Commentary on “where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”

Commentary on “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”

10/17/06

Joyce Carol Oates has achieved many things through her writing, and is recognized worldly for her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” This story is centered on a young teenage girl as many of her stories are. Oates as a writer is fascinated with adolescence of young females. She chooses to write about the trials and tribulations of growing up in modern society. She pries on the dark aspects of youth often with plots of rape, murder and abuse. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates writes about a typical teenager who is easily identified with. There are a few major occurrences in this story that many young adults have experienced which include the temptations of evil, a new sexual awareness and learning how to live in a new more mature world and in turn having to overcome weakness.

Written in the nineteen- seventies a new era of sex, drugs and rock and roll, Connie is growing up in a new rebellious young culture. Oates writes about how obsessed Connie is with her appearance, “craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking others people’s faces to make sure her own was all right”. This description makes her out to be vain. One explanation of why Connie is concerned with her appearance would include a new awareness of self consciousness and a need to always look pretty. Being vain is considered a sin by many but however one must always project an image of perfection in that society and even today’s society. Connie has to be able to fit in and go out to enjoy her life and if she did not look her best she would not be able to do the things she enjoyed most. Her mother was constantly pressuring her to be more like her older sister. This shows the rebelliousness of new teens in the beginning to this era and how the differences of age and culture can cause conflict. Connie thought secretly that her mother had preferred her to her sister simply because she was prettier. However it was not true, Connie’s mother constantly was nagging her to be more like her sister. Her mother has a different displeasing voice when speaking on the phone to others about Connie. There is only one reason to be entirely obsessed with being pretty and that is to attract the opposite sex. Connie has an openly rooted desire to be attractive to which it has an obvious negative effect on others. Why would a young teenage girl feel such a need to feel attractive? With the new society she is always pressured to look good and date which will eventually lead down a road of worse things such as premarital sex and other taboo things; that are to commonly accepted in modern society. In the story there is a girl of the same class as Connie that possibly could have been pregnant; Connie had to “draw thick clear lines” between her and girls like that; however Connie also states that it was “maybe cruel to fool” her mother so much. This obviously shows that Connie is engaging in some sort of opposed and bad behavior that is frowned upon. If she is fooling her mother then what it is that she is doing to fool her, other than taking part in activities that would not be acceptable by her mother.

Temptation can be defined as to entice or allure to do something often regarded as unwise, wrong, or immoral. Connie on a daily basis is tempted like all humans but the genera of which she is being tempted, the types of temptations she faced and that find to be her most difficult to turn down include going out where her mother would not appreciate her going, driving around with boys she does not know and lying to her patents to enable herself to do so. Temptations are what make life difficult and in a way are what help make us human. Most of the more serious temptations that can affect you strongly occur when one is entering their young adulthood. It is what we do in those few years that shape the rest of our lives. That is why is it so important to make the right decisions and not do things one will regret due to having to face the consequence. And, yes every decision comes with a consequence; it could be bad or it could be positive. The decisions one makes during their teen years are the decisions that will either haunt them or help them in the later years of life. One will always have regrets but not so much if they learn to make the right decisions.

Later in the story Oates’ character Connie senses the fear in a stranger who approaches her at her house when her family is gone. She here is tempted to leave in a car with this character and she senses something frightening about him. There is some sort of warning that goes off in her head. This character, the protagonist Arnold Friend description is very close