"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, in the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of language is carefully controlled in order to maintain a sense of uncertainty as the story unfolds. The reader may see the story as simply a detailed account of a day in the life of a young girl, but as the story proceeds, a sense of foreboding is also created that leads inevitably to the shocking conclusion. In particular, the paper looks at how various symbols of freedom are raised and shown to have a dual identity, both as symbols of freedom and as threats.

From the Paper:

"One such symbol is the automobile, a clear symbol of freedom for the teenager--Connie can only get to the plaza because her father takes her there and then picks her up in his car, and a car would be a means for her to get places on her own if she had one. The car is an inherent symbolic element in the highway that also represents a route to freedom and in the drive-in where older kids hang out, older kids with a car. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Daly, Brenda O. "An Unfilmable Conclusion: Joyce Carol Oates at the Movies." In The Tales We Tell: Perspectives on the Short Story, R. C. Feddersen, Susan Lohafer, Barbara Lounsberry, Stephen Pett, and Mary Rohrberger (eds.), 121-138. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998.
• Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Princeton: Ontario Review Press, 1993.
• Quirk, Tom. Nothing Abstract: Investigations in the American Literary Imagination. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001.

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