Essays on Joyce Carol Oates

English

Joyce Carol Oates’ story. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is dedicated to Bob Dylan and his song “It’s all over now baby blue” and is said to be inspired by the three murders committed by Charles Schmud in Tucson, Arizona, which were featured in an article by Don Moser in Life magazine on March 4, 1966. The title of the story itself is intriguing, hinting at things to come; at the dilemma that Connie is in when Arnold Friend wants to take her away from her familiar surroundings to an unknown place and future, "The ...

The movie shows the arrival of Laura Dern, who is superb actress. Under the direction of Joyce Chopra Ms. Laura showed that she could undertake the role of Connie, who is a rebellious teenager, who faces the cruelty of life in extremely challenging ways. The movie is closely linked to the short story “where have you been and where are you going” by Joyce Carol. Like Calif house the Wyats live in, Connie is not well kept, almost empty as well as isolated with the weedy landscape as surroundings. She takes massive time in washing her hair as well ...

Two stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor and “Where are You Going? Where Have you Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates have the same style of the storytelling. They both tell us tragic stories that could easily happen in real life. In both of the stories women are the main characters. However, both of the stories have their similarities and differences. One of the common themes for A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor and “Where are You Going? Where Have you Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is elusiveness of ...

‘Instructor’s Name’

Discussion on Short Stories That Depict How Traditional Gender Roles Promote Violence Exploring the theme of violence portrayed in literature, is a complicated task. When violence is discussed, it is mostly centered on physical assaults, and thus discussed one-dimensionally. In reality though, violence is multifaceted and is perpetuated by various motivations, and is experienced in varied different ways. Violence inflicted by individuals, sometimes is a product of various culturally instigated motivations. Violence on women is one such phenomenon, which has its roots in the centuries old male dominance over the other gender. Gender based violence and violence against women are ...

In her masterpiece short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” first published in 1966, Joyce Carol Oates portrays a extremely dramatic moment in the life of a fifteen year old girl named Connie, who struggles between the expectations that society lays on her as a female and who she feels she really wants to be. Oates describes the duality of Connie’s life in the desire to be sexually appealing and attractive to men, while wanting to remain an innocent and daydreaming girl. In a men’s world, the overly flirtatious girl becomes a victim of a threatening situation, where a sexual predator ...

English: Essay

“Where are you going, Where have you been?” is a short fiction story written by Joyce Carol Oates. She was born in 1938 during the period of Great Depression, and went to one room elementary school during her childhood. It was the one room elementary school where she developed a love and inspiration for the writing. Her parents were not educated but supported her effort to write as she started writing novels and short stories when she was in high school. She mastered in English from the University of Wisconsin. Joyce Carol Oates wrote “Where are you going, Where have you ...

In literature, there are many notorious characters that have their own astonishing qualities and do take part in decadent actions. However, none has struck such a devastating weird chord as Arnold Friend. He is among the, chief characters in Joyce Carol Oates novel titled "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" If individual actions are anything to go by in determining the character of an individual, Arnold Friend is a seducer of young girls and an incarnation of the devil. The author uses both actions and appearance to present Arnold Friend. This adds to his devilish persona and the so ...

‘Where are you going, Where have you been?’ is a story of a girl maturing into womanhood. Written and published in the year 1966, this story, according to its author Joyce Carol Oates, was written while she was listening to the song ‘It’s all over now’ by Bob Dylan. (Davidson, 1996) And when we go through the story we see that, music is everywhere in the story. It is used to set the mood for a particular situation, it offers the characters their dialogues and it is just omnipresent in the entire plot. Not just music, but the car, the home ...

The Detroit riots influenced the writings of Joyce Carol Oates. Violence is a frequent theme in her novels and her masterful depiction of how her characters experience the negative conditions in life often leave most of her readers sad but satisfied. The succeeding sections shall describe the Detroit riots and discuss the works where these are most evident. The essay begins with a brief biography of Oates and concludes by reiterating the role that the social conditions in Detroit play in her works.

Biography of Joyce Carol Oates

According to the Academy of Achievement, Joyce Carole Oates has already written at least “56 novels, over 30 ...

The Grandmother

In this story, this character considers herself morally superior than the rest of the people basically because she is a lady. This character makes frequent judgments on others. She claims that her conscience is the main driving force in her life and she considers herself perfect in the way she does her activities. She claims that she could not afford to allow her children to walk in the same direction like Misfit did so that her conscience is not compromised. This character also criticized the mother of the children by claiming that she never allowed the children to travel in ...

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is a short literary fiction story by Joyce Carol Oates. This story first appeared in the Epoch Magazine the fall 1966 edition. It is a story about a 15 year old self absorbed girl named Connie. Connie lives with her mother, sister and a father who is hardly ever at home. Connie’s mother often compares her to her sister and criticizes her and this makes her hate her mother. Her resentment towards her mother makes her avoid staying home and she spends most of her time with friends at the malls, movies and restaurants. ...

Literature: The Second World War and its Aftermath /A Century Ends

A poem by Theodore Roethke ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ is a representative of postwar lyrics. It describes father and son relationships, narrated retrospectively from the point of view of an adult, who used to be a participant of the action. A question whether the poem pictures violence towards the child or on the contrary presents us warm relations between a youngster and a grown-up remains arguable. The author shows the act as a beautiful, graceful dance – the waltz. This fact directs us to the idea that for the narrator this experience was not horrible at all. He does not try to idealize his ...

Connie Vs June

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”: Connie Vs June

Introduction

‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been’ is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. Published first in the Fall 1966 edition of Epoch magazine, the story begins with the words- ‘To Bob Dylan’. It is so because Joyce Carol Oates dedicated this short story to Bob Dylan’s whose song ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ inspired her to write this (Introduction, p 9). The song is about a girl who is forced to leave her house with strange men, towards unknown, uncertain future (Dylan, “ ...

Modern American fiction often concerns itself with identity; the individual is often at stake in part of a larger group, whether it be a family, village, or the societies of a big city. Perhaps it is the very nature of American fiction to place identity at the core of much of its short fiction; as a relatively young country that evolved quickly through colonial times and the industrial revolution, its population comes from around the world yet still seeks to define itself as a nation. Therefore, it is no surprise that in the diverse fiction of America, the theme of identity is wrestled with ...

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer born in Lockport, NY on June 16, 1938 (“Joyce Carol Oates Biography”). Her desire to write began around age three or four years old, when she made picture books to tell her stories because she did not yet know how to write; even though she loved reading and the stories themselves, her greater impulse was to be the author, the one in control behind the stories (Oates). Oates is an extremely prolific writer. She was able to publish two or three books each year while teaching full time and publishing a literary magazine ...

Abstract

This essay offers an expository interpretation of Joyce Carol Oates’ short story, entitled “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” It portrays the female protagonist’s urge to be accepted, admired, and thought of as beautiful, while she continues to put on a personal display of maturity and sexual attraction. Once the opportunity for her to be treated as a truly mature person presents itself, it becomes all too clear that she is far less mature than she originally presented herself to be.

Keywords: teenager, rebellion, adulthood, sexuality, seduction

Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” raises numerous unsettling issues ...

Introduction

A&P is a short story, by the author John Updike. The story received wide acclamations since of its publication in the year of 1961 and even after decades it is highly liked by the readers and is considered to be probably the best creation by John Updike. The story revolves around a young boy Sammy, who works as a clerk in a grocery store. It was hot day of summers when three young girls came to the store; three of them were dressed as if they were preparing to go on beach. They were in small dresses also barefoot and wanted to ...