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Abby Holdeman
Mrs. Carter
AP Literature
30 October, 2014
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Analysis
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates, is an eerie
tale about Connie, a self-absorbed, naive, teenage girl (as all teenage girls are) who
falls under the spell of Arthur Arnold Friend and presumably meets a gruesome end. In
the story, Oates conveys the theme of the deceitfulness of appearances by using plot
and structure, irony, and characterization.
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? begins by talking about Connies
life. She is a normal teenage girl, rebellious against her parents, obsessed about boys,
annoyed by her perfect older sister. The routineness of this life, detailed in the first
paragraphs of the story are sharply contrasted by the rest. Once Connie opens the door
to Arnold Friend, the feeling of the story changes from familiar to aberrant. The off-beat
behavior of Arnold Friend is juxtaposed against the normality of Connies life before; the
change jars the reader. The theme is also conveyed by Oates omitting details from the
plot. When Connie tries to call her mom after Arnold warns her not to, Oates doesnt tell
us the reader exactly what Arnold does to Connie, just that he was stabbing her again
and again with no tenderness,., the actual act left up to the readers imagination. The
reader doesnt know if Arnold stabbed her, raped her, or just hurt her in some way. Even
the ending is shrouded in ambiguity - ; it ends with Connie staring into the sunlit
distance, places she did not recognize except to know that she was going to it. The

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reader doesnt know what happens, but they can only guess, horrible, terrible things. By
not specifying what happens, Oates does the worst thing an author can do: let the
readers imagination run wild.
Oates also uses irony to convey the theme of Where Are You Going, Where
Have You Been?. Connie is at the age where shes interested in boys, and ready to start
exploring her sexuality. She and her friends often sneak off to a drive-in restaurant in
order to meet boys. Connie even leaves her friend alone in order to spend some time
with a boy. She believes shes mature enough to take care of herself, as all teenagers
do. However, when a boy is finally interested in Connie, he turns out to be way more
than she bargained for. Arnold Friend shows up at Connies door, ready to be her Prince
Charming and sweep her off her feet, everything shes been waiting for. HeArnold
claims to be her age, but she can tell that he is much older. The level of maturity that
Connie believed she had is quickly dashed by Arnold, and she realizes, unfortunately
too late, that she in fact needs her parents help. The name Arnold Friend in itself is
ironic, for Arnold Friend is no friend to Connie. Connies name is also ironic as it
symbolizes her naivety. If she had a name like Margaret or Diane, she could be seen as
mature, but with a name like Connie, shes bound to be seen as immature.
Oates use of characterization also helps convey the theme. As soon as Connie
sees Arnold, she immediately begins to notice things that are off about him. He wears
clothes that are appropriate for the time period: tight jeans, greasy leather boots, tight
shirt, and even smiles that slippery friendly smile [...] that all the boys used to get
across ideas that they didnt want to put into words,, yet Connie doubts hes what he
appears to be. He claims to be eighteen, but even that seems wrong, he was much

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older - thirty, maybe. Connies observations about Arnold help the reader realize that
somethings wrong with him, even if they he or she cannot exactly place what it is.
In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Gone?, Oates use of plot and
structure causes the reader to imagine their his own endings to the story, and jar the
reader through the juxtapositionjuxtaposes of the normality of Connies life before , and
the aberrant turn the story takes once Arnold Friend shows up. Irony in the story helps
foreshadow Connies fate. The characterization of Arnold Friend shows that he is no
friend to Connie. Surmised, Joyce Carol Oates conveys that appearances, be it they a
teenage girl pretending to be mature or even a strange boy masquerading as a
Friend,, can be deceiving.