Joyce Carol Oate's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

“...putting out a hand, which he each time pressed, without very much kindness, and painfully pressed to one of the breast button of his uniform.” ( Bowen 1408). Her remembrance of these events and the description that we’re given coupled with the supernatural prescience of the letter and the Taxicab, leads us to see this lover as not only a man of bad character, but as a literal demon. This is only backed up by the ballad, where the man in the poem also acted as a villain and was later revealed to be a demon himself. This is told on lines 39 and 40, “When dismal grew his countenance / and drumlie grew his ee” (Demon lines 39 &40) as explanation of his poor will, and a description of his intimidating looks paralleled in Bowen’s story.

As Jen Cadwallader expresses in her Essay “Plain Jane and the Limits of Female Beauty”: “the homage paid to her appearance is a detriment to the development of her [Georgiana’s] character.” (Cadwallader 239). Thanks to her beauty, others seem to ignore or play down the mistakes Georgiana makes in her life, because of that she develops into “shallow” and “self-centred”

One such moment of self-critizing comes later in the novel, though Doris does not realize it: ". . . a woman should never wear artificial silk when she 's with a man. It wrinkles too quickly, and what are you going to look like after seven real kisses" (94)? Much like artificial silk, Doris

In the short story titled “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Joyce Carol Oates introduces us to Connie, a narcissistic, rebellious, and naïve fifteen-year-old girl coming into a world of sexuality and adulthood she thinks she’s ready for. Unknown by her parents, she regularly spends the evenings exploring her individuality and freedom by flirting with teenage boys at her local diner. One evening, she catches the attention of a creepy and strange boy named Arnold Friend, who later shows up at her house unannounced with the intention to take her away. Needless to say, any person reading this will not be prepared to witness the ending of the story, or of a young woman’s loss of innocence and life. Although “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” has been interpreted many ways by scholars and writers alike, I believe the interpretation that best fits this narrative is Connie’s search for independence that eventually leads to a brutal outcome.

In Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Connie, a teenage girl who acts older than she actually is, argues with her family about how she dresses and acts. While sneaking out with friends one night, Connie encounters an older man named Arnold Friend who is convinced that he is her lover. One day while her family is not home, Connie is confronted by Arnold, asking and threatening her to come with him. The story ends with her going away with this strange man who showed up at her door, leaving the reader to ponder what will become of Connie.

This decision made it seem like women are heartless and cruel. However, most critics use the Wife of Bath Tale to decide whether or not Chaucer treatment of women was fair. Many believe that Chaucer treated women fairly in his books for the time period based on the Wife of Bath Tale. One writer, Priscilla Martin believes he is even supported of women and has model the Wife of Bath after himself, “The Wife of Bath shares [Chaucer’s] delight in fictional and narrative diversity.

HEDDA. Exactly the girl with the irritating hair that she was always showing off. An old flame of yours I’ve been told. (Act-I, 24) Hedda sees Mrs. Elvsted’s hair as foolish and threatening because it represents both her femininity and her power over Lovborg, the only man that Hedda may have had feelings for. When Hedda finally enters the play, her lack of femininity is emphasized: her eyes which looks like steel-grey; cold, clear and calm are the antithesis of a feminine or womanly woman, such as Mrs. Elvsted’s for instance, whose eyes are "light blue, large, round and slightly prominent, with a startled, questioning expression" and hair is "remarkably fair, almost silver-gilt, and exceptionally thick and wavy" (Act-I, 10).

All of the cosmetics applied to her skin and hair gives Mildred the metaphorical appearance of a brittle and pale woman near death; furthermore, this foreshadows

Both the audience and Friar Lawrence are surprised by this, as only twenty four hours earlier Romeo was in love with Rosaline and depressed that she did not love him back. According to the TED Talk: “Insight into the Teenage Brain,” the area of the brain that anticipates major consequences is still developing in teenagers (Galvan). Therefore, Romeo and Juliet seem to rush into marriage because of their inability to think about any possible negative outcomes. Their underdeveloped prefrontal cortex may cause them to focus more on the

Maupassant uses Madame Loisel, the protagonist, to show irony in almost all it’s forms. Maupassant first shows irony thourgh Mathilde’s life,“The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born... into a family of clerks… Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries. ”(Maupassant, 1) Mathilde feels like she deserves all the luxuries in life, because of the sole fact that she is pretty, she had no money nor rank; she still believed that she should be wed to rich men, this is an example of situational irony.

She herself doesn’t realize it until it’s too late. This character is very naïve and it is going to get the best of her. To start Oates guides the reader to empathize with Connie by showing us how her mother speaks to her in a way that is emotional abuse. For instance, in the book it states “her mother who noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn’t much reason any longer to look at her own face scolded Connie about it” “stop gawking yourself who are you?”

Fresh Bait is a short story based on a murder mystery of a hitchhiker’s dead sister. Although the hitchhiker was not mentioned to be a boy or girl but based on the way they act such as the hitchhiker being scared. For example when the hitchhiker stated “I closed my eyes and tried to breathe deeply, get control” – Page 24 (Clark, 2007)I believe the hitchhiker was a girl considering if the hitchhiker was a boy then they would have acted a lot tougher as a stereotypical male. Sherryl Clark was first born in New Zealand, 1956. She first started writing for fun.

She had “roughed lips” and was “heavily made up” this means that she cares about her appearance and wants to look attractive in front of others. In that era women were looked down upon by men because of their sense of fashion as they were viewed as objects belonging to the men and Steinbeck demonstrates this in the way the characters in Of Mice and Men react to her appearance. He also makes this obvious to the reader when Curley’s wife finds out that Curley was in the house and she wasn’t. After using the excuse of “lookin’ for Curley” when she goes to the bunk-house to flirt with the new guys (Lennie and George) and when Slim tells her that he seen him going in her house “she was suddenly apprehensive” giving the impression that Curley will be mad if she is not home when he comes in as in the 1930s women were expected to do nothing apart from the jobs given to them from men. They were not allowed to go out and socialize unless told to do so (especially not socializing with other men).

In one moment it’s ripped away from them: the only thing keeping them young; the only thing keeping them shielded from the world. It’s the mother watching her fatherless daughter cry over his coffin. It is the boy being slapped by his loving father for the first time. I That thing is known as “loss of innocence”, but is it really a loss? All one loses is their naivety and artlessness.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Essay Since it’s publication in 1966, Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the character Arnold Friend has caught the attention of many critics and readers. Connie is a fifteen year old girl who has an encounter with Friend while she is home alone one summer afternoon.