Femininity and the Transition to Adulthood in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” M Callaway College

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates is a short story that was published in the 1966 Fall edition of Epoch magazine. Connie, a fifteen-year-old girl, who frequently picks up boys without her parent’s knowledge at a local restaurant, catches the eye of a stranger named Arnold Friend. While her parents are at a barbecue, Arnold comes to her house to take her for a ride only growing more threatening saying he will harm Connie’s family if she refuses to go with him. Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” describes the coming of age of a teenager that vacillates between the threshold of adulthood and childhood but more importantly, her text seems to sit on the edge in terms of identity. In an interview with Elaine Showalter—Professor Emerita of English, and Avalon Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University—she discusses how Oates first imagined Connie as a “doomed ‘maiden’ of legend” in the short story:

Initially she saw the story as “an allegory of the fatal attractions of death. . . . An innocent young girl … mistakes death for erotic romance of a particularly American/trashy sort.” But as the story developed, she became more interested in its “moments of grace”—the “dramatic turn of...