Two Masks In Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie (protagonist) is a fifteen-year-old teenager who physically attempts to behave like an adult by tampering with her appearance and participating in activities habitual to adults (going to restaurants and theaters with boys). As an adolescent, she’s morally ambiguous and thus safely explores adulthood. Arnold Friend, an ingenuine and strange character, pulls Connie away from her infantile fantasies to the grave reality of being an adult woman. The author uses the motif of a bilateral persona evident in Connie’s and Arnold Friend’s characters to illustrate the theme that entails the abrupt transition that Connie’s rebellious and childish spirit is forced

The oldest found mask is from 7000 BC, and experts believe it was used for rituals and ceremonies. Masks have an important cultural context in history, and as the use of masks has progressed, humans have adopted masks into other forms of entertainment and festivities. In present times, with better understanding of human psychology, society has come to understand that people wear emotional “masks” as well. Masks have a somewhat important context in both Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask”. Both works describe masks as a way to hide one’s true self from everyone; Dunbar, however, depicts masks as an emotional barrier to cover up one’s true emotions or feelings, while Golding uses masks as a physical object to hide behind.

Written on the side of his car were the numbers 33, 19, and 17, which references a Bible verse in the Book of Judges 19:17, stating “ … he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveller in the open square of the city; and the old man said, ‘Where are you going, and where did you come from?’” (Judges 19:17). Oates uses the symbol of Arnold’s car to reveal his true intentions with Connie as, like the old man, he asks her what her past was like and what her future will bring her. Arnold wants to make Connie’s future better by separating her from her broken home, demonstrating this to her through the Bible verse painted on his symbolic jalopy. Oates then describes the car in more detail, stating that it is “painted [a] bright gold that [catches] the sunlight…”

The Choice Throughout our lives our character within ourselves changes. The way we talk, the way we dress and the way we think. In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, she talks about a fifteen year old girl named Connie who’s character has two sides, being childish, or adult. Joyce said, “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (337). Throughout the story Connie’s struggle with in her character is the reason why she has to make a big decision at the end.

As many teens have been asked these same questions multiple times by their parents as well as Connie has, one could assume. She is fifteen with long blonde hair which seemed to draw everyone’s attention. Oates begins the story explaining how Connie was gawking at herself in the mirror, as just about any other ordinary fifteen-year-old girl would; and that’s just what Connie is portrayed to be, ordinary. She shows a mighty interest in boys, she knows that she is very beautiful. She’s superficial, very naïve, and self-centered.

Readers are able to see this when Oates states, “He didn’t bother talking much to them, but around his bent head Connie’s mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over” (308). Her demeanor is apparent throughout the story as she is a typical teenage girl who has no worries in the world and in a sense is clueless about the real world. This is important because it allows readers to understand her character’s personality and actions throughout the story.

In the beginning of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, Joyce Carol Oates describes fifteen year old Connie as being self absorbed and narcissistic. This is based of her belief that her looks are everything. At first connie is a very static character, her attitude does not change and she does not take interest in anything that could change her attitude towards her beliefs. As the story goes on, Connie experiences changes that do change her attitude towards her family, and beliefs. “Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything.”

In Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”she paints the picture of a teenage girl whose mother is jealous of her, father is absent, and sister is twenty-four and lives at home. Connie is a fifteen year old girl who sneaks around with her friends, is a bit boy crazy and is very much a daydreaming teenager. The beginning of the story starts off rather innocently, then through a series of hints scattered throughout the story, takes a turn for the worse when Connie’s eyes are opened to a face of evil no girl should ever have to experience and no boy should ever become. Oates reveals how family relationships directly and indirectly affect the way teenagers act and how it impacts their search for self-identity. Connie’s relationship with her mother is not one she particularly values.

Many short films and stories show that masks can be both beneficial and harmful. In some situations, wearing a mask can help your life and protect the ones you love. However, many times when wearing a mask can destroy your self identity and ruin trust with one another. Therefore, people should wear masks temporarily and know the right time to use them. Society struggles with the balance of this and when to reveal one’s true self.

In life we all are a secretive about certain parts of ourselves. For example, if someone is around new people they might not share many things about them with other people. This applies to many stories in literature as well, because new characters keep many secrets that are generally not revealed to other characters. This secretiveness can also symbolize many things in the life around the characters. In the book Behind a Mask; or, a Woman’s Power, author Louisa May Alcott demonstrates this aspect of literature through Jean Muir while symbolizing parts of the Victorian society around them.

Arnold’s appearance is the biggest faustian lie that he uses. From his head to toes and all the way to his car. “The boots must have been stuffed with something so he would seem taller,” this is evidence that he is trying to trick Connie into believing he is someone he is not in order to make her interested. Many stories are of the Devil using trickery to manipulate his image to be someone else, which Arnold Friend definitely does. In addition to presenting himself as someone he’s not, the car within the story is also an extended metaphor for him.

Connie’s first encounter with Friend was at a diner when he stated to Connie, “Gonna get you, baby”(pg.1142). Because Connie was use to this type of attention, she did not view it as strange that an older man was calling her in such away. However, if Connie had seen Friend as dangerous instead of just another man, her kidnapping might have been prevented. Later in the story when Friend showed up as Connie’s house, she walked outside and talked to him instead of questioning how he knew where she lived or calling the police. Oates described Connie's interaction with Friend by stating,“Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed: tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pullover shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard muscles of his arms and shoulders”(pg.1145).

Since there is little affection toward Connie in her household, she craves it from boys when she goes out to the local drive-in restaurant. Connie’s personality is shown when she leaves her house to go out with her best friend to the drive-in. Oates writes, (“She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home.”) (158). There are always two sides to Connie (when she is at home with her family and when she is out with boys.)

As she starts to evaluate the men in the drive way she concludes that these men are in their late thirties, early forties. Connie worries that her father will show up and see the men in her drive way but little does she know Arnold Friend already knows where her father is. Connie decides to threaten Arnold Friend and Ellie with the police. Arnold Friend becomes angry, he threatened Connie’s family if she did not come out and take a ride with him. Connie is overcome with fear.

Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” leads the reader to believe both Connie and Arnold Friend battle with their identity. As Oates begins the story, she introduces Connie as “shallow and vapid” (Slimp); more obsessed with herself to notice the real world around her. Connie had a tendency to look “one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home” (Oates 1), showing the reader she was two sided. Connie’s need to change her identity based on her location can very much stem from a lack of self-confidence. This can also be seen with Arnold Friend.