Exploring Adolescent Sexuality and the Realities of Adulthood in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Abstract

Institutional Affiliation 16th April 2021 Element of Fiction (Character) The story “Where are you going? Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates portrays a protagonist character, Connie, a fifteen year old girl who is at the peak of adolescent uproar. She constantly has disagreements with her sister June and mother, and disregards family unit to explore her sexuality, “… but around his bent head Connie’s mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over” (Oates, 1). She attempts to come out as a grown-up and prudent than her actual age while her head is occupied with fantasies and trendy music that satisfies her perspective of love and fiction. The appearance of Arnold Friend provides a platform for Connie to face the unsympathetic authenticity of adulthood that is totally different from her daydreams. Connie discards the position of daughter, sister and a pleasant girl to focus on developing sexual personality, which thrives when she is not home or surrounded by family members. Her worries are strictly related to adolescence where she is fascinated by her appearance, the world of music, spending time with friends, talking to boys and discovering her sexuality, “Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been,” (Oates, 3). She experiences satisfaction in the knowledge that both boys and older men view her as good-looking. This satisfaction pushes her to develop certain mode of dressing, walking style and laughing to achieve attractive sexuality. However, these characteristics are only...