The short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates is about a teenage girl named Connie. She was the typical teenage girl growing up in the nineteen fifties in the United States of America. She was at the age of sexual recognition. Connie has to decide weather or not she wants to have sex and if she decides she wants to have sex she had to think about how it would affect her life with her friends, with society, with her family, and most importantly with herself.
             Connie is a typical teenage girl in the fifties because she wants to look pretty and she wants boys to be attracted to her. She is constantly checking her face in mirrors and in other people's eyes to make sure she looks good and there is nothing wrong with her. She thinks her long blonde hair is one of her more attractive features. Connie uses her hair to her advantage to attract boys her age and get their attention; one of the things she does with it is to let it fall on one shoulder and fidget with it as if trying to get their attention. Connie knows she is pretty but doesn't go over board with letting other people know she knows she looks good.
             Connie wanted her family to think of her as a sweet innocent little girl, their little girl. In reality she was growing up. She was fifteen and she had the feelings of transforming from a little girl to a young adult. Connie would "[dress] one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from her home" (Oates 445). She dressed differently when she was at home because to her, her house represented childhood and the outside world represented adulthood. We see this when Arnold would not go into the house after Connie, rather she had to come outside to him (Oates 452). Arnold represented the fairy tale boy Connie had "trashy daydreams" (Oates 444) about. Connie was growing up and it was hard to hide that fact.
             Connie's decision on whether or not to have sex would be one of the most impo...