After I finished “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” my first thoughts centered on how tragic it is when parents fail to give their children a sense of acceptance. It’s clear that Colleen’s dad wants to do well for his family, because he works hard, but the price for this is that his daughter has so little self-esteem that she falls for the whiles of Arnold Friend and his golden car. There’s nothing wrong with Colleen wanting an afternoon to herself while the family goes out, but the fact that she does this on a holiday suggests that her sense of disconnection from her family is significant. Also, there appears to be something otherworldly about Arnold Friend; his name and his demeanor suggest that he is trying to take advantage of Colleen’s low self-esteem when he makes her his prey. The golden vehicle in which he drives is suggestive of divine figures from mythology, and the knowledge that he has about her neighbor and family members also suggests that there is more to this man than what meets the eye.
I believe that Oates is trying to suggest that too many young women lack the support they need from their parents and thus end up being the victims of people who promise closeness even though their promises are also bedecked with menace. In the case of Arnold Friend, the theme that emerges is the vulnerability of adolescent girls who lack emotional support from their parents. She did not have to walk out the door with Arnold; there is no clear evidence from the text that Arnold literally enters the house. However, she seals her doom by going with him anyway.
Works Cited
Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
https://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/PDF%20files/oates_going.pdf
