Comparing Where Are You Going 'And The Girl With The Blackened Eye'
Catalina Pension
Mrs. Wall
English 1102
21 April 2011
Joyce Carol Oates uses characterization and the coming of age effectively in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, “Four Summers”, and “The Girl with the Blackened Eye”. She uses it to connect the three stories to each other. Connie and the girl in “The Girl with the Blackened Eye” are connected because they were both violated by a man. Connie and Sissie were both connected because they were both influenced by their families’ ways on how they lived their lives.
Joyce Carol Oates is noted for her ability to create stories with terror and also known for the descriptive violence in her portrayals of America life. Gothic elements, emphasizing the mysterious and horrifying suspects of life also appear frequently in Oates’s writing. Violence, often male and sexual, consistently plays an important role in the lives of her …show more content…
Connie also does not have a good relationship with her family. She seems disconnect from them and she lives in her own world. Since Connie does not have an open relationship with her family, they do not know what is going on with her life. She is a rebellious teenager. She wants to be older than she really is. She is caught between her roles as daughter, friend, sister, and an object of sexual desire. “Everything about her had two sides to it, on for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” 422). When she is introduced to Arnold, she cannot pretend anymore. She is introduced into adulthood. Just like Sissie, Connie’s family is responsible in how she chose to live her life because her family was not involved in her life. Even though her family was not that involved in her life that much “her attempt has succeeded is shown when she sacrifices herself by going out, at the end of the story to meet her fate, thereby sparing her family a violent and deadly encounter” (Slimp
Mrs. Wall
English 1102
21 April 2011
Joyce Carol Oates uses characterization and the coming of age effectively in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, “Four Summers”, and “The Girl with the Blackened Eye”. She uses it to connect the three stories to each other. Connie and the girl in “The Girl with the Blackened Eye” are connected because they were both violated by a man. Connie and Sissie were both connected because they were both influenced by their families’ ways on how they lived their lives.
Joyce Carol Oates is noted for her ability to create stories with terror and also known for the descriptive violence in her portrayals of America life. Gothic elements, emphasizing the mysterious and horrifying suspects of life also appear frequently in Oates’s writing. Violence, often male and sexual, consistently plays an important role in the lives of her …show more content…
Connie also does not have a good relationship with her family. She seems disconnect from them and she lives in her own world. Since Connie does not have an open relationship with her family, they do not know what is going on with her life. She is a rebellious teenager. She wants to be older than she really is. She is caught between her roles as daughter, friend, sister, and an object of sexual desire. “Everything about her had two sides to it, on for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” 422). When she is introduced to Arnold, she cannot pretend anymore. She is introduced into adulthood. Just like Sissie, Connie’s family is responsible in how she chose to live her life because her family was not involved in her life. Even though her family was not that involved in her life that much “her attempt has succeeded is shown when she sacrifices herself by going out, at the end of the story to meet her fate, thereby sparing her family a violent and deadly encounter” (Slimp