Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Theme Analysis
Death is something humans all naturally fear, but what about when it comes to death of a phase in your life?Through the themes of duality and reality vs. fantasy, Oats takes us on a journey through Connie's transformation. Imagery and symbols throughout the story strengthen the main themes to show the contrast of Connie's fantasies and reality. “Where are you going, where have you been.”, leaves us with the question can we handle such a change?
Good and evil, yin and yang, the idea of everything and everyone having two opposite sides has been talked about by humans for centuries and that's just what Oats is commenting on throughout the story starting with the main character Connie. An average teenage girl living in a limbo of two worlds …show more content…
At this point her descriptions of Arnold make it seem like he isn't a real human being, “ his whole face was a mask”(Oates 320). Reality hitting her makes the world around her an unknown place , she doesn't even recognize her kitchen where she grew up. There is no escaping the change Arnold symbolizes for Connie, “ The place where you came from ain't there no more, and where you had in mind to go is canceled out”(Oates 325).Connie can't go back to her past self and she can't live in the world of her daydreams. Connie is given the “choice”, to go with Arnold Friend or stay and have her family hurt, but she really has no choice but to accept the change that has come for her. “ She watched herself push the door open slowly as if she were back somewhere safe somewhere in the other doorway”(Oates 326), Connie is leaving the girl she is at home behind. When she steps out her door it's not her street she sees it’s, “ vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him- so much land that Connie had not seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it”(Oates 326).
People fear death because they don't know what lies on the other side, Connie feared change for the same reason. The absolutely terrifying and almost mythical character of Arnold Friend illustrates the fear of change in human nature. Yet change and the duality of man kind cannot be escaped, and at some point we all must step out of the safety of our front door and enter the
Good and evil, yin and yang, the idea of everything and everyone having two opposite sides has been talked about by humans for centuries and that's just what Oats is commenting on throughout the story starting with the main character Connie. An average teenage girl living in a limbo of two worlds …show more content…
At this point her descriptions of Arnold make it seem like he isn't a real human being, “ his whole face was a mask”(Oates 320). Reality hitting her makes the world around her an unknown place , she doesn't even recognize her kitchen where she grew up. There is no escaping the change Arnold symbolizes for Connie, “ The place where you came from ain't there no more, and where you had in mind to go is canceled out”(Oates 325).Connie can't go back to her past self and she can't live in the world of her daydreams. Connie is given the “choice”, to go with Arnold Friend or stay and have her family hurt, but she really has no choice but to accept the change that has come for her. “ She watched herself push the door open slowly as if she were back somewhere safe somewhere in the other doorway”(Oates 326), Connie is leaving the girl she is at home behind. When she steps out her door it's not her street she sees it’s, “ vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him- so much land that Connie had not seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it”(Oates 326).
People fear death because they don't know what lies on the other side, Connie feared change for the same reason. The absolutely terrifying and almost mythical character of Arnold Friend illustrates the fear of change in human nature. Yet change and the duality of man kind cannot be escaped, and at some point we all must step out of the safety of our front door and enter the