Joyce Carol Oates

The author of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” both employ dialogue to help readers understand the theme, evil is everywhere. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Joyce Carol Oates deals with the fifteen year-old Connie. Connie is a young girl who enjoys going out with friends and meeting boys. One night out, she glanced upon a guy staring her way, sensing no harm by the impression. A Sunday afternoon, Connie stays home alone while her family attends a…

Connie: The Little Girl Hidden "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates starts with the kind of pressure like any other family goes through when there is a teenager involved. Connie, a 15 year old girl, who is worried of the way she looks even though she knows that she is very pretty. She has long dark blond hair and brown eyes, and she loves to wear shorts with a pull over jersey blouse and flat ballerina slippers with charm bracelets. This story starts with how…

Yalmar Toruno 10/09/14 ENC1102-807078 722 Arnold Friend Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Written by Joyce Carol Oates in 1966, it is a creepy story about a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie. She is good-looking, and is always worried about her appearance. Her mother is always on her case on how conceded she is and that she should be more like her older sister June, but she still thought her mother liked her more because she was prettier. June is twenty-four, and works as a secretary at…

In the story "Where have you been, Where are you going?" by Joyce Carol Oates we are taken back to a time in our lives in which most people can relate to in one sense or another and a theme that is still alive and well today. A constant struggle between equality of male and female and the subjection of the ideas of sexual intimacy is a reality in this story. The story is portrayed through the eyes and mind of a young teenager, Connie, trying to find her place in life. Unfortunately what she…

breaking free of the life she lives by being reckless and not listening to her parents, deciding she can make decisions on her own, and going with a strange man when she knows she shouldn’t. The story “Where are You Going? Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is similar to the movie Finding Faith (2013) in theme, manner, and tone, such as; in each story a young girl sets out for freedom to go against her parents’ wishes after she has just had enough of them telling her what to do, The…

Even though both stories Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Have You Been, Where Are You Going?” and Flannery O’Connor’s “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” have a very different plot, the characters in both stories are common and characterize by good vs. evil. The main characters have the same attitude towards the stories and results in the same conclusion to both stories. Because of the similarities, both stories convey the readers to find themselves lost in world of anxiety, horror, and realistic through…

In the short story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, the plot revolves around a young narcissist named Connie. Connie is a 15 year old normal teenage girl relatively speaking. She has no interest in responsibility and often dreams of the Disney-like life of a beautiful girl being met by an extraordinary man. Connie’s desire to be rebellious, her desire to be better than others, and her desire to be noticed are the focus of this story. Despite the similarity in these…

that people would never be lonely, they would always have a friend. While this reasoning makes sense it does not ring true in: “Solace of Open Spaces” by Gretel Ehrlich, “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by Scott Momaday, “They All Just Went Away” by Joyce Carol Oates, and “A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails” by Donald Hall. Each of these stories has the overlaying theme of space, causing loneliness, which leads to one becoming an introvert. The characters in all of these books either live in the…

Growing up is something we go through from the time we are born to the time we die. We start off being helpless, alone and wondering what our next move will be. We rely so much on our parents to give us guidance, knowing right from wrong and learning how to survive on our own. As time 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…

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…