Analysis Of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

In Joyce Carrol Oates short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? A fifteen year old girl named Connie unknowingly faces evil and loses the battle. In this story evil which is defined by Merriam Webster’s dictionary as “Something that causes discomfort, repulsion, or harm.” comes in the form of a man named Arnold Friend (Webster’s). In the story Connie is a naïve girl whose fate would have turned out differently if she had been a more devout Christian. There are several ways in the story that by being a more devout Christian Connie could have recognized evil sooner or simply avoided it all together. Connie should have followed the fifth commandment, she should not have placed so much value in her own beauty, and she should have recognized the string of numbers as a biblical reference. By being a more devout Christian Connie would have been able to see Arnold Friend was evil and avoided her terrible fate. In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Connie and her friends tell …show more content…
Connie worried about her appearance a lot. The story at first portrays Connie as being a vain and spoiled young girl (Urbanski). By placing so much value in her appearance Connie was drawing unwanted attention to herself. Joyce Carrol Oates makes it a point in the second sentence of the story to describe Connie in this way, “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.” (Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? 326). Several other times throughout the story Connie is shown checking her hair and making sure she looks good. If Connie had followed God’s word and cared more about the type of person that she was instead of how good she looked she wouldn’t have attracted Arnold Friends