Where are you going, where have you been? Feminist Allegory
Where are you going, Where have you been? A Feminist Allegory Biographer Greg Johnson interprets the story "Where are you going, Where have you been?" as a feminist allegory. This critical interpretation is accurate. The story of Connie, an attractive young woman, being enslaved into bondage by an aggressive male figure is a story that many women from all time periods can relate to. Joyce Carol Oates's "Where are you going, Where have you been?" was inspired by a real account of manipulation, rape, and murder. The story of Charles Schmid takes place in Tucson, Arizona. He is a twenty-three-year-old who would cruise the local teenage hot spots, pick up young girls, and rape and kill them. The fact that Joyce Carol Oates's story was
She thought, I'm not going to sleep in my bed again. "She sat, one leg cramped under her, and deep inside her brain was something like a pinpoint of light that kept going and would not let her relax. Lastly, Oates's places Connie in a kitchen with nothing but a weak screen door between her and Arnold. " This quote from Greg Johnson's critical interpretation of Joyce Carol Oates's feminist allegory perfectly en captures Oates's connection between Connie and every other girl coming of sexual maturity. However, as an allegory this does not mean every woman has been enslaved into bondage. Arnold promises never to enter, but that doesn't matter because he knows just as well as she does that she's going with him. "Her characterization as a typical girl reaching sexual maturity suggests that her fate represents that suffered by most young women - unwilling and in secret terror - even in America in the 1960s. Johnson also notes the title of the story "Where are you going, Where have you been?" as in itself an allegory where the word "you" in the title not only refers to the young girl coming of sexual maturity, but also all girls past and present coming of sexual maturity. "Arnold's smooth talking and aggressiveness is the male role in a relationship and Connie succumbing to it is the females. The characterization of Connie as a normal girl coming of sexual maturity suggests she stands for all girls of her age. And finally, the smooth talking of Arnold Friend leading to the complete seduction of Connie stands for all women succumbing physically and mentally to a dominate male relationship. based on a real event is proof that what happened to Connie is not out of the realm of possibility, in fact it gives the story a common credibility. It just replicates the feeling of a woman's spirit being crushed or enslaved under the dominate males in a relationship both sexual and nonsexual. She thought, I'm not going to see my mother again.
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Acceptance Essays
