In “Where are you going, where have you been?”, Connie encounters many conflicts that other teenagers will experience in their journey into adulthood; ultimately, Oates illustrates how one’s hardships will form their values and desires.From the perspective of a teenager who is yearning for independence as well as acceptance, she faces many troubles that forces her to know the consequences that follow her choices. From the lack of support received to from her parents, as many children would, she strives for acknowledgement and support from those she is supposedly close with. From the encounter with Arnold Friend, it is revealed to her just how thin the line between reality and the world she had imagined is. When her fantasy world clashed with
