Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” begins as a benign and familiar tale of a misunderstood teenager: the protagonist, fifteen year old Connie, rebelliously expresses her sexuality, as she painstakingly feints the hindrance devised by mother. Connie as perceived by mother suffers from an overindulgence of one’s appearance – “excessive gawking at one’s self, excessive hair spray, excessive day dreaming”. Though, in all honesty, Connie exhibits the traits of most, if not all typical American teenager. But soon, the generous and familiar tale became perplexing and controversial as the antagonist Arnold Friend appeared. His conflicting confrontation with Connie became grim and unsettling as Connie descends into the unknown.
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Thus, if readers and critics subjects the tragedy and characters in the story to imagination, dream and allegory (more precisely, unreal), then, it vastly diminishes the relationship between the characters tragic experience to the realities of the American life. Oates’s stories that expose its characters to tragic events, such as Connie’s conflicting encounter with the antagonist “Arnold Friend” in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” fails to establish the daunting realities of the American life when readers and critics interpret it as allegorical. Only by embracing the verisimilitude of the story can it beam its effulgence as a homology of the American culture. Though several critics and literary analyst have somewhat identified the characters as symbolical and labeled “Where Are Going, Where Have You Been?” as a parable of some sort, my sympathy lies with the realistic aspect of the story. But also, putting into consideration Oates’s religious background, one can infer that Oates’s scatters biblical ambiguity and literal allusions throughout her story, creating somewhat of a religious theme – “devils manipulation”. My purpose, I should stress, in employing the realism hermeneutic is not to debunk the fallacies or ridicule the allegorical interpretation of Oates’s story; it’s only to …show more content…
Realism in literature as described by scholars coincides with the representation of reality. Realism explores the familiar or the usual as opposed to extraordinary and exotic. This familiarity is apparent in the setting of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Though no evidence emerged in the story to aid readers in pinpointing the exact year in which the story occur, be it “July 1959, August 1964” or any other summer month that comes to mind. Nor was there any indication of the place in which the events were depicted. In fact, the epoch and dwelling remain vague, yet it exposes the story to a strange familiarity – “the shopping mall and drive-in restaurants” harbored hormonal teenagers that itches to express their sexual freedom, thus a picture of a certain period starts to appear– the 1960’s. A period of hippie-counter culture, youth subcultures, whose characters and attitudes questioned the moral and social formalities. The zeitgeist of the 1960’s America, coupled with idealism and intensity that propelled it, channeled into the decade’s music - popular music graced drug and sex. As Kathleen Wilson points out, “in its few pages readers can grasp many factors at work in America during the late 1960’s, particularly those affecting young people”. She goes on to illustrate this factors
Thus, if readers and critics subjects the tragedy and characters in the story to imagination, dream and allegory (more precisely, unreal), then, it vastly diminishes the relationship between the characters tragic experience to the realities of the American life. Oates’s stories that expose its characters to tragic events, such as Connie’s conflicting encounter with the antagonist “Arnold Friend” in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” fails to establish the daunting realities of the American life when readers and critics interpret it as allegorical. Only by embracing the verisimilitude of the story can it beam its effulgence as a homology of the American culture. Though several critics and literary analyst have somewhat identified the characters as symbolical and labeled “Where Are Going, Where Have You Been?” as a parable of some sort, my sympathy lies with the realistic aspect of the story. But also, putting into consideration Oates’s religious background, one can infer that Oates’s scatters biblical ambiguity and literal allusions throughout her story, creating somewhat of a religious theme – “devils manipulation”. My purpose, I should stress, in employing the realism hermeneutic is not to debunk the fallacies or ridicule the allegorical interpretation of Oates’s story; it’s only to …show more content…
Realism in literature as described by scholars coincides with the representation of reality. Realism explores the familiar or the usual as opposed to extraordinary and exotic. This familiarity is apparent in the setting of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Though no evidence emerged in the story to aid readers in pinpointing the exact year in which the story occur, be it “July 1959, August 1964” or any other summer month that comes to mind. Nor was there any indication of the place in which the events were depicted. In fact, the epoch and dwelling remain vague, yet it exposes the story to a strange familiarity – “the shopping mall and drive-in restaurants” harbored hormonal teenagers that itches to express their sexual freedom, thus a picture of a certain period starts to appear– the 1960’s. A period of hippie-counter culture, youth subcultures, whose characters and attitudes questioned the moral and social formalities. The zeitgeist of the 1960’s America, coupled with idealism and intensity that propelled it, channeled into the decade’s music - popular music graced drug and sex. As Kathleen Wilson points out, “in its few pages readers can grasp many factors at work in America during the late 1960’s, particularly those affecting young people”. She goes on to illustrate this factors