Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, is one of Joyce Carol Oates best short stories. Oates shows the reader what it is like to take things for granted and make mistakes through the main character, Connie. Throughout this story, Connie finds her identity and grows as a woman. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Joyce Carol Oates shows us the struggle of a young woman dealing with her family, sexuality, and common mistakes that can be made when growing up. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, starts off with Connie and her mother. Connie is a typical teenage girl, and acts that way towards her family. Connie is always checking out how she looks in mirrors or through other people. She cares a great amount about her appearance and what people think of her. Connie lives with her mother, father, and older sister June. June is the favorite child as she is very successful and helps out the family financially and mentally. June has the exact opposite personality of Connie, making her the favorite of their mother. Connie struggles with getting along with her family, as many young women or tennagers
do. But Connie is grateful for one thing about June. June is allowed to go out with her friends, so Connie is as well.
One night Connie and her friends go to a movie as they often do. Connie is about to eat with her friends when a boy named Eddie comes into the picture. He invites Connie to go out and eat with him. Connie agrees and they leave her friends and start to walk towards the restaurant. On the way, Connie sees a boy with shaggy black hair starring at her. The boy is driving by in a car and has been starring at her for quite some time. He then waves it finger at her and says, “Gonna get you, baby”. Connie doesn’t think much of it and her and Eddie have a very enjoyable night. (Holeman, 2010) Some time passes by in the story, until one Sunday afternoon when the family has a barbeque. Connie decides that she wants to stay home instead of go to the barbeque. She spends the day washing her hair, and letting it dry in the sunlight. Until she hears a call pull up outside. The man in the car come up to the doors and starts talking to her. It doesn’t take long for Connie to realize that it was the man with shaggy black hair she say the night she went out with Eddie. His name is Arnold friend and she asks Connie to get in the car with him. Connie refuses to get in the car and becomes more and more worried as Arnold knows her name and becomes more demanding. He tells her that if she calls the police or doesn’t let him in, then he will do something terrible to her family when they get back. (Dickinson, 2008) Connie then runs to grab the phone and from then on the story is a blurred mix of fantasy and reality. Connie is laying on the floor screaming, unable to call on the phone, while Arnold is stabbing her. Then reality kicks in and Arnold then tells her to put the phone down and come down the door. Her heart begins to beat fast and she begins to feel like she is trapped and can’t breathe. Connie then starts to worry about her family and that fact that she might never see them again. Which is very ironic for many reasons. First is because she decided to stay home instead of go out with her family. Second is because throughout the story, she constantly disagrees and argues with her family, and now her family is all she is thinking and worried about. She then looks out the door and the story states that “there was so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it.” (Oates 321)
The end of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” happened so fast and was sort of a mix of fantasy and reality, but Oates showed us something through that.
If you don’t know where you are going or where you have been, any road will take you there. Connie fought with herself throughout the entire story on her appearance, what her family thought of her, and what others thought of her. She took certain things for granted and made mistakes because she was so young and carefree. At the very end, Connie realizes that she many never see her mother or her family again. At that point we realize the struggles that Connie has been through in trying to grow as a woman. But we also learn that mistakes are going to be made when growing up, it’s how you learn from those mistakes and become better that really
matters.