How The Family Influence In Joyce Carol Oates Where Are You Going?

A short story by Joyce Carol Oates called “Where are you going, where have you been?” reflects the writer’s point of view of the way society looked to women in the sixties. The story takes place in the 1960’s when almost everything reached a turning point at that time. It talks about a teenager who wanted boys’ attention, but she ended up leaving her family house with a stranger. Connie represented most teenage girls, and their destiny at that time. The story can be looked at from many different points of view such as feminist, social, psychological and historical (Purdue (OWL)). The time this story had taken place is what makes it important. The story was written when the feminist movement was established, and the American society

Joyce Carols Oates highlights the importance of developing relationships in families. Connie’s future could’ve had a completely different outcome if she would’ve been raised with attention, love, and communication. Arnold would’ve never had the opportunity to manipulate her if she had her family’s protection; however, that was not the case. Connie’s family must live with a guilty conscience knowing that her kidnapping could’ve been avoided if only they were less neglectful towards

“Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you're so pretty?”(1408) As a mother, she should be happy for her daughter’s good looks and support her, especially at the age Connie’s at. Instead, she always compares Connie to her sister, criticizes Connie on the way she acts, essentially degrading Connie every chance she gets; “Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over”(1408). This constant harassment and lack of a strong mother-daughter relationship pushes Connie away from home and subject’s her to keep her emotions and thoughts bottled up, essentially making her vulnerable to

Adolescence, the part of life we are most willing to forget. The awkward years of being stuck between, not yet an adult but certainly not a child. These years, however awful they maybe, are essential to the character that later develops. During adolescence we make decisions that shape the course of our life, from the personal interactions between friends and family to the academic decisions that impact future career, choices you make as a young adult impact you forever. Partially due to the importance of these short few years, it is not surprising how often children can make poor choices that derail their entire life. Increasing at startling frequency, these stories foretell of a dismal future. Due to this cautionary tales of adolescence have been rising in pop-culture. One of these is “Where are you going? Where have you been? By Carol Joyce Oates. This story tells of Connie, a young adult trying to make the leap to adulthood. Connie in her attempt to breach the gap ends up in drawing attention of Arnold Friend sealing the fate of her poorly executed coming of age. Connies ill fated coming of age in “Where have you been? Where are you going?” by Carol Joyce Oates acts as a cautionary tale about modern perils of adolescence.

In spite of the way that Connie tries to show the nearness of being a created woman who has learned about men, her involvement with Arnold reveals this is only an execution. She has made an engaging grown-up personality through her dress, hairstyle, and general direct and gets the thought she hopes for from young fellows. Regardless, Connie dumbfounds her ability to summon thought from young fellows with her longing to truly have

Joyce Carol Oates intrigues readers in her fictional piece “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by examining the life of a fifteen year old girl. She is beautiful, and her name is Connie. Oates lets the reader know that “everything about her [Connie] had two sides to it, one for home, and one for anywhere but home (27). When Connie goes out, she acts and dresses more mature than she probably should. However, when she is at home, she spends the majority of her time absorbed with daydreams “about the boys she met”(28). This daydreaming behavior is observable to the reader throughout the story. From theories about dreams, theories about

We all have been there. After a long days work, all we are thinking about is getting home. As you head towards your car, you notice the darkness around you and suddenly feel that you are not alone. Your pace increases and you begin to sweat mildly. If you could just get there, you’d be safe. Suddenly, you hear a noise and decide the best thing for you to do is ignore it. As you approach you car and unlock it, you sigh with relief that you’ve finally have made it. For many, our minds play tricks on us when we feel a moment of fear, however for others it may turn out to be their worst nightmare. In the story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, a young girl is forced to make a decision

In the book ‘Two or Three things i know for sure’, Dorothy Allison who tells her story growing up in a memoir and she uses her experiences to explain the two or The things she learned. What makes this her story stand out is not just that it 's a memoir but also because the main point is beauty and how women in her family were put down and abused because of their appearance. Throughout this whole book Dorothy tries to send out one important message on beauty which from my understanding beauty is not based on what men say or society says, we live in a world where a woman 's beauty is determined whether a man find hers beautiful and that must stop. Timothy Dow Adams who read’s ‘Two or Three things i know for sure’ writes his review on it, and his understanding of Dorothy Allison 's points of views.

Connie is like the average American girl who has just hit adolescence. She can't seem to walk past a mirror without examining herself in it first, she is at war with her mother, and thinks about boys round-the-clock. It is a hot summer in the sixties and many teens have little to do so they spend their time out and about at the local shops. The high temperatures send Connie and her friends to do the same. One night while in the street a random man makes a comment towards Connie and she thinks nothing of it. Days later, while alone in her family home the same man shows up at her door. He asks her to join him but she refuses. After a few brash threats she complies and joins the strange man for a ride in his gold car. In the short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by author Joyce Carol Oates the protagonist Connie is conflicted by her desires, adolescent females from all decades can relate to the desires synonymous with adulthood. In the present day many adolescence fall victim when experiencing adolescent desires for attention, some excitement, and the ideas of freedom.

Moral and social beliefs were being challenged and the youth of America, while coming of age, were rebelling against their parent’s ideals and creating their own culture. The birth of a social movement was upon the world and issues such as sexual freedom, feminism and other civil rights were hot topics during the years prior to Oates writing this story. It is these social changes and society’s interest in them that creates the foundation for the setting that breathes life into this story. Without this foundation, the coming-of-age story of Connie, not to mention American society, and her journey from the innocence of the 1950s into the bitter reality of the turbulent times of the 1960s would have been lost.

If not thought about or read over more than once, the fact that Connie’s father was almost a phantom in her life might be missed. In this era, fathers in particular were not very active in their children’s lives, daughters especially; they were the mother’s problem. This same idea carries over to the father of Connie’s best girlfriend, who after driving them to the stores or movies “…never even bothered to ask what they had done.” (Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"), the name of the story is also a question that should be asked of any daughter by her father. The fathers in question here display a sense of total apathy to the question of what their daughters are actually doing. These fathers came from a time in the 40’s and 50’s when men worried about men things and woman issues were exactly that. Men and in particular fathers of that time made no effort to be involved in their daughters lives as they are today. Oates noticed that issue in society and attached it to her work in this story although minutely. The main conflict in Connie’s life is trying to balance a fine line between the way she acts at home in front of her mother, and her secret wild side which she only shows to her friends and the boys she meets. Oates’ characterization of Connie is that of a round character, one of intense

In the same vein, narcissism is another trait that characterizes Connie’s attitude. She obviously has the sophisticated mind-set of a young lady that she pretends to be although she is only an adolescent. It is easy to detect through the story that the protagonist Connie spends all her time acting and protecting her ego. So many passages illustrate that point of view. Connie is a two faced adolescent. She presents to the exterior world the image of a modest and well behaved girl whereas she has in her the hidden quality of sexual flirtation. To describe Connie, Oates mentions, ‘’Connie had long dark hair that drew anyone’s eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out and the rest of it she left fall down her back. She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home’’

At the beginning of the story Connie is personified as a self-centered, attention-seeking, teenage girl. She is also very narcissistic, like described in an Overview “Connie takes solace in the knowledge that she is attractive and desirable to the boys she associates with at school and in town” (Overview 3). It has also been put that Connie is an, “uneducated working-class [girl] striving incoherently for something better, yet stifled by [her] environment” (Knudsen 2). Though, Connie’s way of striving for something better, is by seeking attention from others. Connie puts her appearance above all things, which keeps her attention on looking

Jane has gotten used to cruelty and biased behavior towards her average looks, and develops a miserable self-esteem that believes the only possible way to describe her exterior is “plain”. This self-esteem prevents her from even beginning to recognize that anyone could appreciate her or find her beautiful in any manner. The society’s typical reactions and judgments shaped Jane’s self-esteem, and prevented her from receiving equal treatment as that of a beautiful woman.

It 's not a mystery that society 's ideals of beauty have a drastic and frightening effect on women. Popular culture frequently tells society, what is supposed to recognize and accept as beauty, and even though beauty is a concept that differs on all cultures and modifies over time, society continues to set great importance on what beautiful means and the significance of achieving it; consequently, most women aspire to achieve beauty, occasionally without measuring the consequences on their emotional or physical being. Unrealistic beauty standards are causing tremendous damage to society, a growing crisis where popular culture conveys the message that external beauty is the most significant characteristic women can have. The approval of prototypes where women are presented as a beautiful object or the winner of a beauty contest by evaluating mostly their physical attractiveness creates a faulty society, causing numerous negative effects; however, some of the most apparent consequences young and adult women encounter by beauty standards, can manifest as body dissatisfaction, eating disorders that put women’s life in danger, professional disadvantage, and economic difficulty.