Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis

“[Connie] had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right.” (1) In the story “Where are you going, where have you been?” the author Joyce Carol Oates, deliberately shows us the level of innocence of the protagonist Connie, as well as the similar features an inexperienced young girl who lived in 1966 compares to those of a young girl who is raised in our era. Young teenage girls in 1966 are no different than those now in 2018, as one day I too was a teenage girl myself, who cared a lot about how would see me. In the story Connie was described to be prepotent when she talked about her family. She described June, her sister, as a nerd who by the
Arnold Friend who was introduced at the middle of the story as an insignificant character, turned out to be one of the most hated and feared character in the story. “Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed.” (46) This psychopathic man’s obsession to having Connie all for his own was extremely unprovoked. Connie’s rebellious behavior gave him no reason to approach Connie in such way. When arnold friend appeared at her house while her family was out for a barbeque, Connie seemed delighted and perhaps flirty because she knew he was someone she had seen previously, it impressed her to know she had grabbed someone’s attention to look for her and the home she lived
Our brains have been trained to an emergency of this matter, “don't open the doors to strangers, call 9-1-1. Don't leave your child unattended.” and for this reason there has been many incidents that have been avoided. I know that if this would have been my case, my mother would have returned to pick me up to leave with her for the barbeque, as my mother she would know that deep down that’s what I wanted. The evolution to scenarios like this might continue, but not much with strangers, but with people who you surround yourself with. The way Connie reacted to this unfortunate scenario would have been the same way I would have reacted, for the simple reason of trying to protect my family. Arnold Friend had no reason whatsoever to manipulate her as his puppet, but she had no choice than to leave with him since he correlated her to the extreme of not knowing what to do with her own life. Although Connie was always portrayed as a strong, rebellious, and careless young girl, Connie had a heart, she cared and a whole lot, but she didn’t deserve to leave with someone who had no sense of his acts despite her rudeness