The Final Answer: The interpretation of Joyce Carol Oats “Where Are You Going, Where You Have You Been?”
Joyce Carol Oats publishes the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” in the late sixties. The story leaves the reader thinking what the final outcome to the plot was. Revealing several explanations all leading to a negative outcome, Joyce leaves the reader pondering what the final outcome to the story is. In my opinion Joyce wrote this story with this purpose to leave the reader himself to answer what happens in the end of the story.
The story revolves around a young girl named Connie. Connie is a fifteen year old girl who considers the world to be a happy place. In this stage, Connie is focused on how she looks; making sure the everyone else knows how pretty she was. Joyce makes the reader aware that the world revolves around Connie. Oats mentions how much Connie felt that the she was basically the main girl by stating, “Connie thought that her mother preferred her to June [Connie’s older sister] just because she was prettier.” 1
As we read into the story, we see Connie as a teenager who lives real life as a fantasy dream. She has two personas, one at home and one when she is out. Her only focus is boys and being in love. She tries to appear older and wiser than what she really is and her head is filled with daydreams and popular music related to romance and love. As Oats would call it “shrieking songs she [Connie] sang along with”. (pg.2) What she is not aware of that her fantasy world is going to be destroyed by one guy who drops Connie from cloud nine all the way down to the center of the world, giving her a true meaning of reality check. When Arnold Friend arrives at Connie’s house, she must confront the realities of adulthood. Giving Connie a confused thought between reality and her fantasy land.
The Essay on Short Story Connor Reader Grandmother
"A Good Man is Hard to Find", written by Flannery O'Connor, resembles an intricate painting, a beautiful picture built by many different parts. These parts work together to complete a perfect mental picture for the reader. Plot, point of view and character aspect of the short story weave together to allow the author a chance to portray the ideas created just for that purpose. The short story ...
As more and more we read, we reach the climax of the story where Arnold is standing outside her house telling Connie that he is her lover and that she must go with him. If you truly analyze this character in the story, at first he seems like an older teenager who fits in with the rest of the younger boys in the restaurant. As the reader, we later come to realize that he is an old creepy man whose intentions are to sabotage the lives of Connie. As so he stated “Gonne get you, baby’’ (pg 2).
When the encounter between Connie and Arnold happen, Connie realizes he is not the young boy she thought of him to be. Oats made Arnold a stalking man who wanted to rape, seduce, kidnap, or even kill Connie.
Towards the end of the story, Connie is found in a situation where she is being forced to go with this guy. Through his wits and remarks, Arnold has Connie cornered to not having any other choice but to go with them. The demonic figure that appears to be Arnold, threatens Connie with her family and acting like no one cares for her he convinces Connie that she is a nobody in this world. The story ends leaving us in doubt what happens in the end. In my opinion, all Arnold was looking for was to rape and kill Connie.
As he referred to her as “My sweet little blue eyed girl” even though she has brown eyes, we realize that Arnold is not interested in her but in taking her childhood away in the form of his persuasion. (pg. 8) So as a result, I finished the end of the story with Connie leaves with Arnold and gets raped. He lets her go and leaves to find another girl to ruin her life. As Oats stated in the story, He was like a wolf “Sniffing as if she [Connie] were a treat he was going to gobble up and it was all a joke.” (pg 4)
The Essay on Connie Arnold Starts Rape
... appearances of these powers come when Arnold first starts talking to Connie. Arnold evidently knows many things about Connie and her friends, but she ... are many different degrees of rape, and that in this story Connie may or may not have been raped. Rape can only be decided on ... of her confrontation with Arnold, but there is a point where she starts to feel uneasy. When Connie realizes that the kid in ...
