Joyce Carol Oates presents a description of an adolescent girl's disaffection with her family and rape by Arnold Friend in the short story "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Throughout the story the reader watches Connie, the central character, reject her family, friends and self in an attempt to deny her youth and jump to adulthood. At the climax of the story she encounters Arnold Friend, an older boy, who manipulates Connie's distorted perspective to destroy her world and rape her.

"Where are You Going..." is told in the third person by a narrator who is heavily biased toward Connie's perspective. From the opening description of Connie's older sister as "... so plain and chunky and steady that Connie had to hear her praised all the time..." (467) the reader is presented with the narr

ow-minded world of a misguided adolescent. Oates uses a simplified sentence structure to further draw the reader into Connie's world. Oates then uses an almost inhumanly evil character, Arnold Friend, to destroy this environment.

She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were safe back somewhere in the other doorway, watching this boxy and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited. (478)

Joyce Carol Oates. "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 2nd Compact ed. New York: Longman, 2000. 466-479

By having the main character walk seemingly of her own accord into the arms of evil Oates describes a powerful form of evil. This villain is not instantly recognized as such, and provides a perfect match for the distorted perspective of the central character.

Joyce Carol O

Some common words found in the essay are:
Arnold Friend, Arnold Friend's, Carol Oates, Where Throughout, arnold friend, Lake Oats, Dana Gioia, Joyce Carol, York Longman, joyce carol, carol oates, joyce carol oates, character joyce carol, central character, physical appearance, arnold friend's, main character, character arnold, character joyce, character arnold friend, distorted perspective,
Approximate Word count = 620
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)