Connie’s vanity causes her make terrible choices about Arnold Friend.
The Trouble of being notice is blaming yourself if what you deserve is horrible things like getting unwanted attention someday you get what coming to you. In Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where You Going, Where have you Been,” one of the protagonist Connie is a fifteen year old girl who wants to look and act like an arrogant child. She isn’t herself. Connie is just a girl who thinks looks matter, without looks she would be the girl she already is, which is nobody. Connie is one of many other girl “Who is insecure of herself and worries in checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right that she fits in with the crowd” (Oates 1).Connie’s mother who seems to know
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When Arnold came to the restaurant for the first time he didn’t know the real Connie. To Arnold was just it is girl who is chiefly considered as a desirable rather than a girl to take seriously. Connie is amazed with by the boy appearance with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy (car) painted gold. Connie has dreamed about the boys she saw ever since she went to the restaurant and she believed she like. This wouldn’t have happened if Connie's aspect wouldn't have captured Arnold eyes. Both of these characters confuse their characteristics with a each other's perspective, love, or attraction. Connie vanity causes attention from Arnold Friend and all that is bad. Arnold Friend is the devil in “Where have you been,” it is supernatural and attraction to Connie vain. Arnold Friend to because her attractiveness she believes that she is is better than everybody else and puts people down like Arnold Friend her vanity causes Connie to think that she is superior than anybody, but is mistaken when Arnold wants …show more content…
One of the worst decision Connie could have ever made was going with Arnold on a ride it, let her vanity get the best of her. There is an exciting, intense climax, which is the most important point in a story. In the end, Connie situation may have caused many problems for her in the long run. Connie source of her problems revolves around her vanity, appearance, and maturity. The conflict in the story it that Connie is scared that Arnold might do something horrible to her or her family if she didn’t go on a ride with him who knows where. Nevertheless, Arnold was madly in love that he would find Connie to the ends of the world just to be with her. Connie should have gone with her family, therefore she could never go on a ride with Connie. Another conflict was that Arnold Friend was mentally abusing her, and said “You're my date. I'm your lover, honey." (Oates PG. 10) An absorbed thing to Connie virtually hinting he was going to rape her. The narrator did a pretty good job the fact that none of this wouldn’t have happened if Connie’s vanity and the troubles of being noticed. Connie’s vanity played a role in how she wants people to think she cared about the
Connie's vain personality is hidden behind her good looks that she uses to receive attention. When Arnold Friend first appears in the story, he catches Connie's eye as she walks by, but after learning more about his motives he appears fake. Joanne Creighton explains that "Connie's encounter with Arnold Friend is... not just one girl's perception of the deception of appearances and the terrible reality of evil, but a particularly vivid instance of a universal experience: the loss of innocence" (Creighton 3). Marilyn Wesley then describes Friend as a transgressive other "...who is defined by a narrative position in contrapuntal relation to domestic norms and standards of communicability within which the text is located" (Wesley 1).
Wickedness and malevolence is afoot in the stories “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates and “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor. The antagonists are both men, Arnold Friend and Manley Pointer, who take advantage of women. However, one of these men is more malicious than the other. This man is Arnold Friend from “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” because his intentions with the young woman, who is a minor, appear to be much more evil and daunting than that of Manley Pointer from “Good Country People”.
She does not get affection from her family, and feels isolated from them. Connie first receives affection from Arnold when he asks her “You wanta come for a ride” (Oates 8). No one has ever offered Connie any affection. Her family looks down on her as the disappointing child and she is just a young girl trying to be loved. Arnold asking her to come for a ride and seeking to spend time with her is the attention she is missing in her daily life.
Connie, the main character, strives to behave like an adult through her attitude, demeanor, and appearance. This mature façade allows her to attract boys, and yet, she is ignorant of repercussions and the reality of the social setting she lives in. Connie is complacent living in a fantasy world, but soon she is ensnared by the conniving antagonist, Arnold Friend, and
Joyce Carol Oates’ short story, “Where are You Going, Where have You Been?” , shows how the devil used his tactics to trap and capture Connie. The devil worked in creating a predisposition in Connie that made her more susceptible to him. He deceived her in the beginning by showing her a false appearance. That false appearance only lasted a short while.
However, this is countered when Connie notes that “he was much older—thirty, maybe more” (315), a fact that frightens her. What Arnold is to Connie is a challenge of her want to be an adult, and a trail of her ability to deal with adult issue. Such as a man who singles her out sexual reason. Her wish to be an adult is something she seeks while passively avoiding it. Her avoidance is marked by day dreams of puppy love romance, like a typical teenager; yet, her attractive flaunt to be mature is presented as if she seeks to be an
In the short story, “where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Arnold Friend tries to get Connie to do bad things to please him, which is revealed through arnold friend him Arnold Friend makes a promise to Connie at the drive-in-dinner In the short story it said “I'm going to get you baby”Oates. This foreshadows what is going to happen later on in the story it foreshadows that arnold will come for Connie and try to get her anyway possible .The
However, this changes when Arnold together with a friend show up at Connie’s home while her parents are away. She realizes there is more to Arnold than meets the eye and that her life and that of her family could be in danger. An article written in an issue of life magazine in 1966
He mysteriously knows where Connie lives and invites himself to drive over to her house. Arnold assumes Connie’s friendship by convincing her that he knows everything and everybody, “I know your name and all about you” (Oates 201) when she never told him her name in the first place. He knew her friends, their names as well as what she did the night before. He also knew exactly where Connie’s family was, at a BBQ at Connie’s aunt Tille’s.
Maria Garcia Professor Galindo English 1302-NC8 6 November 2014 Where Did She Go, Where Was She Taken? “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by author Joyce Carol Oates and published in 1966. This short story is about a fifteen year old girl named Connie who experiments with her sexuality and because of that, she thinks of herself as a mature adult rather than a naïve little girl who still has a lot of growing up to do. She ends up catching the attention of a man by the name of Arnold Friend who is the epitome of creepy. He comes to her home knowing everything there is to know about Connie, and through his fierce manipulation and crafty ways he gets her to come with him, where it can be assumed that she is going to be raped,
In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.
The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates can be interpreted in a multitude of ways due to its ambiguity. A psychological lens, however, provides the most accurate viewpoint for analyzing the story as it clarifies certain obscure scenes and actions of Connie. One psychological issue of Connie that is easily inferred from the beginning of the story is her insecurity about her looks. Connie constantly worries about the way that she looks and takes any opportunity to do so, “craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right” (1).
Reluctantly, her parents allow her to stay home alone. A few hours later, a familiar gold jalopy pulls up to her house. The driver announces to Connie that his name is Arnold Friend. His unusual physical appearance, his tone of voice, and what he may symbolize frighten the Connie.
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is about a teenager named Connie who is trying to come to terms with her transformation from childhood to adulthood. Through this process, Connie attempts to act older than she is an tries to gain the attention of boys. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Oates portrays Connie as obsessed with men to symbolize how one’s obsession and narcissistic attitude can cause danger to seem surreal. In the short story, Carol Oates describes Connie as having two different personalities, one being a narcissistic attitude.
Oates’s biography explained her fiction writing as a mixture violence and sexual obsession. The writing style definitely fits the plot point of this story with both of her literary ingredients being present in not only Arnold Friend but in Connie as well. The Protagonist Connie is presented in a very self-centered way. She is obsessed with her looks and often fantasizes about all the boys she meets.