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Character Analysis Of Connie In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

590 Words3 Pages

In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie met another character named Arnold Friend. Throughout their interactions Connie evolves in the story. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Connie evolves as a character through Connie's relationship with her mother, interactions with Friend, and her emotional and physical status. Despite the way Connie's mother treated her “she knew she was pretty and that was everything” and she tried to keep her head held high (323). Connie's mother looked at her daughter with disgust as she talked down to her about her looks. This was because Connie could not live up to what her sister was. Connie’s family just wants her to be like her sister so much so that Connie was always compared to June; “June did this, June did that” (324). When Connie’s family leaves, she “sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love” in this way she feels as her family leaves her she dreams of what it would feel like to be loved (326). Connie feels this way because she has yet to feel love in such this way leaving her vulnerable. Due to Connie’s home life and her family not seeing her for herself, Connie looks for attention and affection in …show more content…

Her hand seemed to enclose it. She thought for the first time in her life that it was nothing that was hers, that belonged to her, but just a pounding, living thing inside this body that wasn't really hers either” (336). Connie experiences this through her fear of Friend. She becomes fearful of him when she realizes his true intentions. Connie realized that she could not escape and that she “had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it” (337). Throughout her overall interactions with Friends, she evolves emotionally and

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“But now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie.” (Oates ). Also, there is another opportunity for friendship within the family, between Connie and her sister, however, that is lost in their rivalry and hostility. “Her sister was so plain and chunky and steady that Connie had to hear her praised all the time – by her mother and her mother's sisters.” ( ).

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