Kyle Nerbonne
English 1102
Dr. Wilson
Spring 2011
Title
Joyce Carol Oates, an American fiction writer, was born in 1938, in Lockport, New York and many hold Oates as "America's preeminent master of the short story.” Her literary career began with her first novel, With Shuddering Fall, in 1964. Soon after she wrote her most noted work, “Where are you going, where have you been.” She grew up in the Erie County countryside near Lockport, which provided the setting for some of her stories and novels. I believe that this area where she grew up was where she based her story “Where are you going, Where have you been.” She was raised in a catholic household, but now is an Atheist, which could be why in “Where are you going, Where have you been” she is portraying the battle between good and evil. Oates’s critics argue that this short story is about sexual innocence, but I believe that Oates is portraying the religious battle between good and evil and she describes real life in her fictional work. In “Where are you going, Where have you been,” Connie, the young girl, hates her mom because her mom is jealous that her daughter is so beautiful. So Connie and her mom are always fighting and arguing about how Connie needs to be careful. When Connie leaves her house and goes out with her friends she dresses modestly just to make her mom happy, but when her friend’s dad drops her off she rolls up her shirt so that she is showing off some skin. She and her friends go to a fly infested, drive-in hamburger joint and meet some guys there. Connie goes off with a guy, but as they are walking off another guy yells out to her “I am going to make you mine.” She just laughs about this and does not pay much attention to it, but when her mother goes to a barbeque and Connie does not want to go the guy, Arnold Friend, that yelled at her shows up at her house. Arnold has flies all around him and tells her all about her family like what they are wearing and where they went even though he has not met them. Arnold tells her that he will not come into the house to get her unless he is invited or she reaches for the phone to call the cops. She eventually gives in to the temptation and goes with him wherever they are going. Critics argue that the true meaning behind Oates’ story is actually sexual and not biblical. Mark Robson also believes that there is biblical meaning to this story, but he believes that the meaning is sexual. Robson says “the numbers that Arnold yells out—33, 19, 17—add up to sixty-nine are a secret code should be interpreted as yet another indication of Arnold Friend’s sexual deviancy, the secret code underscores Arnold’s intention of raping and murdering Connie whom he allegedly wants to take “just for a ride”.” In other words what Robson is saying is that since the numbers add up to sixty-nine, it is a secret code because he does not just come out and say “69.” Robson believes that Arnold is trying to hide his true intentions behind trying to get her to go for a ride. Robson argues that the secret code comes from Judges 19:17 in the Old Testament, which reads “When he raised his eyes he got to see the man, the traveler, in the public square of the city. So the old man said: ‘Where are you going, and where do you come from?’” Judges 19 talks about how a man from the tribe of Levi searches out and returns home with his concubine. A concubine is a woman who is a secondary wife of inferior rank. Robson makes a good argument here because I can see how he thinks that Oates got her title from chapter 19 in Judges. Also I understand how that verse relates to the story. Connie is the concubine of Arnold’s desire in Oates’s story because he went on the journey to find her. Although there are critics, like Robson, who argue that the true, secret meaning of “Where are you going, Where have you been” is that there is a sexual meaning behind everything that Arnold does. There are others that argue that the real meaning of this story is actually a battle between good and evil which incorporates how Oates describes the real world through her fictional work. According to one critic, “The name "friend" was commonly used by the Protestants to refer to evil or the devil.” Also in class we discussed how if you remove the “R’s” from Arnold and Friend his name becomes An Old Fiend. A Fiend is an evil spirit or demon and a fiend can also be interrupted as the devil. Since it can be made to say that he is an old fiend could mean that this is not the first time he has seduced a young girl to come with him and that he has a lot of experience doing this. Also we discussed how Oates uses the description of Arnold to lead some critics to believe that he is the devil. He wears mirrored sunglasses, has translucent skin, and has hair that is so wild that it looks like a wig. When he walks, he wobbles, as though his shoes don’t fit properly. Some critics believe that the reference to the wig is saying that Arnold is trying to hide horns, which the devil has. This idea is stated by Joan D. Winslow, a professor at Rutgers University, when she says, “Connie begins to see that Arnold is not what he appears to be: his hair, face, clothes, and talk are all a disguise.” In other words Winslow is saying that everything about Arnold is fake and he is in disguise, most critics believe that the Arnold is actually the devil under all of these fake things. We talked in class about how people think that since his shoes do not fit properly that is Arnold actually has hooves for feet like the devil. Also there are people that believe that this story is about how Oates is describing the real world using her fictional work and uses experiences from her own life. She bases this story on the serial killer Charles Schmid, also known as "The Pied Piper of Tucson". Charles Schmid preyed on young woman and used his girlfriends to help him commit the murders. He would eventually kill a girlfriend and her sister because she threatened him about going to the police. He started his killing spree just because he wanted to know how it felt to kill someone. Oates also describes how the innocence of Connie is being taken advantage of by Arnold because he is an older man with more experience. I believe that she is using this to show how young girls are swept off their feet by older men because they think it will be a good time and that nothing will go wrong. In a lot of cases they older man will take advantage of the young girl and destroy her innocence and damage her mentally for the rest of her life. She also dedicates this story to Bob Dylan, a musician of the time. I think that all the music references in this story are just evidence of showing how teens can relate their lives to music in a lot of ways. There are a lot of different ways to interpret this story and everyone has their own opinion. Some critics believe that the story is actually of sexual meaning, while others believe that it is about a battle between good and evil. There are also some more critics that believe it is a description of real life through her fictional work. I believe that all the critics provide valid evidence to prove all their points, but it all depends on how the reader decides to look at this story. Some critics use the bible to prove their points and others just analyze the story very deeply to find the true meaning, but really it all depends on the knowledge the reader already has and how deep they decide to dive into the story.

Oates, Joyce Carol. "Humanism and Its Discontents", The Humanist, November–December 2007.

Hurley, C. Harold. "CRACKING THE SECRET CODE IN OATES'S 'WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?'." Studies in Short Fiction 24.1 (1987): 62. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 Mar. 2011.
Coulthard, A.R. "JOYCE CAROL OATES'S "WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" AS PURE REALISM." Studies in Short Fiction 26.4 (1989): 505-510. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2011.

Winslow, Joan D. "THE STRANGER WITHIN: TWO STORIES BY OATES AND HAWTHORNE." Studies in Short Fiction 17.3 (1980): 263. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2011.