What Connie Wants: Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been"

In Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been", there is a clear understanding of evil in Arnold Friend and how he as a demon tries to pull Connie into the dark world of sex and emotion. Oates seems to extract scenarios of real life and add them into her story. The character of Arnold Friend is more or less what really is out there. The harsh reality that Oates includes in …

…that not everyone is your friend and love is not always what you see in the movies or hear in music. Oates attempts to use an extreme reality and unfortunately, Connie has to learn the hard way. Works Cited: Hurley, D.F. "Impure Realism: Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Studies in Short Fiction Summer, 1991: 371-375. Rubin, Larry "Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Explicator 1981 v42: 57-60.