Oates acclaimed short story “Where Are You Going‚ Where Have You Been?”‚ a 15-year-old girl named Connie‚ with ever growing feelings of attraction toward the opposite sex‚ has a vexing encounter with a middle-aged man who goes by the name Arnold Friend. You can’t talk about Arnold Friend‚ his train of thought‚ and intentions without talking about and understanding Connie’s character. In the story‚ Connie is vain‚ self-centered‚ and fabricates the truth of her whereabouts to her parents. She and her
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story‚ Oates writes about Connie who is a fifteen-year-old girl who‚ like most‚ notices her good looks in the mirror. Her mother has never approved of her and her actions and compares her to Connie’s older sister‚ June‚ who is twenty-four. June lives at home and works at Connie’s high school as a secretary (Oates‚ 1). Connie and her friends enjoy going to the movies‚ at least that is what she tells her father. They really go to a restaurant across the street to meet boys. Connie met a guy‚ Eddie‚ and
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represents Satan in the story. Indeed‚ Arnold Friend is an allegorical devil figure for the main reason that he tempts Connie‚ the protagonist‚ into riding off with him in his car. Oates characterizes Arnold Friend at first glance as "a boy with shaggy‚ black hair‚ in a convertible jalopy painted gold"(581). She lets the reader know that Arnold is not a teenager when Connie begins to notice the features such as the painted eyelashes‚ his shaggy hair which looked like a wig‚ and his stuffed boots;
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beginning of the story to the end where Connie loses self-control and power. From the first paragraph of the story we learn that Connie is a young fifteen year old who longs for attention and acceptance. I was able to relate to the story better when I paused and remembered what it was like to be fifteen. What things were important to me back then? How others viewed me and how well I fit in was where most of my effort went. Those were also important for Connie. The first paragraph also says‚ “she knew
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described as a “…pilgrimage through the wilderness…” (Woolson 1). The diction is very specific to suggest the importance and possibly the spiritual nature of the trip as something that would cause a perspective alternation to the world around Javris. Connie‚ in “Where are you Going‚ Where Have You Been?” encounters the transition in a much different and darker way. She is brought to a very direct confrontation between childhood and adulthood by Arnold Friend‚ who may be an actual person‚ but better serves
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In the short story “Where are you going and Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates one of the main things that readers find is the suspicion surrounding the character Arnold Friend. Supporting this is Friend’s words which are so impactful on Connie‚ and why she didn’t just pick up the phone and call nine-one-one to end the whole conflict in the first place. Much of the research I found was based off this question pointing out how a person would react to this scenario. From this information I
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In The White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett and Where Are You Going‚ Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates‚ Sylvia and Connie offer two different perspectives on childhood innocence. Sylvia protects her innocence by staying true to herself and the natural world around her‚ while Connie’s is taken advantage of by a mysterious and cunning man‚ leading to her loss of innocence. Both of these stories show how fragile innocence can be as young girls face the challenges of manipulation. Both characters
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Connie’s “two-sided” nature is apparent throughout the story‚ but the origin of that nature is less clear. Connie is this seemingly innocent pretty girl from a mundane family‚ bored with her home life. She often goes to town with her friends‚ where she reveals herself to be this haughty‚ almost cocky teen. Connie’s “two-sided” nature stems from what exactly? Who is she expected to be in the home? The story holds evidence that she is pressured to be more like her sister‚ June. Oates states‚ “If June’s
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perception of self drastically changes within minutes because of a brutal reality breaking into her life and destroying it. Connie is a protagonist of the story. She is a fifteen year-old self-centered teenager‚ who “knew she was pretty‚ and that was everything” (626). Not showing a deep personality‚ she concludes that her mother is “simple” and fools her with a little remorse (627). Connie considers her twenty-four year old sister “plain and chunky” ‚ “poor old June” (628); and draws a “thick line“ between
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The number sixty-nine has been deemed as a sexual number‚ which correlates with Arnolds sexual demeanor towards Connie (Hurley 63). At the end of the story‚ it is to be suspected that Arnold takes Connie and rapes her‚ so I can see how Hurley believes that the numbers added up can be correlated to that ending (Oates 5). Another conclusion that can be made is that the numbers are derived from chapters of Judges
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