Carol Oates's Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

Judges 19:17
Joyce Carol Oates’s 1970 story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? introduces fifteen year old Connie, a narcissistic girl who prefers flirting with boys, and listening to Rock and Roll. Like most girls her age, Connie is very keen on being mature. Connie puts on her act the minute she exits her house by portraying herself as an adult. However, behind closed doors Connie reverts to her childish nature. Unbeknownst to her parents, Connie visits a restaurant intended for older kids and exits with a boy she had just met. At this moment, Connie has a fleeting encounter with an odd boy who she does not know. The boy was mysterious, unlike the boys who threw themselves at Connie, which intrigued her. Many days pass and Connie …show more content…
[A tiny sound roared into her ear] and she was so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen […] she began to scream into the phone, into the roaring. She cried out, she cried for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if […] Arnold Friend was stabbing her with [it] again and again with no tenderness. A noisy sorrowful wailing rose all about her and she was locked inside it the way she was locked inside this house …show more content…
Connie manages to get a hold of the telephone, which is her sole connection to her guardians. Connie then puts her ear to the phone and hears “[…] a tiny roaring, [making her] so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it” (par.145). Now, Connie is unable to hear the music she constantly hears. The music is so important to Connie that Oates describes it as “"[…] always in the background [like music in a church service, that you depended on]" (par.6). Oates’s demonstrates Connie’s desperation to revert into a child when Connie “[…] began to scream into the phone, into the roaring [she] cried out, […] for her mother, […] her breath [jerking] back and forth in her lungs as if […] Arnold Friend was stabbing her with [it] again and again with no tenderness,” (par.145). Although the “stabbing” is referring to Connie’s breath, it can also be linked to a sexual act, which Connie describes as “[not tender],” amplifying the dark sexual tone of the story (par.145). Afterwards, when Connie is ready to submit to Arnold she hears “a noisy sorrowful wailing [rise all about her] and she was locked inside it the way she was locked inside this house,” Connie goes from hearing the music, not hearing it, and finally having it replaced the sound of sorrow (par.145). Connie then realizes that the