Connie's Stereotypes

Throughout the entire story Connie had knack for quarreling with her mother. Connie's actions revealed that she has a vain personality and prefers the carnal pleasures of life. Shortly after Connie's family had left for their Sunday barbeque at Aunt Tillies, Arnold Friend arrived to take her out for a ride. Connie refused the offer from the shaggy haired boy in the shiny gold-plated car, which seemed conflicting to her flirtatious personality. This is where the reader can see Connie's dynamic character begin to be revealed.

In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” the short story by Joyce Carol Oates, the setting takes place in the suburbs in the 1960’s. During the time period when the story was written, the world was perceived as being more innocent and nobody was as aware of the evil that surrounded them. In the short story, the main character, Connie, spends her summer admiring herself, going out with her friends, and acting way older than her age when she isn’t home. When she comes face to face with her mysterious follower, Arnold Friend, she soon realizes that her way of acting has landed herself into a troublesome situation. The short story is important to read because it shows that even though times have changed, teenagers now still act the way Connie does in the story. Teenagers still sneak around, do things they aren’t supposed to, and have a different personality at home than they do in public.

This surfaces in Connie, the main character of the story, who does

The cliffhangers give the reader an opportunity to look back at important details in the story that could’ve revealed Connie’s fate earlier on, but instead, the reader could just now be realizing it. This conclusion allows the reader to realize and connect previous details into new possibilities, making this conclusion effective. A reader that is left wondering what could happen with guidelines from

“Where are you going Where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates, tells us about one innocent girl in search of independence, drawn in by a mysterious guy named Arnold Friend who contrasts with Satan. The author uses several accounts of imagery that relate to the theme in the story, Fantasy and Reality. In reality Connie is a 15 year old girl, who lives with her mother, father and sister June. She occasionally sneaks out with her friends. Now Connie fantasies about truly being a woman.

Reality is revealed when Connie allows the veil of her naïveté to be lifted and the identity of her visitors becomes visible. Connie recognizes something strange and says, “‘Hey, how old are you?’ His smile faded. She could see that he wasn’t a kid, he was much older – thirty, maybe more.” (18).

The beginning of the short story enlightens the reader into the relationship that Connie has with her mother. Connie’s mother does not agree with her admiration for herself. This is due to Connie’s mother’s own insecurities. Oates writes, “Her mother had been pretty once too, if you could believe those old snapshots in the album, but now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie” (Oates 3043). Connie was aware that her mother was jealous of the way she looked and envied her young adolescence. Her mother was nagging her daily and constantly comparing her to her sister. The constant comparison and nagging left Connie to deal with internally judging herself. Oates expresses Connie’s strong unhappiness with her mother by stating “…but around his bent head Connie’s mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over” (3043). Connie’s frustration with her mother lies deep within her internal judgments. She repeatedly obsesses over her mother’s words and desires attention from older males. Even though she does not feel as if she fits in with her sister June, there are some characteristics that she likes about her sister. One of these characteristics is that June is older. Since June is older, Connie is allowed to go out when her sister does which allows her to embrace her rebellious adolescence. She wishes she was older and battles with her internal misconception of her age. In the story, Connie is at an age where she is experimenting with her surroundings. Young girls are regularly comparing themselves to their friends and their elders. The obsession of comparison leaves Connie continuously striving to be better and to increase her attractiveness. Her misconceptions suggest to her that she needs to be more sexual. Her varying internal conflicts leave her with a void that she tries to fill otherwise.

In her sorrow for the behavior of her daughter Connie, the mother often expresses a bit more appreciation and consideration for the older sister June. She declares somewhere in the story, ‘’Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed-what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using that junk’’ (Henderson ). It is well-known that anything in excess is harmful, but Connie does not seem to have been aware of this. Connie’s behavior, far away from doing good to her, exposes her to her sexual predator as an easy prey.

At the beginning of the story, readers will notice the roles her parents fall into. Her dad is absent from her life and her mom prefers Connie’s college-aged sister June. Her mom picks at her, making statements like, “‘Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?’

They have no particular interest, and are mostly disconnected from their family, in anything that has to do with outside of their social lives. Oates does a fairly great job in portraying the typical adolescent female through the main character, Connie. Connie is described as a teenager with a split personality; “everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates

The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is essentially about a young woman’s strive for independence, which eventually leads to conflict. Oates portrays a social issue that relates to today’s society by using symbolism and characterization. She takes you on a journey throughout a teenagers life, tells about her thoughts and feelings while also relating to naïve girls today. Connie is a symbol of young girls who try to rush and grow up too fast. The ones who want to be popular with all the boys.

Joyce Carol Oates' “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” (hereafter referred to as “Where”) is a frightening story about young Connie who believes and acts mature but is confronted with the things she had been chasing and is terrified of that reality. There are several elements, including metaphors, allegories, implications, etc., of this story that are not clearly defined but leave room for readers’ interpretation. Oates does make several things clear, including how chasing the wrong things can lead to one’s own demise and idolizing the superficial can lead one to the wrong places. Oates’ short story vividly illustrates the abrupt transition from adolescence to adulthood and the accompanying loss of innocence through Connie forming her

“ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a short story by Joyce Carol Oates. In this short story, the setting took place in the 1960’s with a 15 year old girl named Connie. Connie is a teenager who is playing around with her friends and guys. Connie’s mother is rude to Connie, so Connie starts to acts up. When Connie starts to play around with guys, she meets a man named Arnold Friend.

She even goes as far as wishing her mother was dead at times. Her older sister June, who everyone in the family bragged about, because she was so dutiful and steady, did nothing but work, clean and cook. However, there was one good thing about June, she went to places with her friends who were just as plain and steady as her, so when Connie wanted to go out with her friends her mother would allow it. And then we have her father, who was mostly away at work and when he would come home all he wanted was his supper, read the newspaper and go to bed after, so he was not involved much in Connie’s life. She, without the knowledge of her family would spend her evenings flirting with boys and catching their attention, going to diners with friends to eat hamburgers, drink Coke and listen to

Joyce Carol Oates plays upon the stereotypic female gender role through her adolescent character, Connie, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” The story was written at a significant time in America’s history. It was a season when social and moral conventions were challenged. This period experienced the rise of women struggling for sexual freedom and gender equality in a patriarchal society. Oates portrays the protagonist, Connie, as naive, unaware and inexperienced; she has yet to find her identity and fully understand her place as a women in the world. She believes she has learned to play the game of the sexes and that she has the upper hand. This belief, though, is quickly subverted when she is confronted by Arnold Friend, a man who works to reinforce patriarchal standards by punishing Connie for acting outside stereotypic female role boundaries, she then realizes as a women, she has very little power.