Analyzing The Short Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

The story presents a rebellious teenager named Connie who is also preoccupied with her appearance. She was approached by Arnold Friend in her house but before this,

In Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, symbolism is an extremely vital part of understanding the story’s true meaning. In my opinion, the names of the characters, major and minor, are all important. Some are somewhat subtle and some are begging to be recognized.

She spends most of her waking hours "dreaming about the boys she met. But all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face, but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music", which is merely to say that Connie, like many teenagers, is in love with love (Coulthard, par. ). She fantasies about a boy she met one night and about how nice, kind and sweet he was. When Connie meets the guy at the restaurant, she doesn’t know his intentions and she doesn’t know that he’s truly sweet and kind. Connie always lets the men in her life control her: her romantic interests, the man on the radio, and eventually Arnold friend.

The story Where Are You Going Where Have You Been has similar elements to fairy tales. However critic Christina Gills says that the reader is “ forced to consider the distinctions between fairy tale and seduction narrative” (Gillis Gale). There are differences between a fairy tale and this short story. Differences include that the girl gets the prince and the villain gets either killed or locked up, and they live happily ever after. In real life this doesn't happen, the so called villain can get away and come after it's victim again.

People desires can vary from person to person. Some want power, other want to find the love of their lives. However getting what want is difficult some never fully receive their deepest longings to meet themselves fell complete. Some desires have consequences, they can be small, however, others have terrible ramifications. In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates is about the main character Connie and her life.

Connie has a difficult relationship with the men in her life, and distant because of how she was raised as well as norms of society. Connie’s father is absent in Connie’s life, he minds his business and ignores what the rest of the family is doing, Connie’s mother kind of does both roles. Connie’s mother tells her what she shouldn’t wear, and doesn’t have that father figure in her life. Connie only has learned to respect the man of the house, didn’t interact with her father. Also, when she would go out with her friends she would do what the boys tell her to do, like little commands.

Connie uses her attitude and appearance to attract boys. But she is not aware of the reality of the society in which she lives. Connie is living in a fantasy world, but when she gets trapped by Arnold Friend she is put into a scary reality. There

Analyzing Development: “Where is Here?” by Joyce Carol Oates Gothic literature holds an allure that readers and audiences often draw into; its combination of wickedness, mystery, death, and even romance stirs a sensation, a charm no other genre has. Through this charm, Edgar Allan Poe, the "founding voice of American gothic tradition," was able to pioneer interest into many future writers in the American writing industry. Specifically, modern writer Joyce Carol Oates implicated traditional gothic elements from Poe. Using dialogue, diction, and the interaction between characters, Oates carefully establishes the foundations and elements of spookiness into her gothic story—“Where is Here?”

Connie is an average fifteen year old girl. Connie wants boys and freedom. Her conflict is what started her motives for what she wants. Connie feels trapped in her own home. She also does not think too highly of herself.

In Joyce Carol Oates story, “Where are You Going, Where have You Been,” Oates sets up biblical references to the settings to allow the reader to connect the characters to biblical figures. The first major setting for biblical innuendos is the drive-in restaurant. Oates describes the restaurant as “a big bottle, through squatter than a real bottle, and on its cap was a revolving figure of a grinning boy holding a hamburger a loft” (Oates 1) which first establishes the biblical allusions. The revolving figure at top the drive-in restaurant is an allusion to the stepal atop a church. “Their faces pleased and expectant as if they were entering a sacred building that loomed up out of the night to give them what haven and blessing they yearned for”(Oates 1) Oates uses the restaurant as a place of peace and escape for Connie from a demanding mother, much like a church is an escape for sinners.

Gothic literature is a style of literature that takes place in the past, most of the time it has someone who dies and it has a creepy vibe/tone behind it . Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is a good example of Gothic literature because it shows how a man goes to visit an old friend and see how his friend and his friends twin sister die. “The whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day. ”(13)

Author Joyce Carol Oates ' discovery of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe and Ann Radcliff “sparked her interest in Gothic fiction”. These Gothic elements typically include gruesome or violent incidents, characters in psychological or physical torment, and strong language full of dangerous meanings. Oates herself is citied as saying that "Horror is a fact of life. As a writer, I’m fascinated by all facets of life". “Where is Here?" This story is sort of eerie and tells the tale of a grown-up man who goes back to visit his childhood home.

Have you ever read a story that causes chills or your emotionally invested in a character. The story’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The mysteries of udolpho by Ann Radcliffe are literature that are centered in fear. These story’s cause suspense or has ghost or some type of monster. A gothic is a great example of fear in literature. The settings, characters, and story line has a way of making the reader invested by hooking to their emotions.

Gothic Literature is a genre that was popular between 18th to 19th centuries in North Germany. It is always being associated with Dark Romanticism which the emphasize was more on nature, terror and death, horror and many more. It involves dark and gloomy setting and also unexplainable things that are beyond human senses and reason such as ghosts and monsters. The main characters, on the other hand, are always ineffectual which they do not give much effect on the story plot. This can be seen through Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which can be considered as American gothic work in terms of its description of setting, the involvement of supernatural element in the story and also the characteristics of the main character.

The word “gothic” existed long before it become as a specified literary genre. The origin of Gothic literature is traced back to the various aspects, the history, culture, and tradition. The gothic elements were popular in the folktales such as bridegroom, cannibal, demon lover…etc. 19 The gothic roots belong to the medieval romance.