Literary Analysis Of Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

A search for Independence: A Literary Analysis of Oate’s “Where are you going, Where have you Been?”

Joyce Oates wrote the short story, “Where are you going, Where have you been?” in 1966. The story that was inspired by a serial killer who preyed on young girls, became an instant classic. “Where are you going, Where have you Been?” is about a young girl, Connie, who is very self-centered, vain, and focuses on her looks without much regard for anything else. Connie thinks she can handle the responsibility of adulthood but in the end finds out she is not ready. Unfortunately by then it’s too late. This harsh reality of no longer being able to find safety in the comfort of her youthful innocence leaves her forever changed. The story illustrates

Connie who’s usual self-absorbed and seemingly in control of situations when it comes to boys her own age finds herself struggling for control when Arnold arrives at her door. “Connie stared at him, another wave of dizziness and fear rising in her so that for a moment he wasn't even in focus but was just a blur standing there against his gold car, and she had the idea that he had driven up the driveway all right but had come from nowhere before that and belonged nowhere and that everything about him and even about the music that was so familiar to her was only half real” (Oates 6). Connie begins to realize she’s not ready for the responsibilities of adulthood after all. In fact when she starts to realize the sexual advances from Arnold, she begins to panic. ” she was so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it—the telephone was clammy and very heavy and her fingers groped down to the dial but were too weak to touch it. She began to scream into the phone, into the roaring. She cried out, she cried for her mother…” (Oates 8). As Connie senses she’s leaving her refuge of youthful innocence behind and having a new world opened up to her, she calls out for her mother like a child. Connie’s search for independence by rebelling against her family and constantly isolating herself from them made her a perfect target for Arnold who could sense her vulnerability. Even with having so much conflict between her and her family they represented the only life Connie knows. “She put out her hand against the screen. She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited” (Oates 9). Arnold has wrenched Connie out of her childhood and into the adult world where there is no turning back. Connie’s life has changed forever