Connie Fifteen-year-old Connie exhibits the confusing, often superficial behavior typical of a teenage girl facing the difficult transition from girlhood to womanhood. She is rebellious, vain, self-centered, and deceitful. She is caught between her roles as a daughter, friend, sister, and object of sexual desire, uncertain of which one represents the real her: “Everything about…
Tag: Joyce Carol Oates
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been: Summary
Connie is a fifteen-year-old teenager growing up in suburbia in the 1960s. She is preoccupied with typical teenage concerns: her looks and popular music. She argues with her mother, makes fun of her older, plainer sister, and hangs out with her friends in restaurants, movie theaters, and shopping malls. During these summertime social ventures, she…
Critical Interpretation of Where Are You Going and Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates’
Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going and Where Have You Been? is a suspenseful and thrilling story. I found some aspects of it interesting while others superfluous. The following passages will lay out my critical interpretation of the story. Firstly, the characterization of the two main characters is very impressive. The mental makeup of…