Teenagers in general are often stereotyped into one general category: unruly‚ uncaring‚ and self-absorbed. In the short story “Where are You Going‚ Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates plays on this stereotype. She uses imagery and point of view to direct the reader’s attention to the teenage girl psyche‚ selfish‚ whimsical‚ and longing for attention and affection‚ and how this stereotypical psyche can be distorted and controlled. The protagonist of the story‚ Connie‚ is a vain‚ “typical”
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In the short story Where Are you Going Where Have You been‚the main character Connie is very promiscuous and struggles with finding herself. Joyce Carol Oates takes the reader on a journey of teen rebellion turned tragic and uses Connie to show that becoming independent is not easy. Throughout the story you can interpret that Connie felt vulnerable and neglected by her family and friends. Her mother always talked about how she should be more like her older sister‚ Jane “she was so plain and chunky
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Be Careful What You Wish For Anything that is too much is harmful. The main character in "Where are you going‚ Where have you been?" Connie‚ faces the end conclusion of her shallow ways when she is approached by evil in human form. She had an excess of self-confidence. This self-confidence leads to a false sense of security and bad reputation. Connie also had a large amount of bad choices. She would do her best to impress boys with her looks; eventually she impressed the wrong guy. This
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The Fantasy of Life In the novels The Great Gatsby and "Where Are You Going and Where Have You Been" authors F. Scott Fitzgerald and Joyce Carol Oates show a theme of fantasy versus reality to convey a deeper meaning within their novels. They express this theme using characters such as Gatsby‚ Connie‚ Daisy and Arnold Friend within the stories. Through these characters lives and experiences the theme is created connecting both stories. The theme of fantasy versus reality is used to a great extent
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The short story “Where are you going‚ Where have you been?‚” by Joyce Carol Oates‚ is a tale about a teenage girl making the journey from her known world into something she has never experienced before. The main character lives the normal teenage life listening to the latest music and going out with her friends to the mall. “They must have been familiar sights‚ walking around the shopping plaza in their shorts and flat ballerina slippers that always scuffed the sidewalk” (753). One night with her
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In the story Where are You Going‚ Where have you been reach out to young girls that have family issue and personal issues going on in their life. Connie is a young teenager who is self-centered and thinks that she is a grown women but still has a child mindset. She doesn’t know how much danger she is in by messing with a older man that she barely knew. Connie felt like nobody in the family careed about her so she decided to stay at home instead of going to the family barbecue. She is a shattered
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In “Where Are You Going‚ Where Have You Been?” the author uses clothes as a symbol to reveal our protagonist and antagonist individualities. Connie who is our protagonist is a fifteen-year-old girl who has the habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors. Connie wears a pullover jersey blouse that looked one way when she is home and another way when she is away‚ in where she wears shorts. In the text‚ it states that “They must have been familiar sights walking around the shopping plaza in their
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Music in “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” In the story‚ repetition and strands of music take on a role of a character for Connie‚ offering a safe haven for a troubled girl. Throughout the story “Where Are You Going‚ Where Have you Been?”‚ Oates uses the element of strands and repetition of music to create a safe haven for Connie in which she can escape. The theme from a 1950’s song “It’s all Over Now‚ Baby Blue.” By Bob Dylan connects to the theme of escaping from “Where Are You Going? Where
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Describe a country you would like to visit. Madagascar is an island in the Indian Ocean‚ it belong to southern Africa. This country is a green gem in the Indian Ocean. Madagascar is very charming. It has wood carvings‚ strange animals‚ and lots of sapphires. Wood carving is a sign and symbol of this country and the nation’s culture and history (Heale‚ Abdul‚ 2008). There are known locally as the “holy wood”‚ this kind of wood is hard and heavy‚ and the texture is black and white (Ashamu et‚ al
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Death is something humans all naturally fear‚ but what about when it comes to death of a phase in your life?Through the themes of duality and reality vs. fantasy‚ Oats takes us on a journey through Connie’s transformation. Imagery and symbols throughout the story strengthen the main themes to show the contrast of Connie’s fantasies and reality. “Where are you going‚ where have you been.”‚ leaves us with the question can we handle such a change? Good and evil‚ yin and yang‚ the idea of everything
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