Megan N. Walter
Professor Breneman
English 1302
16 July 2013

Reality Verses Fantasy in Oats`s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oats is a short story that portrays a fifteen year old girl named Connie. Although she is shy and somewhat cynical. She rejects being a daughter, sister, and even “nice” girl to cultivate her sexual persona which blooms and is exposed when she is away from home and her family. She flaunts herself when she out with her friends and tries to expose herself as older than what she really is. She has a split personality that once Arnold Friends, an older boy who shows interest in Connie shows up to her house unexpectedly when she`s by herself, is forced to meet at once. Arnold Friends can be described as a somewhat attractive, unexplainable, eighteen-year-old boy but is really this somewhat of a mental, deranged, demonic, man that has stalked Connie`s life. When he first arrives Connie seems to be in control and holds to herself, but finally Arnold breaks her down through using threats and she cries out for her mother who she sometimes even wishes was dead. Even though Connie sees Arnold as this strange, ominous, stalker she is hypnotized by the way he flaunts at her, and sees him in such a romantic way such as her love songs make guys out to be. At the end she finds herself walking out her own door of safety and into the arms of this strange , non-humanlike man.
Joyce Carol Oats wrote the story to show the difference between fantasy and reality. Connie makes herself appear to be this confident, sexual goddess through her style, hair, and adult persona. Even her mother noticed the fact that she was trying depict herself in such a way and she didn`t approve of it. She wants her to be more like her plain, steady sister June: “Stop gawking at yourself, who are you? You think you`re so pretty?....” “Why don`t you keep your room clean like your sister? How you`ve got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don`t see your sister using that junk.” Although all her mother was trying to do was help, Connie took at as if she was a cruel, heartless hag who praised her sister and looked down upon her.
Connie confuses her desire of attention from boys and to have them lust her is a sexual way. Although she has experimented her sexuality, such as when she goes to the alleyway with Eddie, she is fearful of falling into adulthood. Arnold Friend takes her by force into adulthood, but this violent act represents a shift within Connie herself: the abandoning of childlike fantasy for the realities of being a mature woman. He