Critical Analysis of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Essay

What The World Has Done...In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? the author, Joyce Carol Oates,essentially asserts that the nuances of ones personality are non generated from within, but rathershaped by external circumstances. This is an argument whose defense is abundantly clear inthe inner conflict of Connie, the protagonist of the book. The arising of that struggle is herunstable relationship with her family, which ultimately pass ons in her identity conflict. As onewho always been deprived of father-figure, she feels the need to acquire attention from boys inorder to fill that void.The realism and characterization with which Oates makes this point in the trading floor havegarnered much praise. Connie is presented as the quintessential teenage lady friend. Like all otherfemale adolescent, she is preoccupied with make up, boys and music. Great characterization isseen in Arnold Friend - described by Oates as one who appears at starting glace as a boy withshaggy, black h air, in a convertible jalopy painted gold(427) - who employs manipulativeconversational maneuver to gain psychological control of Connie. Later, he even changes hisapparel in order to draw Connie to himself, an act which makes him reminiscent of an enticing tease.Connie is a girl whose perception of the domain of a function has been shaped by her family andculture, causing her life to be literally split into two. At home, she acts as if she were anZabakolas 2innocent child that is unconcerned with the dynamics of the opposite sex. But once she venturesinto the real world she screams for male attention. In her domestic life, she has virtuallynobody and nothing upon which to consider (a fact that she e... ..., shows what happens to the psyche of the individual who is shown no love inthe big environment or in the safety of her own home. Connie was influenced by manydamaging sources that prohibit her from achieving a proper self-identity. As a result of beingneglected by her father , denigrated by her mother, compared to her sister and her desire to beloved by her family and others, she developed an identity problem that ultimately lead her to thedevil. It is not until the very end, through her acquaintance with Arnold Friend, that she is ableto achieve most sort of happiness. Even then, her happiness is a tragedy as the devil wheels herin.Works CitedOates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Literature and the Writing Process. Eds. E. MacMahan et al. 7th Edition. speeding Saddle River(NJ)Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.