Connie In Joyce Carol Oates's The Metamorphosis

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).

The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” was written by Joyce Carol Oates, published in 1966. In this short story, we are introduced to a 15 year old girl Connie. She is described to be very conceited, and she is always obsessing over her physical appearance. Her family life is perceived as very dysfunctional. Her mother is always comparing her to her older sister June, and Connie’s father is pretty much absent from her life.

“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.

In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Connie is a fifteen-year-old girl, who does not necessarily get along with her family. During the week, she often times goes to a shopping plaza with some of her friends. However, they sneak across the highway to go to a popular diner where the older crowd hangs out at. At home, Connie is often times arguing with her family. One day her family is invited to her aunt's barbecue but Connie refuses to go.

That also made her become more vulnerable to the real dangers and the evilness that exists in the world. That danger was represented by an old man who pretends to be an eighteen year old boy that seduced and kidnaped Connie. The end of the story Joyce Carol Oates leaves it open to the readers, because that way it makes the reader think of what might have happened, whether she got raped or whether she is killed, after the main character leaves with the antagonist of the story. Oates shows that ignorance, narcissism and the lack of

BEST PARAGRAPH At the beginning of Oates story, Connie is viewed as a young girl with no cares in the world except for the idea of having physical beauty. Joyce Carol Oates wrote that Connie would “look right through her mother” because “she knew she was pretty and that was everything” (323). By including this, Connie is seen as a self-centered girl who only wants people to speak to her if she will make sure they drown her in compliments. She refuses to retaliate to her mother because her mother just doesn’t understand the “hardships” she has to go through to look attractive.

To begin with, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the protagonist Connie, is a young pretty girl who is seen as gentle and innocent. She lives a neglected life with her mother always nagging, saying “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed--- what the hell stinks?

Like many teenagers in the era Connie feels as though she only receives superficial love from her family

Connie has been described as having a flirtatious personality and a tendency to go off with boys, and is mostly concerned with her looks, as opposed to her sister June who has a job, a savings and helps around the house. This is seen as a fault of Connie, and her vanity in the story leads to her demise. When we first meet Friend, Connie has been fussing with her hair for hours brushing it to perfection and allowing it to air dry. This display of self-care is a source of pride and vanity for Connie. Martha E. Widmayer pointed out a quote from Christa Grossinger in “Death and the Maiden in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going?

Connie is a fifteen-year-old who is trying to make the best of her life by seeking attention from others. Having the attention, she wants makes her feel superior, and make her feel like no one can tear down her ego. The only one trying to tear down her ego is her mother who wants her to be like her older sister June who is the opposite of Connie. She is mature and even helps the family out. For Connie to be taught a lesson of her conceded qualities, she encounters meet Arnold.

“She was fifteen and she had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates, 259). Connie didn’t like being compared to her sister June by her mother and felt as if her mother only thought that she sat around all day daydreaming about boys. The only good thing that June did in Connie’s eyes was go out with her friends, which justified Connie being able to go out with hers. Connie would lie about going to the movie with her friend and they would end up going to hang out with older boys at restaurants and in allies until her friends dad would pick them up. One night Connie spent 3 hours with a boy she had met eating at a restaurant and then down an alley to hang out with

She managed to grasp attention; but is this the kind of attention she wanted? Maybe she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this essay, I am going to explain why Connie looking for attention in all the wrong places landed her in such a sticky situation. There’s no doubt that Connie is a very beautiful individual, although it is unseen it is well defined by Oates in her short story. Connie is self-engulfed and loves the way she looks.

Again, the reader sees traditional values placed against changing times, reinforcing Connie’s internal struggle to define

In the coming of age story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses symbolism, conflict, and the third person to foreshadow fifteen-year-old Connie’s unfortunate, yet untimely fate. While one may think that the conflict stems from Connie’s promiscuity, it is clear to see her promiscuity is only a result to a much bigger conflict, her mother’s constant nagging and disapproval, alongside the lack of attention from her father. the author paints a vivid picture of what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl such as Connie goes elsewhere to find to find the love, attention, and approval that she lacks at home. All which is vital for her growth and wellbeing as a person.

Franz Kafka is a German novelist who wrote “The Metamorphosis.” In the story, he uses a third person point of view narrative. The novel uses absurdum, which exaggerates and dramatize the absurdity of modern life. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, struggles with an external factor of transforming into an insect like creature. The transformation was not under his control and now struggles with a new identity.