Summary Of The Short Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been'

In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates there is bad parenting and it costs Connie at the end. Throughout the entire story there is little or no parenting, or sometimes there is a little parenting but it is not very good parenting. For example, “their father was away at work most of the time and when he came home, he wanted supper and he read the newspaper at supper and after supper he went to bed. He didn’t bother talking much to them” (Oates 1). So even with her parents at home it is like they are not home. When Connie and her friends go to town they get left with no parents “and when he came to pick them up again at eleven he never bothered to ask what they had done” (Oates 1). Connie has virtually no parenting in her life and it costs her in the long run. With proper parenting Arnold friend never sees Connie. That means he never comes to Connie’s
This is not a very wealthy family by any means of the imagination. Despite the lack of money mom gave all that she could and provide for her family. They all had food and clothes and a roof over their heads and Dee was still not proud of them. Dee wrote mom once “that no matter where we ‘chose’ to live, she will manage to come see us but she will never bring her friends” (Walker 317). So, mom does her job to raise Dee and Maggie well and provide for them, but Dee always gets what she wants over Maggie. Mom could never say no. Dee comes home and wants stuff to decorate her apartment and mom gives her some, but the real change comes when mom tells Dee no she cannot have the quilt that is Maggie’s inheritance from grandma Dee. Mom does the right thing and does not let Dee take Maggie’s quilts. Never the less a poor single mom manages to raise two girls and put one into college and stands up for the other one when she never has before is pretty good