Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
In Joyce Carol Oates’ Where are you going, where have you been? we see a fifteen-year-old female narrator who is so oppressed by her family environment and small-town existence that, coupled with the coercive threat of Arnold and Ellie, she is unable to protect herself against Arnold’s abduction. There are three reasons Connie goes with Arnold: she longs for more than her oppressive environment gives her, Arnold threatens her family, and Ellie remains an able and willing threat of force.
We see that Connie yearns for more than her plain, simple family and small-town existence provide her with. She is the only pretty one in the family and her mother rides her constantly about her vanity, her chores, and a host of other issues large and trivial. Connie’s psyche is split between two personas as a result of this stifling environment “Everything about her has two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates 467). Because of this, when Connie is being persuaded by Arnold to go with him, he plays on this duality. As he tells her about her family “They don’t know one thing about you and never did and honey you’re better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you” (Oates 478). Thus, as much as Connie is coerced into leaving, there is also a side of her that has always wanted to leave.
Another reason Connie is helpless to remain at home is because of Arnold’s threats. He threatens to come in to the house if she uses the phone and tells her she does not want that! Also, he tells her the artificial environment of her father’s home is a cardboard box “I can knock down any time” (Oates 478). Perhaps the biggest threat that makes Connie unable to protect herself is that Arnold threatens harm to her family is she does not comply with his wishes “You don’t want them to get hurt” (Oates 478).
...