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

A door to the beginning of her outcome is all that divides Connie in, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” from Arnold Friend, the devilish predator. Symbolism takes a big part in this story that gives a deeper meaning to Connie’s choices that ultimately extent to giving herself to Arnold. The author, Joyce Carol Oates in the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” represents Arnold Friend as the real world by being challenging and malicious, and Connie as the innocent world by being defenseless and naive.

boys to live out her childish delusions of romance and allows herself to be swept away by this

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

Not every story is 100% original. Many stories are inspired by older stories, fairy tales, archetypes, real life events, etc. There are thousands of stories in the world, so newer stories will likely be like at least a few of them. One such story is “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates. In this story, a man who calls himself Arnold Friend tries to victimize another character, who is a 15-year-old girl named Connie. The inspiration for this story is clear. Arnold Friend is very similar to The Big Bad Wolf from 2 different fairy tales, “The Three Little Pigs,” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” for various reasons, including threats, acting, and disguises. Evidence of this is interspersed throughout the story.

In the story Oates mentions about Connie that “everything about her has two sides to it” (1), by this Oates means the way Connie would act at home was completely different from the way she would act out in public and with her friends. In Connie’s home setting Connie was a very self-centered character. She believed “she was pretty and that was everything.” (1), Connie may be extremely insecure about herself, considering that she believes her looks are all she has to offer. Connie and her mother’s relationship was not the best. Her mother would continuously point out things Connie would do wrong and would compare Connie to her sister, June. In one

Adolescence, the part of life we are most willing to forget. The awkward years of being stuck between, not yet an adult but certainly not a child. These years, however awful they maybe, are essential to the character that later develops. During adolescence we make decisions that shape the course of our life, from the personal interactions between friends and family to the academic decisions that impact future career, choices you make as a young adult impact you forever. Partially due to the importance of these short few years, it is not surprising how often children can make poor choices that derail their entire life. Increasing at startling frequency, these stories foretell of a dismal future. Due to this cautionary tales of adolescence have been rising in pop-culture. One of these is “Where are you going? Where have you been? By Carol Joyce Oates. This story tells of Connie, a young adult trying to make the leap to adulthood. Connie in her attempt to breach the gap ends up in drawing attention of Arnold Friend sealing the fate of her poorly executed coming of age. Connies ill fated coming of age in “Where have you been? Where are you going?” by Carol Joyce Oates acts as a cautionary tale about modern perils of adolescence.

In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Joyce Carol Oates uses characterization to foreshadow that Arnold is a kidnapper and that Connie gets Kidnapped. Arnold Friend is portrayed as a manipulator, which foreshadows that he will eventually do something like, kidnap Connie. Connie is portrayed as vain, which foreshadows that she will be a victim similar to getting kidnapped. Connie decided to go out with her friends. She spots a demonic looking man, across the street, who's looking at her. Connie, who's at home alone, sees a car pulls up in her driveway and in the gold, slogan covered, Jalopy are two male strangers. When she goes out to see who they are, what they want, she see’s that it’s the strange man that was staring at her when she was out with her friends. When you normally see strangers/strange people outside your home, you do nothing and stay inside. When she went outside you can tell that something is wrong. She will get kidnapped.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates, revolves around two main characters — Connie and Arnold Friend. Connie is a 15 year old girl, the protagonist in the story, who disrespects her family, and tries to act more mature than she actually is. Arnold Friend is the mysterious “villain” figure in the story that places Connie in an unpleasant situation that causes her to question the extent of her maturity. Throughout the short story Arnold pushes Connie’s comfort level, and tries to get her to be adventurous by getting in his car for a ride; however, Connie realizes that she cannot get out of this troubling situation on her own. Even though the characters’ overall personas are different, they both show arrogant tendencies, which serve as both of their greatest weaknesses in the short story.

The abduction of Persephone through Hades mirrors that of Arnold Friend. Joyce Carol Oates, Author of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a short story with themes that consist of search for self as well as identity. Through the use of imagery, dialogue, and characterization Oates displays similarities between the Greek myth, “Persephone and Demeter” to “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”.

It is disappointing that Connie’s behavior could not be controlled. Unfortunately, she did not have a good adult figure in her life that could have helped her to establish better morals and values. Connie’s mother was constantly scolding her and comparing her to her sister June:

Everyone is perceived differently, and the way that people are perceived is caused by a variety of factors. People judge people based off of their actions, their words and their background. In Joyce Carol Oates’s short story, “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been?” the main character Connie is perceived to be very vulnerable to Arnold Friend, who ends up becoming her kidnapper. Arnold Friend sees Connie as a young, attractive fifteen year old girl who is an easy target. Connie is such an easy target for Arnold Friend because she is always looking for attention from older boys. Arnold takes notice of this and starts stalking Connie, trying to figure out how to get to her. Arnold stalks Connie without her even noticing because she

As seen through the character, Connie, she recognizes her repressed thoughts too late and that leads to her demise. Even though she tries to build her identity separate from her sister, her family will never accept who she truly is. This causes her to develop repressed thoughts, that warn her about Arnold Friend through her daydreams, and trigger her defense mechanisms of repression and denial. Although her recognition of her repressed thoughts implemented her reality anxiety too late, she came to the realization that the identity she was trying to form was hollow. Therefore, the recognition of one’s repressed thoughts can not only be a form of protection but also unlock essential information about

Of it pulled up on her head and puffed out and the rest of it she let fall down her back.”(Oates, pg. 453) She is a beautiful girl and she knows it but she liked the attention that her looks bring her during this age she is more worried about her looks than anything else. Just like many people her age Connie would always try to dress a little older then she was while going out with her friends “She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that

Connie is a self assured teenage girl. She is always flaunting her looks, her clothes, her hair. She’s that one girl that sticks out in a group of friends. She just so happened to stick out to a particular male, Arnold Friend, one night while she was with a boy. “Gonna get you, baby.” (Oates 372) and that was all he said to taunt her. When Arnold Friend showed up at Connie’s house while her family was away at a family barbeque, Connie was not amused, she was actually getting dizzy with fear. She wanted to make it seem like she had “... no interest or pleasure..” (Oates 374) when speaking to him. Arnold Friend knew things about her, her family’s whereabouts, and her neighbor, all because he had stalked and followed her closely for weeks probably. There was nothing Connie could have done to prevent Arnold Friend’s appearance on her doorstep. Incidents of stalking happen all the time in the real world which is why there are restraining orders. But how was Connie suppose to know that she needed a restraining order on some guy that she glanced at once while she was out with her

such as " I toldja shut up, Ellie," and "your deaf, get a hearing aid,