Where are You Going: Music

What really stirred me up in Oates' story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" was her use of music as a symbol for Connie, and her youth. The 60's were a time, when as we all know, music in popular culture was in a huge surge. Bands like the Beatles (and other British Invasion bands) and others were all over televisions, radio stations, etc. Consumerist media was at a new-time high, and music was right up at the top of that pyramid. So, it only makes sense that a young girl in the 60's, as any young person, would gravitate toward music. Listening to music can be relaxing, fun, insightful, and it allows someone young to relate with others, whether it be a musician or not. The lyrics of these songs resonate with people, making them feel less alone, even so much as to help guide them to find their true self.

Connie loves music. We can see evidence of this early into the story, when Oates writes "[we] listened to the music that made everything so good: the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon" (3124). Here she is saying that the music, to Connie, essentially validates something as being either cool, or unacceptable. The music, to Connie, demonstrates how much music means to her. She relates music to happier thoughts and feelings.

The one thing that most stuck with me in this story, overall, was Oates' depiction of taking advantage of someone's weaknesses. With Arnold Friend, there is just this intense exploitation of Connie's character through the music she loves. When he confronts her at her house, he makes use of music a couple of times to try and persuade her out. The first was his friend, Ellie, playing the same radio station as her. Arnold makes a comment when Connie notices the radio is playing Bobby King, "I listen to him all the time. I think he's great" (3126). He tries to gain her trust by using one thing that means so much to her. Since Connie listens to the radio often, as learns many of her ideas and fantasies around boys, this is an especially sensitive area for Arnold to attack. It also does a great job of vividly showing how susceptible we as people are to harm, just based on being manipulated. Connie knows that Arnold is threatening, but his use of music, at the time, seems to calm her, to make the situation seem more like a fantasy than real life. To Connie, real life means being around her mother, being talked down to, disrespected. Her fantasies instead leave her in a world where she is happy, she is free. Yet, that innocence is what led to Arnold gaining such a control over her.

Overall, I absolutely loved reading this story again, and I could talk about it forever. I hope everyone else enjoyed it also!

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The Devil in Disguise

This is my second time reading "Where Are They Going, Where Have They Been" and it's just as unsettling as the first time. Connie is only fifteen, she's young and vibrant, full of life and wonder. She craves experience and independence and this is her vulnerability. She's a tragic hero, making the sacrifice to face her ultimate demise, because she knows walking out that screen door will lead to nothing good, she understands she will never be coming home again, she'll never see her family again (Oates, 3134). It's heart breaking experiencing Connie's plight for the second time, her bravery at only fifteen, to put down the phone and to walk to that car. I can't imagine the terror of a moment like that, when she realized there was really no choice anymore and that her family was in danger if she didn't comply. I read this and after reading the presentation can completely see who the innoscence and naivety of the maiden completely relates to Connie's character and how Arnold Friend can be compared to the Devil or Death. His name itself is a ruse, a false sense of security because with such a friendly name how could he be a bad guy. But everything about him was a trap, I hate to reference Twilight but for those that have seen the movies or read the books there is the part where Edward describes why he's so bad, the fact that everything about him is designed to draw in his prey. His looks, the way he dresses, the smoothness of his voice, and well his sparkly skin and how once he has them he's physical capabilities surpass anyone that would stand against him. That's Arnold Friend, at least at first and from a distance but once you get too close you see the sharp jaws and you realize it's too late and he's got you. I read this first on my own years ago and I remember just being in awe and confused and upset because it just ends but I think it does that because after such a scenario plays out nothing can be most terrifying than the places you go in your imagination as to what happens next.

Is it Connie's fault that this happened or was it inevitable and out of her hands? Was Connie's family really in danger? Why couldn't she call the cops and pretend to put the phone back down? Does leaving the story at the moment Connie surrenders an adequate ending or should Oates have told her audience the totality of her fate? 

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Where have you been

Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are you going, where have you been", was an extremely uncomfortable read.  Connie seemed at first like a typical pretty high school girl.  She would look at other people to guage how she looked or felt herself.  Her mother was a bit on the unloving or unfriendly side, maybe because she wasn't as pretty as her daughter, and had some jealousy because of it.  The line about her having to sides to everything, one at home and one everywhere but home gave me the sense that she was always hiding something and always putting on a front.  At the end of the story, when the two men are threatening her and she wants to call the cops but knows by their tone that they will do what they have to in order to have their way with her.  This is where Oates draws the line of Connie going from child to adult.  She wanted to let her family remain safe, and in turn gave the man what he wanted, we can only assume.  I guess at a situation like that, considering that the most heroic thing she can do is basically volunteer to get sexually abused, I  don't know what to think.
Arnie Friend is a lunatic who found out everything about Connie so he would know just when to come to her house and do what he wanted.  He was a master manipulator who eventually got what he wanted, and likely ruined Connie's life for self pleasure.

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