Sexuality In Joyce Carol Oates Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Human sexuality has a profound impact on our society; more importantly, everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, or age has a role in human sexuality. It can be as simple as when a woman flaunts her chest and smiles seductively at a police officer to get out of a speeding ticket. Men can even manipulate their sexuality by pretending to share the same interests as a female to benefit his efforts of being with her. Human sexuality even defines what attributes are desired and considered attractive. For example, when Jennifer Lopez, a famous actress, debuted her voluptuous curves every man and woman considered her amble bottom to be the epiphany of today’s sexual desires. Human sexuality can benefit the person using their sexuality to gain
In, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates shares a story about a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie who encounters Arnold Friend, a predator whose first words to Connie are, “Gonna get you, baby” (Oates). One day, while Connie is home alone, she receives an unexpected visitor from the mysterious boy she saw the other night while hanging out with friends. The mysterious boy introduces himself as Arnold Friend and tries to persuade Connie to take a ride with him by bragging about his car’s new paint job and enticing Connie to view more paintings found conveniently on the opposite door. As Arnold continues his coversation with Connie she “could see that he wasn’t a kid, he was much older-thirty, maybe more” (Oates) and Arnold begins to aggresively persuade Connie to take a ride with him in his car. After Arnold threatens Connie and her family, she has no choice but to “put out her hand against the screen” (Oates) and watch “herself push the door slowly open” (Oates) and leave with
When Arnold pays an unexpectant visit to Connie, she first notices his car and his “shaggy, shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig” (Oates). Arnold knows that a car is a fifteen-year-old girl’s pinnacle view of attractive and desirable, so he attempts to lure Connie with his car. He first starts by carefuly displaying his car door, which has Arnold Friend written in “tarlike black letters on the side” (Oates). Secondly, Arnold tries to engage Connie’s curiousity by reading “off the numbers 33, 19, 17” (Oates) and raises “his eyebrows at her to see what she thought of that” (Oates). Next, Arnold is knowledgeable of what attire is attractive to girls so he wears “tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pull-over that was a little soiled and showed the hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders” (Oates). As an older man, Arnold knows he has a good chance of luring Connie to take a ride with him because he has used his car and clothes to show Connie how attractive he is, similar to how a peacock displays his feathers. One more manipulation Arnold uses is his use of body language. When he first sees Connie at the restaurant he stares “at her and then his lips widened into a grin” (Oates) and “wagged a finger” (Oates) in her direction. Arnold uses this bold gesture to assure Connie