Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Analysis
In the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, many literary devices are used to convey the change from childhood to adolescence and sexuality. Throughout this tale, Connie, the main character, goes back and forth between innocence and maturity, showing two very different sides. Every time the music plays, Connie is doing mature things or is in grown-up situations, frequently sexual, but as the music fades, she returns to her childlike innocence. The way Connie behaved with friends showed how she longed to grow up and have adult relations. When Connie went out with friends, they would run "across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road, to a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out" (2). The continual music in these circumstances represents how they try to act older. When she went out, "her walk [could be] languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head" (2). Music always played at their hangout, the local restaurant. They "listened to the music that made everything so good; the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon" (2). In these instances, the music is enjoyable and well-liked by Conni
Her family has gone to a barbecue, and Connie "turns on the radio to drown out the quiet" (3). She is startled by these two older men and is not sure if she wants to take the step of joining them and their loud music, symbolic of their world and their open sexuality. This shows how Connie is beginning to change her mind about the adult-world and the relationships she had wished to rush into before. This shows how Joyce Carol Oates feels about childhood and the transition into adulthood and sexuality. At first, she is flattered by the stranger's interest in her and his compliments, flirting back and noticing "the way he was dressed . Through the character of Connie, Oates makes a good case proving her point. e because she wants to be pretty and popular with the boys, rather than innocent and child-like. The music is relevant here because Connie is thinking maturely about boys. The unceasing music proved that Connie had moved into the real world and could no longer waver between. and the hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders" (5). After being threatened by the dark stranger, "another wave of dizziness and fear rose in her so that . Arnold, representing the evils in the world, does not give up. Such exposed sexual feelings are new to Connie, but rather than getting excited, she has a new fear of the adult world and the evils within it. even the music that was so familiar to her was only half real" (8).
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Acceptance Essays
