Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been ||

 

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

Short story by Joyce Carol Oates

 

“Where are You Going, Where Have You Been” tell the tale of young girl who is exactly as one would picture a rebellious teen from the time—in 1993. Not doing what she should, and deceiving her parents to misbehave. Culture plays a big role in the story, not sure why, but as I read the story it seemed as something from ‘Porky’s’ the 80s movie. Well not the content but rather the personalities and setting.

 

The main issue with the protagonist, Connie, is the way she thinks there is something about here that others did not have. That she was better, prettier. The type of narcissism she hosted was not that of love for one’s self but rather a feeling of superiority. What could go through her head as she sought the attention of older boys? Connie was fifteen, boys older than herself often must have sought older girls and for due reason. Despite this, Connie was eager to act as an older girl; she thought that she was much more than her sister who was twenty-four. However, it does not seem as if Connie looked to act like a woman, she acted like a woman because she wanted attention, approval, she wanted to feel superior than the boys whom she had the opportunity to ignore and dismiss.

            Connie’s narcissism led her to believe that she could fool her mother as she pleased, and that she was simple, not knowing really if her mother had reasons to question her. Be it as it may, during the detour, she took from the movies to the dinner and to a car, she encountered Arnold Friend, whom would come to be the switch to Connie’s emotional rollercoaster. When Arnold arrived at Connie’s house the day he did, while her family was away, she was excited to see him. Why was she excited? She did not know the “boy” yet she was excited. She longed the feeling of importance, the thought that someone went to the trouble of finding out where she lived. She wanted that attention, and to her it meant that she was in such a superior state that she made man fall for her the second they looked at her.

            However, that sense of importance she felt was quick to fade as Arnold’s perseverance and bold statements made her feel uncomfortable. Did she realize that her flirty attitude had been wrong the whole time? At one point, she must have. She lost the control that she had, the opportunity to dismiss a pretender. Connie soon entered a panic attack. Her head felt lightheaded, she understood that her position was not a favorable one. As she panicked she still thought about the way to exit her nightmare, her only salvation was the phone that sat a few feet from herself. She understood that that phone was the only way she was going to see her family again. However, as if being in that position was not enough she was also threatened, she was told to stay away from the only thing she knew as safe. This is where two aspects of her sanity are questioned. There is a moment where Connie attempts to reach the phone, this is where she leaves her sanity, she loses the struggle she had been dealing with the moment Arnold turned hostile. Either she dies trying to seek help, or she accepts her faith as Arnold’s Red Riding Hood. Either way, she is dead.

 

What is your opinion, what do you think happened to Connie?