Connie is a fifteen year old girl who is into her appearance and being popular. Her mother always criticizes her and tells her that she is worthless in a sense. When Connie and friends would go out they'd go to the "mall". Although actually they went across the street to a diner where all the older kids hung out at. Connie loves the attention that she receives from the guys when she walk through the diner. One night she is asked by Eddie to go to his car with him, and Connie follows. The rest of the summer Connie does the same thing and meets many other guys. One day she is home alone and hears a car pull up in the driveway. She goes to the door to see who it is and finds out it's a guy that noticed her earlier when she was at the diner with Eddie. This guy claims he's only little bit younger than Connie and says that she should go for a ride with him in his gold car. She declines and he keeps persuading her to come with him. At last he gets mad and comes up to her door and says he won't come in as long as shes comes out and leaves with him. She finally gives in and goes outside to meet this man.
Response
The roles women play society has changed over the years, but one thing that will never change is the effect they have on men. All women have the desire to impress men, and will do anything to achieve it. In the short story, “Where are you going, Where have you been?” Connie, the main character is caught up in her appearance and how to convey herself to the male species. She dresses up and does her hair just to go to the mall with her friends.
During the summer her and her friend’s get bored at the mall so they walk over to the diner across the road. This is the hot spot for teens in her town. It is known that all the older teens go here to hang around out. As she walks through the diner she is looking to impress the guys around her. All women do this at some point in their life, and they know that the guys will stare. By Connie taking part in this act contributes to what happens later in the story.
One night when Connie is flattered by Eddie and is walking to his car she sees a guy that shows interest in her and he says, “Gonna get you, baby”. Connie doesn’t think anything about this encounter at all, until the day an unknown car pulls up to her house, one Sunday afternoon. Connie is immediately confused and excited about a guy coming to see her. She stands in the doorway as he talks to her and tries to lure her into his car to go for a ride. Connie keeps refusing, and doesn’t understand how this guy knows where she lives. He continues to tell her that she’s his lover.
As I look at this story I realize that this closely relates to the scenario that many teen girls encountered when being attacked by The Pied Piper of Tucson. This man was a serial killer in the 1960s that would lure girls to him by his good looks and wealthy background. The character of the mysterious man in this story directly relates to The Pied Piper of Tucson. They both stumbled up their stuffed shoes to make them appear taller. They both had the cole black hair with the make-up painted face. I feel like Joyce Carol Oates was directly affected by this killer, and so she decided to write at story about him and how a girl felt when being preyed upon by him.
Not only can you conclude that women are taking roles in impressing men, but also the history behind this story greatly affects how Joyce Carol Oates writes. The way Connie dresses and portrays herself makes more susceptible to the Arnold Friend. She made herself be noticed and that’s what hurt her. So maybe, as a teen girl I can see how impressing someone isn’t helping yourself, although you may think that it is. Just be safe and in the end Connie should have listened to her mom.
The history behind this story is shocking, and I can’t believe it is based on a serial killer. Everything that is explained about Arnold Friend is similar to The Pied Piper of Tucson. Also the fact that this story was written to Bob Dylan shows that it’s probably a response to one of the songs that he recorded.
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