Why do individuals do certain things; one may not understand the consequences of an action, or realize that it has a positive or negative effect on the present and future of their lives. The cause of an action can tell why it has a specific effect. For instance, a short story by Joyce Carol Oates titled, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is very interesting and allows you to make inferences based on the information given. One can evaluate from the material given the causes and effects of certain situations. This story is about a teenage girl named Connie, who replaces the traditional family values with her own because of how the music of that time period influenced her. This change weakens the relationship between her, her parents, …show more content…
Connie is affected by the music of her time period and this causes her decisions to be effected.
To have a strong relationship with family members or anyone in general one must spend time with the person. Allowing oneself to have time with another person helps one learn about the person and understand a person to a higher level. Connie sees her family as being boring, helpless, and annoying. She values her friends more than her family because she believes she can relate to her friends more than her parents or sister. For example, “She and that girl and occasionally another girl went out several times a week, and the rest of the time Connie spent around the house”, (Paragraph ,10). This line from the text tells how Connie spends more time with her friends instead of her family. The effect of Connie not spending time with her family makes her lose family values and the chance of connection that could be made with a family relationship. To continue, with her spending more time outside of the home, than in the home, she picks up values from her social life with her friends. Also, this makes her not want to follow her home values and follow the ones her friends have and the one she created for herself; she begins to
(Oates). Also, her dad does not pay her any attention to her either. Her father goes to work and eats. If Connie’s family was more active in her life, then she would have never followed the wrong path and
Last year me and my family went to universal for horror night. We had decided to go the the Insidious maze last so we continued and went to all the mazes. When the time had came, it was time for the Insidious maze we (me and my family) were all nervous so we voted who was going to be in front of the line. And they all chose me so when we were up I walked slowly since it was pretty dark inside the maze.
In Joyce Carol Oate’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the coming of age message is to avoid living in your childhood fantasies so much that you can’t face the realities of adulthood. Connie is a fifteen years old girl who wants to act mature but constantly living in her childhood fantasies. When it comes to her craving of acting like a grown up, she goes to the Big Boy restaurant with her friends but left them behind when a boy is asking her to go out for dinner. When she gets home, she dreams that ‘the boy’ she met last night whose ‘sweet, gentle’ and just like ‘in the movies and promised in songs’(52). Sweet and gentle are being expressed as imagery to describe the boy that Connie met the night before.
After the extremely stressful experience of almost encountering her mother on the streets, the speaker returns to her home and begins to question the way that she's living. She recognizes that she's not living a happy life, saying that "[she'd] tried to make a home for myself here, tried to turn the apartment into the sort of place where the person [she] wanted to be would live. " This statement is extremely profound because the speaker recognizes
The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and movie Smooth Talk took over the nation by storm. Both loosely based off and inspired from true events committed by Charles Schimid .Whose terrible acts made America gasp in stock but also were able to allow a wee bit of light to be able to shed down on literature. “Where Are You Going,Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates .
In the story "Where Is Here?" by Joyce Carol Oates, she has a specific way of plotting the events. Oates tells us the certain time and place the story takes place. She tells us the order of the events in the story, for a certain reason. Oates wouldn't have ordered the story in this certain manner if there wasn't a reason.
Arnold Friend, the antagonist in Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” represents the devil who arrives to bring Connie to the underworld. For example, his unusual appearance implies that he is an inhuman being, unlike what he wants to lead on. As he struggles to walk from his car to the front door, Connie notes that “his whole face was a mask... tanned down to his throat...as if he had..makeup on..but had forgotten about his throat”(5). Arnold Friend covers his demonic features in order to pass as a teenager with the intention of deceiving Connie into leaving with him.
A couple weeks ago I was left home alone. My mom went out to Los Angeles and my brother slept over his friend's house. I went down stairs to get a glass of water. I heard the sound of the garage being opened . I gave it a second before checking to see what is was because the person who would have opened the garage should have came in already.
She no longer shows her as innocent and pure but also portrays her sexual desires and her craving for them to be
Likewise, because of her desire for individuality, she exhibits her selfishness by placing her happiness at the forefront of everything. By doing so, she abandons her
The story “Where is Here” by Joyce Oates is about a married couple who are being visited by a mysterious man, who they have never seen before. The visitor is walking through their house, seemingly reliving childhood memories. When the stranger says, “I mean, I was a child in this house” this proves that the stranger had lived in the house as a child and had memories of his childhood, but there was no telling how long ago that was. The wife is worried about who the young man is and what his intentions are, she even says “The garage! What does he want in there!”
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates dives deep in the realm of suspense and the psychological mind. The story revolves around Connie who can best be described as the stereotypical teenage girl who’s shallow mind focuses on her appearance and her male counterparts. The tone of the story starts off light-hearted depicting Connie’s halcyon days of summer adolescence. However the tone shifts dramatically to a more mystical and suspenseful element when a man named Arnold Friend suddenly arrives at her house. Connie is quizzical about the fact that this strange older looking “boy” arrives at her house with his friend Ellie.
Introduction, Hook. The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates revolves around the dangers of narcissism. By the end of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Connie, the main character, is () in a () of unfavorable circumstances, this development, influenced to some degree by the failings of society, and lack of proper parental support i due mostly to Connie’s foolish actions and narcissistic attitude. Throughout the course of events in the story the influences of society drive Connie to behave in certain ways leading to unforeseen consequences.
Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” leads the reader to believe both Connie and Arnold Friend battle with their identity. As Oates begins the story, she introduces Connie as “shallow and vapid” (Slimp); more obsessed with herself to notice the real world around her. Connie had a tendency to look “one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home” (Oates 1), showing the reader she was two sided. Connie’s need to change her identity based on her location can very much stem from a lack of self-confidence. This can also be seen with Arnold Friend.
While reading the story, you can tell in the narrators’ tone that she feels rejected and excluded. She is not happy and I’m sure, just like her family, she wonders “why her?” She is rejected and never accepted for who she really is. She is different. She’s not like anyone else