Joyce Carol Oates' Where are you going, where have you been

A detailed Summary of Joyce Carol Oates' Where are you going, where have you been

Oates' "Where are you going, where have you been?"

Oates' "Where are you going, where have you been?" is very descriptive and reads like a movie in one's mind. Every event, every sound, every scene is crystal clear. Like every good book (or short story in this case) the characters become our friends and we come to understand them as we understand the people we know best in our lives. We feel the feelings that they feel and live their experiences along with them. Oates draws us into the story with her descriptive details and immediately invokes our emotions and keeps us interested through the end. But this story is much deeper upon reflection than it seems at first.

In order to understand this story, it is important to understand the author. Oates is well known for her strong beliefs in the power of the novel. Because of this it is easy to understand why she includes themes that go deep into the mind of the reader and disturbs his comfort zone. She takes common American obsessions, such as love, money, and evil, and uses them as the basis of her stories. These obsessions that she uses are often the largest fears in normal people because they are such a tremendous part in everyone's life. This is one reason that

Arnold Friend reveals himself as a stalker when he says, "I know your name and all about you, lot's of things". He knows where her parents are, what they are wearing, whom they are with, when they are returning, who her friends are and their names. To the reader, his knowledge of this information is very eerie.

Most of her personality is rather typical of a fifteen-year-old also. She is boy crazy, which is normal among girls her age. She takes it a step further and seems to be in love with being in love. Early in the story, Oates hints that Connie's boy craziness may be her weakness (or maybe an obsession) and it leaves the reader with a sense of uneasiness. "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 music...." This line gives the impression that Connie is rather promiscuous for someone her age, thus including the theme of a society without innocence. It also foreshadows future events.

Connie loves to go out with her girlfriends and fortunately for her she is allowed because June enjoys it also. The excitement that she feels when she is out is easy to identify with. Night after night, she goes out and every night she is with a different boy. All of this activity seems harmless until she encounters a boy who later reveals himself as a clever, malicious stalker who decides she is his next victim. She firsts notices him when she is out with a boy and she noticed a boy with black hair and a convertible jalopy painted gold staring at her. She tries to ignore him and walk away but can not help looking back at him. He laughs at her and says "Gonna get you, baby." Because of the imagery and detail that Oates uses to describe the boy in the car, such as his wagging finger and what he says to her, this episode creates fear and nervousness in the reader.

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Short Stories for S

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Approximate Word count = 1319
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English