Analysis Of The Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been'

"Soon as you touch the phone I don't need to keep my promise and can come inside. You won't want that” (Oates 7). This is an excerpt from the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” This story is from Joyce Carol Oates, written about a 15-year-old girl, Connie, and Arnold Friend whom this paper is about. From what the reader can determine from the text, Arnold Friend is a man that has been stalking Connie, for a while now.

Slowly as she begins to notice things about Friend that aren’t right, Connie starts to see more adult like. She starts to notice that he’s not a teenager, but a lot older, and that he is not a friend but far more evil. When Arnold says, “I’m your lover honey…you don’t know what this is, but you will” (Oates 348), Connie falls into shock and starts panics. She tries to break from him, but his slick talk prevents her from doing so. Forcing Connie to come out, Connie is fenced in Arnolds trap.

Arnold knows that she will be an easy target to corrupt and to pass his evil agenda along to. When Arnold shows up to her house, she fixes her hair; she’s on a date with the devil. Connie can’t help but to succumb to his desires due to her lack of support from her family; her hunger for being needed; and her lust for

In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oats the overall theme is maturing as a woman. With this theme comes different experiences that main character Connie has experienced. Connie is a fifteen year old girl who is maturing and trying to step into womanhood as a teenager. Connies confidence is always debunked by her mother, she always scorns Connie insisting that she stops always looking at herself and being overly confident in herself. While Connie sneaks a date an older guy hits on her, this older man named Arnold Friend comes to Connie's home and insists that Connie comes outside for a ride or her family will get hurt.

Arnold Friend was there to take Connie away; away from her childhood and home, which never quite felt like home until her fantasy world deteriorated and reality set it. The next moment is pivotal, this is when Connie forgets her hedonism and becomes something of much more substance. Before Connie studies Arnold Friend’s abnormal personality and erratic behavior she is fascinated by him and even worries that she is ill prepared for this

However, this is countered when Connie notes that “he was much older—thirty, maybe more” (315), a fact that frightens her. What Arnold is to Connie is a challenge of her want to be an adult, and a trail of her ability to deal with adult issue. Such as a man who singles her out sexual reason. Her wish to be an adult is something she seeks while passively avoiding it. Her avoidance is marked by day dreams of puppy love romance, like a typical teenager; yet, her attractive flaunt to be mature is presented as if she seeks to be an

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by the author Joyce Carol Oates in 1966. Oates describes her idea for the story after briefly reading an article about the real-life murderer, Charles Schmid, who lured and murdered three teenage girls (Kirszner & Mandell 523). She uses this idea to create the character, Arnold Friend, and his victim, Connie. Connie is a typical teenage girl portrayed as naïve and self-centered. The short story appears realistic, given that the conflict in the story is based off of real events.

He mysteriously knows where Connie lives and invites himself to drive over to her house. Arnold assumes Connie’s friendship by convincing her that he knows everything and everybody, “I know your name and all about you” (Oates 201) when she never told him her name in the first place. He knew her friends, their names as well as what she did the night before. He also knew exactly where Connie’s family was, at a BBQ at Connie’s aunt Tille’s.

In the beginning, he planned on visiting Connie when he knew that she was going to be alone. He introduces himself as Arnold Friend stating to Connie that he will become “your friend” (Oates 203). Throughout the conversation, Arnold would strategically announce that he knew where her parents and sister were and “how long they’re going to be gone” (Oates 204). However, he will intertwine threats such as “ But if you don’t come out we’re gonna wait till your people come home and then they’re all going to get it”, placing Connie in a very stressful situation (Oates 208).

While these are all MOSTLY harmless, Arnold gets infuriated towards the end of the story when Connie refuses to leave her house and grasps her arm in hopes that he can force her into his car. While grabbing her arm he says to her, “This place you’re at now, it isn’t your real home, you know that don’t you?” (95). This clearly shows Arnold violating Connie’s person as well as showing Arnolds eagerness to use physical methods to pursue the

In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.

Connie does this because she needs to be reassured that she is in fact pretty. On top of this, Connie acknowledges that her beauty is “everything”(1). This statement implies that if perhaps Connie was not beautiful, she would have nothing. Furthermore, when Arnold Friend pulls up at Connie’s house, her heart begins to pound not because there is a stranger at her door, but because she is “wondering how bad she looked”(2). Even when faced with possible danger,

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is about a teenager named Connie who is trying to come to terms with her transformation from childhood to adulthood. Through this process, Connie attempts to act older than she is an tries to gain the attention of boys. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Oates portrays Connie as obsessed with men to symbolize how one’s obsession and narcissistic attitude can cause danger to seem surreal. In the short story, Carol Oates describes Connie as having two different personalities, one being a narcissistic attitude.

Teenage girl’s desires to be beautiful and desired, feminism, and adolescent sexuality are a few of the issues Connie, along with others, faced during this time period (and some can argue today). Connie was responsible for her actions (obviously) but it only partially to blame for what happened to her. If she had never left her friend to go sit in some random guy’s car, maybe Arnold Friend would’ve never seen her, or had taken a liking to her. I’m not stating that what happened with Arnold Friend was her fault, he’s the pedophile that should’ve known better and not threatened her, but it could have been prevented if she had never ditched her

Connie: The Victim To A Demon The “heroine” of the short story Where Are You Going Where Have You Been written by Joyce Carol Oates has been interpreted in many different ways by many different authors across the globe. They all have their own opinions on why Connie had left her home and walked into the arms of Arnold Friend. Larry Rain makes the argument that Connie was a noble heroine that “chooses the side with the devil [to save her family]” (Rain Gale).