Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Essay

Connie, the protagonist of a time period where women are seen as objects, follows society’s expectations. Joyce Carol Oates wrote “Where are you going, where have you been?” at a time when women were not respected by men. In “Where are you going, where have you been?”, Connie is approached by a man named Arnold Friend. Friend was very persistent about getting Connie to leave town with him. After Connie refused multiple times, he threatened to hurt her family. Due to the threat, Connie had no…

Contemporary Fiction America has been around for two hundred and thirty nine years and throughout these years we have seen much change in our nation especially after our wars. The postwar period brought much change to America, mainly focusing on the literature that followed after. After the wars, Americans did not know what to do. We were a unsettled nation wanting answers, but we never lost our spirit. In the writings of contemporary fiction, we have writers who are showing these in their…

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” Joyce Oates shows how Connie’s drive for boys turns into Connie’s worst nightmare when one shows up at her house, Arnold Friend, threatening to do harm to her and her family if she doesn’t do what she’s told. When Connie doesn’t do what she’s told, however, Arnold threatens to kill her family and kidnap Connie. For example, the theme of a worst nightmare coming true is seen throughout many stories, like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.…

In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie, a fifth teen year old who does not get along well with her mother, is out with her friends one night at the dine-in while they are supose to be at the mall. As she was walking to the car with n of her friends, another guy smiles and waves his finger towards her. She does not think anything of it until later on one Sunday evening when her parents leave to go to a barbeque that she refuses to go to.…

goes on, we grow up into a teenager where we think we know everything about the world and that we are entitled to everything. After we grow out of the teenager stage we begin into adulthood where we make our choices, decisions, and plan out our career path. Throughout life we may encounter family arguments, change, and have to adapt to decisions made by family members that we don’t necessary agree with. Harper Lee once said “You can choose your friends but you…

The short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is a unique one. In this story, Oates presents to us a teenage character named Connie who seems to represent the irony of a teenager’s innocence and their willingness to explore an unrealistic world, while another character, Arnold, seems to symbolize the experience and relentlessness of the real world. Evil seems to be lurking around every corner and even more so for teen Connie and as she grows up and enters into…

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, we come to identify a distinct theme of fantasy vs. reality. They come to light and understanding by the two main characters, Connie and Arnold. Through Arnold and the progression of the story we come to be revealed the truth and inaccuracy, by personification of the distinction between reality and what one would perceive to be reality through an adolescent girls mindset, of the understanding of boys and sex, young girls…

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: An Analysis There are two themes that are central to “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates: the theme of independence and the theme of reality vs. fantasy, both of which are relevant in today’s society. Both of these themes are prominent in the interactions between Connie, a precocious fifteen-year-old girl and an ageless “Old Friend”, Arnold Friend, who can be seen as evil, or, the devil. The symbol of music is used as a…

Not all good overcomes evil is one of the many themes in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates. This strange story revolves around Connie, a teenager who disobeys her family at home and makes questionable choices with her friends away from home. One night, Connie walked by a creepy man in a gold jalopy who scared her. As the story progresses, the same man drove to Connie’s house in an attempt to entice her to go for a ride with him and his grunt, Ellie. Connie…

To begin with, symbolism played a huge role in helping Joyce Carol Oates get her purpose of writing “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” out to the reader. The character’s name Connie was shown throughout the passage to represent the word ‘concubine’, which is defined as a mistress. One way of supporting this claim is when Oates announced that “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home…” (pg 1). She could be called a concubine for her…