their favorite thing was to turn away and ignore him. Soon enough she would meet someone that she couldn’t just turn away and giggle about. Connie falls prey to the sexual predator Arnold Friend. She was an innocent girl in the begging of the story, but that all changed after she met Mr. Friend. His spine chilling methods of seduction and persuasion were just a few of his creepy features. He used this in addition to scare tactics to convince Connie to leave with him. Oates clearly shows how Arnold Friend selected Connie as his victim, seduced her, and ultimately persuaded her to leave with him.
Arnold Friend was a predator but was not dumb in his selection of Connie. Although Connie had no knowledge of who Mr. Friend was, he knew all about her. The first time she met him

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