Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”

Joyce Carol Oates's short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" was released in 1966. This is a tale of adolescent puberty, abuse, and crime. This well-known short story has been viewed in a number of forms by critics and literary scholars. The subsequent review will analyze and examine the plot in order to clearly understand its message about the erotic coming-of-age that the main heroine of the story goes through. The thesis of the presented essay can be stated beforehand as following: Joyce Carol Oates’ story stays topical nowadays due to the fact that Connie’s meeting with Arnold Friend symbolizes a frustrating and disturbing encounter with sexual violence and forced maturity that often intrudes unexpectedly into the lives of people and changes human personalities for better or for worse.

The two main characters in the story are the girl Connie who is 15 years old and Arnold Friend who is a young man older than Connie. In the story readers are presented with unclear intentions, desires, motives, and feeling of the both characters whose dynamic interaction leaves many questions. One of the most widely accepted critical interpretations of the story suggests analyzing it from a teenage girl’s perspective considering the girl’s developing sexuality. Due to the fact that every girl comes through the times of sexual frustration and personal crisis of identity while becoming a woman the story stays topical today despite its tight connection with the rise of youth in the 1950s and 1960s.

Without any doubt “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is an important story in regard to its depiction of rebellious teenage spirit that had an important role in the history of the US in the 1950s and 1960s. Oates’ story was written then and reflects the rising role, power, and importance of revolting masses of young people that shaped and shifted American society during the counter-culture era of the 1960s. However, even besides these historical aspects, Oates’ story has more to offer in terms of gender issues and topics such as human sexuality, both male and female.

It is important to understand that Oates portrays Arnold Friend negatively even though technically he does not do anything bad in the story. However, considering iceberg’s theory, for example, one may assume that most of the important ideas and opinions stay subtly hidden in the sub-context of the story or are expressed metaphorically in order to make the readers reflect on the story personally through critical-thinking and analysis.

Arnold Friend and his friends offer to take Connie for a ride. In the 1950s and 1960s going for a ride meant almost the same as going on a date or for a walk together. Asking a girl to go for a ride had a particular connotation in the 1950s because the young and rebellious generation of baby-boom maturing in prosperous and progressive 1950’s America were the first generation to become free from their parents so entirely (Johnson, 92). While the whole world was devastated and ruined after the World War II with poverty and famine in many countries all over the globe United States was the most prosperous country at the time. Kids had cars which was unimaginable for most of the people in different corners of the planet. From this perspective, Oates’ story reflects on the theme important for the 1950s and 1960s America. Bus besides this historical approach the story gives an interesting opinion regarding gender and the nature of teenage revolution.

The ride in a car symbolizes sexual act. However, there are more than 2 people, Connie and Arnold, in the car which imply that Arnold has some shameful intentions (perhaps, he does not mind to share the girl he found). Therefore, the story’s message regarding teenage sexuality and maturity is also connected to crime motives. Why is Arnold so ruthless to take Connie with him? Why does he do that together with his friends? These questions allow suggesting that Oates implies that Arnold and his friends are, in fact, criminals or possible abusers. From the 1960s the crime rates all across the USA only increased. Therefore, considering all the most important subjects touched in the short story it would be fair to claim that nowadays they are not any less important.

Firstly, innocent teenage girls are the most common victims of sexual abuse and violent crimes. In the 40 years that has passed since the story was published the amount of abducted innocent teenagers only increased. It is known that Oates claimed that she wrote the story in reaction to a criminal case that involved abduction and homicide which she saw in a newspaper headline. From that point (1966) forward the amount of loose serial killers and maniacs in America grew bigger and bigger. Charles Manson and Zodiac occupied people’s thoughts in the 1960s’ California. Nowadays nobody is even surprised by serial killers anymore (Veladota, 67). It is quite difficult nowadays to inform people about a crime that is able to bring shock and horror. However, in the 1960s with media still on its way to becoming massively widespread people reacted differently to wild crimes such as rape and abduction of young girls.

If the world truly became a place where more serial killers commit a bigger number of similar atrocities it means that Oates’ story is nowadays even more topical than ever. The fact that people are no longer surprised by child abductions or violent rapes due to vast media coverage makes art which talks about such topics even more precious. Oates’ story is topical because teenage sexual frustration and human violence are still present in the everyday life of all people around the world, and not only in the USA. Teenage girls still run away from their homes, leave their parents in shock, and stumble across the country becoming prostitutes, strippers and/or drug addicts (Veladota, 35). All these things still happen. Oates’ story provides a girl’s perspective which can help to uncover the truth behind the teenagers’ urgent need to escape even though it may harm them.

Arnold Friend has such a surname to create irony and contrast. He wants to appear as a friend but due to his forced intentions and a huge amount of attention he pays to Connie he can be called a disturbing character. For example, his attempt to seduce Connie continues even though he knows her parents would be against it. For Arnold Friend the most important task is to trick Connie to come inside the car, and he does almost anything to do it eventually succeeding. For Connie ride in a car with an older boy clearly is an adventure and not a threat (Johnson, 92).

Connie sees in Arnold Friend an idea that she can’t even formulate. For Connie Friend’s request and his attention become a possibility to mature sexually. This is the exact thing that makes teenagers go awry making so many mistakes in their youth – inability to interpret own feelings. Connie’s developing sexuality urges her to act but she does not know how to act and what exactly to do. Due to this Arnold Friend’s request comes at exactly the right time to be approved.

A very important point to cover is the fact that Connie is a very beautiful and sexually attractive girl. Another significant detail is the complex relationship with her mother who is critical of Connie and whom Connie even wishes to be dead sometimes (Oates, 12). This is a standard typical teenage problem that girls have when their sexuality uncovers and start to push them towards becoming mature. Connie is beautiful and the way Arnold Friend encounters her reassures Connie in her beauty. Many teenagers, not only girls, do a lot of mistakes partly to become free from their parents. For Connie a possibility of adventure with an older boy is a door into adulthood (Johnson, 84). Connie is innocent and has naïve dreams about love and romance. These daydreams as they called in the short story present Connie as a virgin, an innocent girl who has never been in love before. There is an opinion that the most beautiful girls are often the loneliest as their beauty makes other people uncomfortable and uncertain (Veladota, 50). Arnold Friend clearly does have confidence due to his age which is why his quest to win Connie is doomed to be successful.

Runaway children are a huge problem around the world. Teenagers who leave their homes being still children are insecure without parent’s support. However, often it is exactly parents whom teenagers blame in their running away. Nevertheless, the real problem and the issue covered in the short story is teenage sexuality that makes young adults frustrated, shocked, and puzzled. When a child becomes an adult a lot can occur making this process painful, uncomfortable, and troublesome not only for the teenagers themselves but for their parents, relatives, and close ones as well. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates makes a successful attempt to uncover the truth behind the need of teenagers to run away so blindly and willingly. It may be so that popular culture constructs an image of romance and ideal love which girls especially seek to find in the real world. Connie is almost ready to leave even before Arnold Friend comes (Johnson, 90). Her rising sexuality alongside with her physical beauty even makes her think about death. Connie’ psyche and maturing body want something that her personality cannot formulate. Arnold Friend approaching Connie answers the questions she does not ask but wants to know the answers to.

Modern teenage culture nowadays is different from what is used to be in the 1950s and 1960s. A prominent German psychologist and sociologist Erich Fromm claimed that the liberation of children from their parent’s and liberation of women from men were the two greatest revolutions of the 20th century (Fromm, 132). In the 1960s this revolution was still on its way. Today teenager’s freedom is taken for granted. With the global legalization of marijuana, a teenager smoking weed is no longer a shock for anybody. This is also true for sexual frivolity, partying, quarrels with parents etc. A lot of things uncommon then nowadays became average and even normal. Due to this, even teenage runaways can no longer surprise anybody.

I think that Joyce Carol Oates’ story can be useful for teenagers and parents at any time. Our world became even more complex with popular culture being an even more huge influence on the way teenagers adapt to the world. Nowadays children have internet and information they receive from it can affect them differently. The Internet can be used to chat with an older guy or even to buy guns and commit a terrorist attack. A variety of different cases (shootings in school) shows that the internet is way more dangerous for young minds than popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s. Like Connie constructs the dream of ideal and perfect love in her head and jumps into the car with a stranger so do modern children violate different legal and/or moral laws when they browse the internet. A 10-year old who has an access to internet can ruin his sexual life by watching a couple of pornographic videos. Even though this is way better than being abducted still sexual frustration is a huge issue to deal with for anybody who grows up.

Arnold Friend is often interpreted as a devil figure whose appearance is well disguised, intentions unknown, and manner of talk is either sweet or violent. Arnold Friends acts and speaks like the devil himself because he first uses lies to trick Connie and then threats (Oates, 18). Arnold Friend is a crafty and sly character. He is like a devil as he cleverly manipulates Connie to make her do what he wants hr o do and what she thinks she wants (because, clearly, Connie does not want to be raped, abducted, and killed).

All in all, the most important issue covered in Oates’ short story is the motive of Connie’s interaction with a “friend” who really is the opposite of it. Connie comes willingly and joins Friend voluntarily tricked by the dialogue with him. Even though Friend is the enemy and a villain of the story it is Connie’s character development due to which she joins him that has the most important meaning. Connie’s sexual frustration and inability to interpret her own feelings devastate her and she throws herself in the hands of a potential killer. When Connie steps out of her house she becomes a runaway whose urgent need of adventure becomes a way to project her sexuality by subjecting to a man’s will. Connie matures and becomes a woman already trapped in the man’s hands. The story stays topical nowadays due to the fact that teenagers have never stopped running away from their homes. Connie’s maturity does not evolve slowly or progress gradually but becomes forced and quick. Connie runs away with a negatively presented Friend because her sexual frustration and shock over the childhood’s end are so enormous and overwhelming she cannot take it anymore. Therefore, the story’s main message shows what an important part the process of sexual maturity plays in cases when teenagers run away from their parent risking their lives.





Works Cited

Fromm, E. To Have or To Be? New York: Penguin, 2010.

Johnson, G. Understanding Joyce Carol Oates. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007.

Johnson, G. Joyce Carol Oates: a study of the short fiction. Chicago: Twayne Publishers, 2005.

Joyce, C. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? New York: Penguin, 2010.

Veladota, C. Teen Runaways. Boston: Lucent Books, 2003.