Fernandez 1
Arielle Fernandez
Zollo, P.
English 110
23 May 2016
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
In Joyce Carol Oates’s creepy short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You
Been?” fantasy meets toe-to-toe with reality and Connie, the young protagonist of the story,
learns the truth about her date with destiny. Oates builds up Connie’s character in a context that
sets her her up to fail in the face of danger. Learning about her life and on the cusp of growing
up, poor Connie jumps head first into the deep waters of adulthood, unprepared. By using literary
devices, Oats creates an eerie story about how an adolescent’s decisions guided by fantasy sealed
her unfortunate fate.
Connie, the fifteen-year-old protagonist in Oates’ short story, is described as an attractive
girl with “long dark blonde hair that drew anyone’s eye to it” who “knew she was pretty and that
was everything.” Connie’s mother does not actively participate in her life except to express
disapproval about her obsession with looks. Because her mother is constantly criticizing her and
comparing her to her older sister June, who saved money, helped clean the house, and cooked,
she simply drowns out the sound of her mother’s nagging by finding the “shadowy vision of
herself right as she was at that moment” reflected in her mother’s eyes. Rather than turning to her
older sister as a role-model, she rejects the very idea of being anything like her sister, who she
describes as “plain and chunky and steady”. Even with the relationship Connie and her mother
maintain and how her mother speaks so highly of June, Connie truly believes that her mother
prefers her to June simply because she was the prettier of the two. Since Connie has no real role-
Fernandez 2
model, male or female, to learn from, she completely disregards any logical way to judge a
person’s character, choosing to try and figure out adulthood alone while fantasizing about the
songs she hears on the radio, the movies she sees in theaters, and the boys she meets along the
way.
Something Connie did appreciate about her older sister June is that she would sometimes
go out with her girlfriends, which meant Connie was also allowed to go out with hers.
Unsupervised, Connie and her friends would get dropped off to the mall several times a week to
watch the occasional movie and shop around. Many times, however, the mall was not their
ultimate destination. Instead, Connie and her friends would cross the highway to a drive-in
restaurant to meet older boys. In one instance, Connie and her girlfriend decide to cross the
highway to this restaurant, where Connie catches the attention of a cute older boy named Eddie.
