Literary Analysis Essay of Joyce Carol Oates' Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Readers of Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? will always be familiar with its main character, Connie. A teenage girl whose desires are expressed through self-absorption, vanity and sexual exploration, Connie can be anyone in the society today. She could be the readers’ sister, a cousin, a friend, and friend of your friend, an acquaintance, or even their daughter. It is through this style of familiarity of this character that readers can ironically expect what goes with her fate in the end. To some extent, the character of Connie is something that most readers can anticipate their end. In addition, the antagonist’s recognizable approach to deception also adds to the familiarity of the story.
Oates characterized Connie to be just like any other teenage girl who is highly confident of her own vanity. Similar with anyone who has undergone strong urges due to hormonal changes in that certain period of one’s life, Connie’s experience is not new. In fact, anyone can relate to her desire of being old enough without even realizing what it takes to be an adult. No one can deny that her youth includes such features of her persona, and readers can easily identify how this character would end up in the story. In modern writing, a flirty and immature character of Connie will always end up being a victim. Despite the new approach that Oates is trying to make in this story, readers remain ironically familiar with the ending.
Yet the familiarity element of the story will not always be considered as bad. In fact, Foster writes how a writer is good when "the work actually acquires depth and resonance from the echoes and chimes it sets up with prior texts, weight from the accumulated use of certain basic patterns and tendencies” (Foster 99). This means that any recognizable elements in the story from other readings and experiences will always be readable by the audience. Foster further indicates how even fairy tales can inspire writers of all times. He writes, "we want strangeness in our stories, but we want familiarity, too” (Foster 37). This is what writers like John Updike and Raymond Carver do in order to create better stories. Realistic dialogues and situations helped Oates in becoming a better writer. The familiarity of Connie’s character drives readers to anticipate her ending as well.
In addition, Oates’ means of characterizing Arnold Friend is another familiar feature of the story. He is just like any other antagonist in a story, whose identity is hidden from his attractive appearance and luring words. Although Oates may have described Friend in some fashion, Oates still takes the same and familiar light of a deceiving antagonist in a story. Arnold Friend’s familiar antagonistic character offers an extent of revealing of how Connie would end up in the story. It can be ironic how the name of Arnold Friend may have to connote him as a good character who can grant Connie’s wishes. Yet just like other antagonists in other stories, this "friend” reveals to become a "wolf” whose deception is beyond measure.
Joyce Carol Oates made the element of familiarity very helpful in making her story readable to readers. She features familiar characters in her short story called Where are you going, where have you been? Connie is the usual teenage girl who wished to free her inner self, while Arnold Friend is the typical "serial killer” character that readers can identify. Her readers can relate to the characters that they have come to anticipate how the story would end.
Works Cited
Foster, Thomas. How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines. 2003. New York, NY: Harper-Collins.
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