It is the first statement to anger her, and the start of her desperation to escape the situation. It is her desperation that ultimately causes her downfall. As Connie’s fear begins to mount, Friend adds the her…
With her actions, attire, friends, and personality the author gives a easy point of speculation of why she is the way she is and up to her eventual breakdown. When Connie is first presented in the story, she is shown as a pretty young gal who has some of the generic mommy issues that come with the rebellious teens. With the beginning however, her sister June is brought into the story and the feeling of envy Connie holds towards June is particularly fascinating. June is older, bland and extremely average yet her mother absolutely adores this and praises the daughter for being this way.…
This sets up the tragedy that befalls Connie. One could ask, “Why Connie, she's only fifteen and so innocent?”, but is she really? One could argue that she welcomed this tragedy through her behavior and vanity. This is open to interpretation but I believe that her family is to blame.…
In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, Connie’s character can be easily categorized as shallow and egotistical. At only fifteen years old, the young teen only worries about her physical appearance and what others think of her. Connie lives in a make-believe world where movies and music affect her views on love. The reader can make the conclusion that Connie is self-centered by reading the line, “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 alright”…
When Connie is not at home or with her friends, she is known to pick up boys at ta restaurant called Big Boy. One evening, when leaving the restaurant with another boy, she catches the attention of a stranger in a gold convertible covered with mysterious writing. One day while her parents were out at a barbeque at her aunt’s house, two men pulled up the drive way in front of Connie’s house and called her come out. She recognizes the driver, who was Arnold Friend from the drive in restaurant. He tells her…
John Updike’s “A&P” and Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” suggests that coming of age in the 60s is markedly different for young men and women. Updike’s Sammy is essentially on a quest for independence from an authoritative figure. The authority figure in question here is Lengel, Sammy’s boss at the A&P, who is portrayed as a “dreary . . . Sunday school” teacher, hides behind the “door marked MANAGER (288).…
Connie admires herself in the mirror every time she walks by one and her mother scolds her for doing so but Connie ignores what she says. Her mother wants her to be like her older sister which means to be responsible and mature. June seems to be the favorite daughter of the family Connie’s mother is always comparing her to June she is always praising June and frowning upon Connie in the story Oates Connie’s mother complains saying “why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got…
Connie appears to be a self-confident girl to the outside world, but after she meets Arnold Friend, she realizes how vulnerable and innocent she is. Indeed, her beauty couldn’t protect her from harm and gives her what she…
Throughout the stories Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? And A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The theme of fear is present throughout these stories. The ideology of fear are shown in these two stories and they connect to how fear is used to control people. Fear is seen today and was seen in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Both Joyce Carol Oates and Flannery O’Connor emphasized this throughout their stories.…
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is an eerie short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story, published in the fall 1966 edition of Epoch Magazine generated a big buzz (Ptalzgraf 221). Oates dedicated the story to Bob Dylan because she was inspired to write it after listening to his song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”(“Where”Shmoop). She was also inspired by the gruesome serial killer Charles Schmid. Joyce Carol Oates most famous short story is “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been.”…
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been “With great power comes great responsibility”, this very old saying famously appears in the Marvel comic series Spider Man. Uncle Ben uses these wise words to warn Peter Parker that with any sort of power, there is also a negative side that comes with it. We can observe this in, Where you going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates. In this story the main character Connie realizes that she has this great power to attract boys, she is very much obsessed with this new power and sees the positive side of her new power, however she doesn’t quite realize the negative side of her power. This is due partly to her age, and to a great degree of being unfortunate to encounter a serial killer like Arnold Friend.…
There is a fine line between fantasy and reality. Though as fine as a line can be, an individual can be as easily blind with imagination. People do not want pure unadulterated fantasy, but a fantasy that incorporates themselves and what they believe of what they want. However, sometimes what they believe they want is much more complicated and darker. The same concept is exhibit as the main theme in, Joyce Carol Oates 's “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”…
For the peer reflection project, I interviewed Alexis Dowdell about the time her family adopted her cousin, Rochell. I thought this process was very interesting. Interviewing someone I never spoke to before was new. Even though this was a different experience, I was not nervous or overthinking about the right approach. I felt the right approach to interview Alexis was to be myself.…
There are many factors that influence these two characters that need to be investigated. There are a few notions of rebellion that make up the psyche of Connie. Connie is mainly a person of vanity, consistently concerned with how she looks and how others perceive her. This is a socially learned attitude that funnels into the psychological theory of deviance.…
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: An Analysis There are two themes that are central to “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates: the theme of independence and the theme of reality vs. fantasy, both of which are relevant in today’s society. Both of these themes are prominent in the interactions between Connie, a precocious fifteen-year-old girl and an ageless “Old Friend”, Arnold Friend, who can be seen as evil, or, the devil. The symbol of music is used as a dissociation from reality.…