Where Are You Going, Whre Have You Been?
True Meaning “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home”(1369), this character, Connie, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, is depicted as a self-centered, condescending, insecure fifteen year old girl growing into a woman. Connie comes off as a troubled young girl who consistently uses her sexuality for attention but at the same time is afraid of intimacy. This is said be due to her fractured relationships with her family; her frequent excursions with older boys that appeared to not have any interest after the first encounter with them. The impatience she had for adulthood along with her bad decision making causes Connie to face “an old fiend”. What Connie fails to see is that she is all around evil and doesn’t even know it until the signs are staring her in the face.
There were several clues in this story that portrayed evil in its own sense. Throughout the story Connie’s every waking moment was surrounded by music, mainly rock and roll. Oates was influenced to write this story by a Bob Dylan song “It’s all over now, baby blue” (1367). Bob Dylan was a rock and roll star who used music to express young love, the stresses of adolescence and automobiles, all of which American teenagers during that time were focusing on. Rock and roll was popular back in the 60’s and the majority of teenagers were listening to the “music that made everything so good” (1369). My mom had told me that back in those times, parents disliked their children listening to rock and roll because of the hidden “satanic” messages that apparently could be heard if you played the record backwards. But what teenager listens to their parents at such an influencing age?
Connie stumbles upon evil when she had gone out with her friend to the drive-in restaurant. Oates wrote how Connie met up with Eddie at the restaurant and spent hours with this young boy doing things she had no business doing. While she
There were several clues in this story that portrayed evil in its own sense. Throughout the story Connie’s every waking moment was surrounded by music, mainly rock and roll. Oates was influenced to write this story by a Bob Dylan song “It’s all over now, baby blue” (1367). Bob Dylan was a rock and roll star who used music to express young love, the stresses of adolescence and automobiles, all of which American teenagers during that time were focusing on. Rock and roll was popular back in the 60’s and the majority of teenagers were listening to the “music that made everything so good” (1369). My mom had told me that back in those times, parents disliked their children listening to rock and roll because of the hidden “satanic” messages that apparently could be heard if you played the record backwards. But what teenager listens to their parents at such an influencing age?
Connie stumbles upon evil when she had gone out with her friend to the drive-in restaurant. Oates wrote how Connie met up with Eddie at the restaurant and spent hours with this young boy doing things she had no business doing. While she
Cited: Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers, Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 1367-1380. Print