The Overcoat 'And Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

Place for the Wicked

The real world chooses to hide the wickedness of mankind, while the world of fiction chooses to highlight it. In the stories “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, especially highlight the time the horrible aspects of man. Each one highlighting the corruption of man in their own unique way. The social hierarchy is a key part to the wickedness of mankind. This is a major part of the “The Overcoat” plot. Before obtaining the new overcoat, the main character Akaky Akakievich, is bullied in his work place for his poorly made overcoat: ”The young clerks laughed at him and made fun of him” (Gogol
“An old man, a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who in spite of his tremendous efforts, couldn’t get up impeded by his enormous wings” (Marquez 289). The Old Man who is depicted in this quote is an angel, who brought to Pelayo and Elisenda to heal their child; in spite of this, Pelayo uses the the Old Man for personal gains by capturing him. “Flesh-and-blood angel...locked him up with the hens in the wire coop...as if he wasn’t supernatural but a circus animal...Pelayo and Elisenda were happy with fatigue, for in less than a week they crammed their rooms with money.” (Marquez 289, 290). The couple abuses the angel even though he is a gift from God. They do this all for personal gain showing yet another aspect of the wickedness of man. It proves mankind is will to abuse one another to gain something they wanted. “Elisenda let out a sigh of relief...she kept watching him until it was no longer possible for her to see him...He was no longer an annoyance in her life.” (Marquez 293). Even after all the happiness that the angel brought the Old Man brought them and suffering they inflicted upon his Elisenda only looked at him a nuisance exiting her
““Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” depicts the way they capture their victims: “ ‘I know your name and all about you, lots of things...I took special interest in you...We ain’t leaving until you come with us...You don’t want them do get hurt do you?’ Arnold Friend went on” (Oates 668-675). The main character Connie, is forced to leave with an older man by the name of Arnold Friend after his many ways of coxing her in. Many readers believe that Arnold’s intentions is to most likely rape or kill Connie with the struggling of her breath as proof: “Her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend were stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness” (Oates 674). Arnold Friend does sadly succeed with whatever his evil intentions were that he was planning with Connie. Thankfully the real world wishes to end this aspect of man by showing these corrupted people and placing them behind bars where they can not harm any