Summary Of The Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

“Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in,” evangelist Billy Sunday described. For a teenager who doesn’t know who he is yet, or where he wants to go, it is easier to choose the wrong path if nobody is there to teach him to avoid temptation. The story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, depicts Connie’s susceptibility to temptation as a teenager who does not receive enough attention from her parents, and who gets to experience life without their guidance. Arnold Friend is like “the devil looking through the keyhole” waiting for Connie to give in.
The story starts by describing Connie as a normal teenager who is finding an identity; an identity that she tries to hide from her family using a double personality, as the author states “everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (313). None of the members of her family pays enough attention to notice she acts different outside the house. Her father never talks to her, she is always …show more content…
Connie’s mom is not there to talk to her or listen to her; she just scolds her and suffocates her instead, like Connie expressed, “’She makes me want to throw up sometimes’” (312). Connie needs someone whom she can trust that can guide her to the right path, and it is obvious that her mom is not doing it right, and instead of giving Connie the confidence to get close to her, she is pushing her away. When Arnold tells her “’they don’t know one thing about you and never did and honey you’re better than them because not one of them would have done this for you’” (325), Connie realizes that is true; her family does not know anything about her and they never make her feel