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Essay on "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
by Joyce Carol Oates
Oates Where are you going, where have you been? Is very descriptive and reads like a movie in one s mind. Every event, every sound, every scene is crystal clear. Like every good book (or short story in this case) the characters become our friends and we come to understand them as we understand the people we know best in our lives. We feel the feelings that they feel and live their experiences along with them.
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is based on a killer in the southwest named Charles Smitty Schmidt who was charged for the rape and murder of three young girls in the fall of 1965 in Tucson, Arizona. Oates wrote the story after hearing Bob Dylan’s song Its All Over Now, Baby Blue. Oates also has dedicated the story to Dylan (Where 276). With these things in mind, it is much easier to understand the story. It is about a young teenage girl named Connie who instantly reminds us of ourselves at her age.
She is the typical fifteen-year-old who is self-absorbed and always daydreaming. Her mother is constantly chiding her because of her vanity. Her relationship with her family is also very normal. She and her mother bicker and argue like normal teens and their parents. She seems a little jealous of her older sister June because she is considered the good child, even though she is plain and homely. Oates is very detailed in her description of Connie s physical traits, with her long dark blonde hair and pretty face; it is easy to understand why she has so much confidence in herself.
Connie loves to go out with her girlfriends and fortunately for her she is allowed because June enjoys it also. The excitement that she feels when she is out is easy to identify with.....
