CASEBOOK Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”
From
McMahan, Day and Funk's Literature and the Writing Process 7th edition Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice, 2005: 152, 164-168
The Story's
Origins
Of the more than four
hundred stories that Joyce Carol has published, "Where Are You Going, Where
Been?" continues to be the most anthologized and discussed. Inspired by a
magazine article about a young killer in the story was first published in 1966.
Oates has described the story as "psychological realism" and a "realistic
allegory," but the exact form and meaning remains a matter for debate and
discussion among literary critics and general readers alike. This casebook
presents comments on the story, some information about the story's origin, and
four critical interpretations.
Joyce Carol Oates 1938-
Born in Lockport, New York, Joyce Carol Oates graduated from Syracuse Un now
teaches in the creative writing program at Princeton University. She is one of
America's most prolific and versatile contemporary writers. With a writing
career that spans twenty-five years, Oates is the author of more than seventy
books, including novels, short-story collections, poetry volumes, plays,
literary criticism, and essays. Fascinated by psychological and social disorder,
Oates often explores the relationship between violence and love in American
society.
The Story's Origins
Oates has acknowledged that she often bases stories on newspaper headlines: "It
is the very skeletal nature of the newspaper, I think, that attracts me to it,
the need it inspires in me to give flesh to such neat and thinly-told tales."
The inspiration for "Where Are You Going” was the tale of Charles Schmid, a
twenty-three-year-old from Tucson who cruised teenage hangouts, picking up girls
for rides in his gold convertible. Eventually, he murdered three of them, while
other teenagers served as accomplices. He was convicted of murder in 1966; his
story was written up in Life, as well as other newsmagazines, during the
winter of 1965-66. Here are the opening paragraphs of the Life magazine
article by Don Moser, which Oates read:
At dusk in Tucson, as the stark, yellow-flared mountains begin to blur against the sky, the golden car slowly cruises Speedway. Smoothly it rolls down the long, divided avenue, past the supermarkets, the gas stations and the motels; past the twist joints, the sprawling drive-in restaurants. The car slows for an intersection, stops, then pulls away again. The exhaust mutters against the pavement as the young man driving takes the machine swiftly, expertly through the gears. A car pulls even with him; the teenage girls in the front seat laugh, wave and call his name. The young man glances toward the rearview mirror, turned always so that he can look at his own reflection, and he appraises himself.
The face is his own creation: the hair dyed a raven black, the skin darkened to a deep tan with pancake make-up, the lips whitened, the whole effect heightened by a mole he has painted on one cheek. But the deep-set blue eyes are all his own. Beautiful eyes, the girls say.
Approaching the Hi-Ho, the teenagers' nightclub, he backs off on the accelerator, then slowly cruises on past Johnie's Drive-in. There the cars are beginning to orbit and accumulate in the parking lot--neat sharp cars with deep-throated mufflers and Maltese-cross decals on the windows. But it's early yet. Not much going on. The driver shifts up again through the gears, and the golden car slides away along the glitter and gimcrack of Speedway-. Smitty keeps looking for the action. From "The Pied Piper of "Tucson," Life, March 4, 1966: 19-24, 80c-90
Biographer Greg Johnson describes how Oates dealt with this source material.
In early March, Joyce had picked up a copy of Life magazine and begun
reading an article about Charles Schmid, an Arizona serial killer of teenage
girls whom the article dubbed "The Pied Piper of Tucson." Joyce immediately saw
material for fiction in Schmid's story, which included many grotesque elements:
only five three, Schmid stuffed rags and tin cans in the bottoms of his boots to
make himself appear taller. Yet Joyce had read only part of the article, not
wanting "to be distracted by too much detail." With her usual impulse toward
blending realism and allegory, she connected Schmid's exploits to mythic legends
and folk songs about "Death and the Maiden," and "the story came to me more or
less in a piece." Focusing on Connie, an ordinary teenage girl who succumbs to
the demonic Arnold Friend, the story was originally titled "Death and the
Maiden," but Joyce decided the title was "too pompous, too literary." After the
story's first appearance, in the fall 1966 issue of Epoch, Joyce
dedicated the story to Bob Dylan. While writing "Where Are You Going, Where Have
You Been?" she had been listening to Dylan's song- "It's All Over Now, Baby
Blue," which struck Joyce as "hauntingly elegiac," similar in tone to the story
she had written.
Invisible Writer: A Biography, of Joyce Carol Oates,
1998: 135
Four Critical
Interpretations
I. Greg Johnson interprets the story as a "feminist allegory." When the
ironically named Arnold Friend first arrives at Connie's house, driving his
sleazy gold jalopy and accompanied by a strange, ominously silent male sidekick,
Connie deflects him with her usual pert sarcasms and practiced indifference.
Throughout the long scene that follows, Connie's terror slowly builds. The
fast-talking Arnold Friend insinuates himself into her thinking, attempting to
persuade her that he's her "lover," his smoothtalking seductiveness finally
giving way to threats of violence against Connie's family if she doesn't
surrender to his desires. Oates places Connie inside the kitchen and Arnold
Friend outside with only a locked screen door between them. While Friend could
enter by force at any time, Oates emphasizes the seduction, the sinister
singsong of Friend's voice: a demonic outsider, he has arrived to wrest Connie
from the protective confines of her family, her home, and her own innocence.
Oates makes clear that Friend represents Connie's initiation not into sex
itself--she is already sexually experienced--but into sexual bondage: "I promise
it won't last long," he tells her, "and you will like me the way you get to like
people you're close to. You will. It's all over for you here." As feminist
allegory; then, the story describes the beginning of a young and sexually
attractive girl's enslavement within a conventional, male-dominated sexual
relationship...
While in realistic terms, especially considering the story's source, Connie may,
be approaching her actual death, in allegorical terms she is dying spiritually,
surrendering her autonomous selfhood to male desire and domination. Her
characterization as a typical girl reaching sexual maturity suggests that her
fate represents that suffered by most young women-unwillingly and in secret
terror--even in America in the 1960s. As a feminist allegory, then, " Where Are
You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a cautionary tale, suggesting that young
women are "going" exactly, where their mothers and grandmothers have already
"been": into sexual bondage at the hands of a male "Friend."
Understanding Joyce Carol Oates,
1987: 101-02
II. Larry Rubin
argues that Connie has fallen asleep in the sun and has a dream about a
composite figure that symbolizes her fear of the adult world. He discusses
the references to sleep that frame the Arnold Friend episode and the nightmare
quality of her inability to control the situation:
The fact that Connie recognizes the sensual music being broadcast on Arnold's
car radio as being the same as that emanating from her own in the house provides
another strong clue to his real nature--that of a dream-like projection of her
erotic fantasies. His music and hers, Oates tells us, blend perfectly and indeed
Arnold's voice is perceived by Connie as being the same as that of the disc
jockey on the radio. Thus the protagonist's inner state of consciousness is
being given physical form by her imagination.... Connie's initial response to
her first view of Arnold tire night before., in the shopping center, was one of
intense sexual excitement; now she discovers how dangerous that excitement can
be to her survival as a person. Instinctively, she recoils; but the conflict
between excitement and desire, on the one hand, and fear, on the other, leaves
her will paralyzed, and she cannot even dial the phone for help. Such physical
paralysis in the face of oncoming danger is a phenomenon familiar to all
dreamers, like being unable to run from the monster because your legs won't
respond to your will.
Finally, the rather un-devil-like tribute that Arnold pays Connie as she finally
succumbs to his threats against her family and goes out of the house to
him-"you're better than them [her family] because not a one of there would have
done this for you" is exactly what poor, unappreciated Connie wants to hear. She
is making a noble sacrifice, and in her dream she gives herself full credit for
it. Explicator 42 (1984): 57-59
III. Joyce M. Wegs contends that "Arnold is clearly a symbolic Satan. As
is usual with Satan, he is in disguise; the distortions in his appearance and
behavior suggest not only that his identity is faked but also hint at his real
self... When he introduces himself, his name too hints at his identity. For
"friend" is uncomfortably close to "fiend"; his initials could well stand for
Arch Fiend. The frightened Connie sees Arnold as "only half real": he "had
driven up the driveway all right but had come from nowhere before that and
belonged nowhere." Especially supernatural is his mysterious knowledge about
her, her family, and her friends. At one point, he even seems to be able to see
all the way to the barbecue which Connie's family is attending and to get a
clear vision of what all the guests are doing. Journal of Narrative Technique
5 (1975):69-70.
IV. But Mike Tierce and John Michael Crafton argue for an opposite
interpretation: they see Arnold as a savior or messiah figure and base their
case on identifying Arnold with Bob Dylan, the popular singer to whom Oates
dedicated the story.
In the mid-sixties Bob Dylan's followers perceived him to be a messiah.
According to his biographer [Anthony Scaduto], Dylan was a "rock-and-roll king."
It is no wonder then that Arnold speaks with "the voice of the man on the
radio," the disc jockey whose name, Bobby King, is a reference to "Bobby" Dylan,
the "king" of rock-and-roll. Dylan was more than a "friend" to his listeners; he
was "Christ revisited," "the prophet leading [his followers] into [a new]
Consciousness." In fact, "people were making him an idol; . . . thousands of men
and women, young and old, felt their lives entwined with his because they saw
him as a mystic, a messiah who would lead them to salvation."
That Oates consciously associates Arnold Friend with Bob Dylan is clearly
suggested by the similarities of their physical descriptions. Arnold's "shaggy,
shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig," his "long and hawklike" nose,
his unshaven face, his "big and white" teeth, his lashes, "thick and black as if
painted with a black tarlike material," and his size ("only an inch or so taller
than Connie") are all characteristic of Bob Dylan....
Arnold is the personification of popular music, particularly Bob Dylan's music;
and as such, Connie's interaction with him is a musically induced fantasy, a
kind of "magic carpet ride" in a "convertible jalopy painted gold." Rising out
of Connie's radio, Arnold Friend/Bob Dylan is a magical, musical messiah; he
persuades Connie to abandon her father's house. As a manifestation of her own
desires, he frees her from the limitations of a fifteen-year-old girl, assisting
her maturation by stripping her of her childlike vision. Studies
in Short Fiction 22 (1985):220, 223
Topics for
Discussion and Writing
1. Explain the title.
Why is it in the form of a question, and why are there two parts to the
question? Who does "you" refer to?
2. Who is the story's main character, Connie or Arnold Friend?
3. How do you interpret Arnold? Do you agree with what the critics say about
him?
4. What do you think of the various members of Connie's family? Why has
Oates limited their roles in the story?
5. Where does Arnold take Connie, and what happens to her? Write your own
continuation of the story.
1. Consider the role of each of these elements --society, the parents, and the individual—in Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Your thesis will draw a conclusion about which element is most to blame (If you decide that Arnold himself is the key factor, then treat him as an element of society—lurking, dangerous, and possible.)
2. Discuss the theme of the house as a metaphor of Connie's identity.
3. Joyce's story, written in 1966, is a product of its time. Is it still relevant? Has teenage culture changed since then? If so, how?
4. “Would Smooth Talk be helpful to a student of literature seeking to understanding Oates’ story, “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been?”
FOR
FURTHER READING AND RESEARCH
In 1985, Oates's story was made into a movie called Smooth Talk. Watch
the film on video or DVD (It is on reserve at the BCC library) and read several
reviews of it, including the one Oates wrote for the New York Times (March 23,
1986). You can run down reviews of Smooth Talk on the Internet Movie Database at
www.imdb.com; and the Movie Review Query
Engine at www.mrqe.com. Oates's review has
been reprinted in her collection of essays (Woman) Writer: Occasions and
Opportunities (Dutton, 1988).
1. Write a paper comparing the movie to the story. Does the film do justice to the story? Do you agree with Oates that the film's different ending is justified?