Character juxtaposition in Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

The characters in Oates' story are so brilliantly crafted that critics and scholars have had created enormous volume of literature about those characters. Some critics have suggested that Arnold is the devil and that Connie, the protagonist, is the devil's target. And this certainly can be justified by looking closely at the descriptive elements surrounding Oates' narrative descriptions. Thesis: Oates has crafted a story that embraces dramatically juxtaposed characters, not just to set the good against the bad, but to paint a bigger picture that allows the reader to identify with any number of compellingly familiar traits and motives in the characters. Those characters that Oates presents also mirror other characters in literature, like Cinderella and the devil.

Setting the Stage for "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Critic Brian Wilkie asserts that Joyce Carol Oates' fiction is so "various" in its tone and its subject it appears as though the author set out to craft the stories "that it is impossible to write" (Wilkie, 2006). The characters that Oates brings to life are "attractively trampy, sinister, or delinquent adolescents from underclass or well-to-do backgrounds," and in the case of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" The characters seem to match up to Wilkie's description (Wilkie, p. 1). Indeed, Connie, at fifteen and pretty, could fit that "attractively trampy" woman and Eddie certainly qualifies for the "sinister…delinquent adolescent"; and Wilkie notes that the great majority of Oates' short stories have a "terrible intensity" in which the "torrent of life" can overwhelm a reader, most often in a "frightening way" (Wilkie, p. 1).

Moreover, the "great mental power" that Oates exhibits in her narrative is illustrated through the "sheer explosiveness of her work" -- and in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" this explosiveness creeps up on the reader when Connie first meets Arnold. Connie "threw her shoulders up and sucked in her breath with the pure pleasure of being alive," which is a way for a young woman to show off her breasts. And soon in that same paragraph, a cute boy in a gold-colored car stared at her, "his lips widened into a grin" and Connie couldn't resist looking back at him even after she "slit her eyes at him"; Arnold wags his finger in a scolding kind of motion (like a parent would warn a child), and said, in an obvious foreshadowing, "Gonna get you baby" (Oates, p. 1).

A bit later in the story Arnold is trying to coax Connie to get into his car, and wags his finger again. Her cheeks actually were "warmed" remembering how she had showed him her physical charms back that first day she met him by sucking in her breath. Getting warm physically by remembering how she caught his eye with her breasts is explosive writing, and Oates follows that up with a description of Arnold -- his eyes were "like chips of broken glass that catch the light in an amiable way" (Oats, p. 4). By showing the reader Arnold's eyes were like broken glass, and that he had on "tight jeans that showed his thighs and buttocks" and a "tight shirt" with a "sleepy dreamy smile" -- these are titillating descriptive facts that paint a picture that a 15-year-old pubescent girl responds to in a sensual way. It goes downhill from there in terms of Connie's safety; her immaturity opens the door for this evil thing to happen to her.

Oates Dramatizes the American Culture

More than creating believable, interesting, fascinating characters -- and great tension -- in this short story, Oates' ability to create a theme through setting and cultural activities is extraordinarily powerful. The "squalid hamburger joint" is very much a cultural image; and the blaring of Ellie's radio also contributes to the theme of sleazy boy out to pick up a girl for his own pleasure (Slimp, 1999). And as Oates' brilliant narrative continues, the reader can sense a "tightening of the stomach and a quickening of the pulse" as the story leads the reader to fully understand exactly what Arnold is up to. Slimp points out that Oates believes that America has in many ways become a "cultural wasteland" and that Connie is caught up in it because she is "shallow and vapid"; Connie's superficiality is shown by the mere fact that she believes the "height of human suffering is the annoyance" she experiences when her mother chides her (Slimp. P. 1). Moreover, Oates lets the reader know that Connie is simple when Connie says she would rather die than continue as is. The simplistic life that Connie leads -- within a cultural wasteland that an evil but charming boy can seem to shine in -- has of course been her path to her ultimate demise, and give Oates credit for bringing these personality traits out so perfectly.

Connie -- A Complicated, Believable Character

Is Connie's escape anything like Cinderella's escape? Critic Stan Kozikowski suggests that while Connie rebelliously escapes going on the family picnic -- and with that act Connie believes that there will be a pleasurable resolution -- but it ends tragically, quite differently than. Cinderella, who of course escaped the misery of her mean spirited sisters and she did find a pleasant ending. According to Kozikowski, an American girl just wants to "feel good," to get attention from those around her, and "to be cherished" -- which she begins believing she can achieve from early childhood on. This is the Cinderella motif in storytelling, Kozikowski continues, which is used by American merchandizing in terms of the "flashy, readily consumable" commodities that sell feminization. And along comes Connie, who is simple but clings to a kind of Cinderella hope that cannot possibly be manifested for a 15-year-old girl who is entranced by the beat of music and by the power of a boy's voice and appearance.

In fact Connie is pretty, fairly good natured but not comfortable in her family; Kozikowski writes that Connie is "beleaguered and neglected," and lives at home like Cinderella did, with a "…complaining, mean-spirited mother and an indifferent ineffectual father" (p. 3). Like the Cinderella dynamics, Connie's mother prefers Connie's older sister to her: "Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother dead and she herself was dead and it was all over" (Oates, p. 26). Oates has created a tension in this story that carries throughout the story, and the very idea that Connie would wish herself dead is powerful writing that makes a powerful impression on the reader. To finish the Cinderella connection, on page 4 Kozikowski writes that while Cinderella lost a show, a slipper, Connie is losing her innocence, and the prince charming in this case is the devil disguised. Kozikowski goes on to suggest that Connie's character is really created by Oates to reflect how the "sexual appetite" of a male can "devour the feminine ideal" (Kozikowski, 2004).

In conclusion, as was mentioned in the thesis, Joyce Carol Oates is not just creating characters that reflect good and evil, and all things in between those contrasting themes. She is giving the reader an in-depth look at human traits that everyone can recognize, either in people that come into many American lives throughout the growing up period, or in literature. The Cinderella metaphor is aptly connected to Connie's character, and painting Arnold as a person with broken glass for eyes brings to mind people who seem sincere but have diabolical intentions beyond the music they listen to and the clothes they wear.