Analysis Of The Short Story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

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Short Story Analysis The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” in my opinion is a sort story that not only is based on a true event but also a metaphoric or allegoric story where a young girl transitions into a young woman. In Coulthard’s take to the short story is clean cut, the author suggests that the story is simply formatted in a realistic sense only based on a true event and nothing more. My views are different, the character Arnold Friend can be seen as the devil or as temptation, with girls at a teen age the feeling of exploring their sexual curiosity is extremely high; especially at Connie’s age. Coulthard does not necessarily see it that way the author argues: This interpretation may have been largely inspired by the author’s remark that “Arnold Friend is a fantastic figure: he is death, he is the ‘elf-knight’ of the ballads, he is the imagination, he is the dream, he is a lover, a demon, and all that.” This is a lot of weight for one…show more content…
Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn’t help glancing back and there he was still watching her. He waged a finger and laughed and said ‘Gonna get you, baby.’(Oates, p.372-73) One can perceive that action into the devil setting their sights on an innocent soul as often read about in the bible, realistically speaking a pervert doesn’t make it so blunt to warn their victims that their next. So you can easily conclude that the author made it so that the character is portrayed as a villain. Coulthard continues her argument in “Joyce Carol Oates ‘Where are you going, where have you been?’ As Pure Realism” that the story should be viewed with skepticism; she illustrates that: “I suspect that the author was seizing upon an after-the-fact opportunity to make her story seem more ‘literary’ than it really is. If so, I don’t understand why, Joyce Carol Oates should have been content to let ‘Where Are You going?’ stand on its solid

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