In the story “Where Are You Going, Where have you Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, my view is that it’s fantasy against reality. Another view can also be the transition from childhood to womanhood or independence. Connie, one of the main characters, acts and portrays herself as being an adult throughout the story. Her mother was constantly down her back because she thought Connie was too concerned with her looks rather than other things. Connie convinced herself that this was who she is and let this fantasy of a lifestyle get to her head. Instead of letting the transition play its part, Connie forced it, and didn’t understand the danger behind this. She did things like use her good looking appearance and mean attitude to attract boys, which she thought was the right way to go about things, but wasn’t. All she really wanted was attention, but wasn’t taught that all attention isn’t good, especially if you’re portraying yourself a certain way. In the story Connie explores her sexuality and independence when we see her meet guys like Eddie and they go to the alley to do whatever. All this was fine because nothing bad ever happened to Connie and her fantasy persona lives on. Connie wasn’t hit with the reality of how bad things could get for her until she met Arnold. Arnold was considered a bad boy and read right through Connie’s tricks and fake persona. When Arnold scares Connie by the way he was acting in front of her house, it basically exposed her persona of not being as experienced as she claims. Not only that, Connie finally realizes the consequences of her actions, and this when reality sets in for her. Arnold also shows signs of living between fantasy and reality which Oates expresses throughout the story. In the story he wears sunglasses that don’t show his eyes but reflects everything else off them. Also he has a car which was old but with the new paint job it seemed brand new. These two things can be used as symbols to show how Arnold tries his best to hide the true him or he’s a very sneaky, secretive person in a way.
One thought on “Jontay B”
Jontay. it’s true that the Korb article presents several interpretations of the story. However,the prompt for this week asks students to address the idea of the “inverted fairytale.”