Growing up can take many forms, whether that represents maturity and in some cases violence. Having a violent nature reveals one’s realization of how they are able to cope with reality. Joyce Carol Oates in her story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and Bob Dylan’s song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” both interprets violence in a way to outgrow ourselves to keep up with the changing phases of reality. Both authors view violence in a metaphorical perspective that demonstrates the protagonists changing attitude. Both achieve this through characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing. In Joyce Carol Oates’ story, growing up is considered a violent act through characterization. The protagonist, Connie is described as a narcissistic
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Arnold Friend, in Oates story first makes an appearance when Connie meets him in the parking lot and says he’s going to get her. An unusual statement like that foreshadowed what was going to happen later in the story. When Connie started to notice that Arnold isn’t who he says he is given the hints about, his age, how he knows where her parents are, how “evidently his feet did not go all the way down…”, and especially his sweet yet dangerous tone, Connie starts to panic because she realizes she’s trapped inside and has nowhere to go. Knowing that someone like Arnold was coming for her, she released all her fear in a “violent” way which she cried out for her mother and made a decision to give in to Arnold. Similarly in Bob Dylan’s song, he mostly mentions the character’s unbalanced mental state and her decision to end her life. However in the last stanza of the song, Bob Dylan shifts from the character’s negative perspective on life to a new one that she should look for. He advises her, “Leave your stepping stones, something calls for you.” He wants to tell her to leave whatever she’s done in the past in the past and the thing that’s calling her is another opportunity to make up her regrets and mistakes. Bob Dylan concludes that growing up can be a violent act if you chose to but there’s always hope in the end to “...go start
Arnold Friend, in Oates story first makes an appearance when Connie meets him in the parking lot and says he’s going to get her. An unusual statement like that foreshadowed what was going to happen later in the story. When Connie started to notice that Arnold isn’t who he says he is given the hints about, his age, how he knows where her parents are, how “evidently his feet did not go all the way down…”, and especially his sweet yet dangerous tone, Connie starts to panic because she realizes she’s trapped inside and has nowhere to go. Knowing that someone like Arnold was coming for her, she released all her fear in a “violent” way which she cried out for her mother and made a decision to give in to Arnold. Similarly in Bob Dylan’s song, he mostly mentions the character’s unbalanced mental state and her decision to end her life. However in the last stanza of the song, Bob Dylan shifts from the character’s negative perspective on life to a new one that she should look for. He advises her, “Leave your stepping stones, something calls for you.” He wants to tell her to leave whatever she’s done in the past in the past and the thing that’s calling her is another opportunity to make up her regrets and mistakes. Bob Dylan concludes that growing up can be a violent act if you chose to but there’s always hope in the end to “...go start