Folktales In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, a boastful teenager lacks the knowledge of who a lady is. The knowledge Connie receives, brought upon by Arnold Friend, on that peculiar July afternoon must seem bittersweet. Connie is a young teenage girl hoping to find out who she is as a woman. She spends an obsessive amount of time observing herself in the mirror. Little does she know, the mirror won’t give Connie the key to becoming a lady.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates is a story about fifteen year old Connie who’s world is changed after an encounter with a stranger. Connie’s paradigm is transformed during and after this event. At the beginning of the story, Connie’s worldview is one of vanity, which in turn leads to control. She is only focused on how she looks and how those around her appear as well.

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have you Been?”, Connie, is fifteen years old and is just like any other teenage girl. She daydreams, loves music, and likes to flirt. She is one of the main characters and has a personality that sets her apart from others in the story. In her mind she is the center of everything and she the only one that understands anything going on, “Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything. ”(Oates 233)

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.

Innocence is something that all people are born with. How and where we are raised directly connects to how long we will keep that innocence. In a small town in Sierra Leone a 10 year old boy lives a life that is similar to most children throughout the world. Beah listens to music, plays with his friends, and enjoy to cause trouble. As result of the war he is forced to wonder from village to village in search of food, water, and hopefully his family.

In Oates’ story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” , the story mainly focuses on the conflict and main plot of Smooth Talk. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” explains Connie’s relationship to her family members, basically describing that she’s a basic adolescent that desires to be treated like an adult but lacks the maturity and doesn’t want the responsibilities, still claiming her freedom (or at least attempting to). One Sunday her family leaves to a barbeque Connie refused to go to and a familiar stranger drives up to her house.

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.

Connie: The Victim To A Demon The “heroine” of the short story Where Are You Going Where Have You Been written by Joyce Carol Oates has been interpreted in many different ways by many different authors across the globe. They all have their own opinions on why Connie had left her home and walked into the arms of Arnold Friend. Larry Rain makes the argument that Connie was a noble heroine that “chooses the side with the devil [to save her family]” (Rain Gale).

Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb.2018 www.encyclopedia.com. Oates Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Arguing about Literature.

These three characters show you that losing your innocence can be pretty hard living in this unfair world. For Boo,Jem or Scout losing their innocence can be a major impact in your life because the loss of innocence also means growing up or in Boos case realizing the truth. But losing your innocence isn’t as easy anymore, but this novel teaches the importance and life changes people go through losing their

Innocence is the idea of being blameless and free from any wrongs because one devoid in making any decisions. However, at times those who are innocent cause frenzy and disruptions in a family. Alden Nowlan’s, The Fall of a City, portrays how Teddy, an eleven year old boy, full of imagination in his own little world is ridiculed by his aunt and uncle whom believe that he is up to something in the attic. Subsequently, it is accentuated that his imagination blinds him from realizing the reality that his imaginations are illusions. Throughout this short story, Nowlan demonstrates how naivety and innocence blinds one from realizing the truth by juxtaposing the two settings and emphasizing on the conflicts.

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.

In literature, loss of innocence refers to an adolescent character who experiences an event that leads to a greater awareness of pain and suffering which profoundly reshapes their life. The loss of a loved one at a young age can cause disruption and irreparable damage to the innocent mind. After a tragedy of losing a loved one, the naïve mind is ill-equipped to deal with the loss, which can cause it to spiral out of control. Esther and Holden are two fictional characters who are both unfortunate enough to experience this trauma during their adolescence and both suffer the negative mental consequences. Throughout The Bell Jar and The Catcher in the Rye, Plath and Salinger use their protagonists’ to demonstrate the motif of loss of innocence, caused by tragic events in their youth, to teach the reader that buried childhood trauma can have a negative impact on mental health.

Have you ever wondered what was different and similar between those silly and unrealistic fairy tales you were told as a kid? Red Riding Hood was an interesting one about a girl that mistakes a wolf for her granny and, and almost gets eaten. Everyone knows the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Basically, there was a girl that stumbled across a house in the woods and thinks, “It is totally not weird if I walk into someone’s home and use their things.” They catch her and she runs away.

Innocence is a word used to describe someone 's purity. Children are prime examples of innocence, as they don’t have judgments and don’t understand mature topics. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader can interpret innocence as the growing up of the children. Specifically, Jem Finch showed a loss of innocence as he grew up. He showed his loss of innocence by not playing games, his more mature use of words and body language, and his different view of the world around him.