Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?": A Study Guide from Gale's "Short Stories for Students" (Volume 01, Chapter 18)

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We're confronted with a young girl named Connie who just wants her own space, a girl who's tired of being told that she just doesn't measure up to her mother's high standard like her sister Jill; a girl who wants some romance--some love (or lust) in her life; an innocent naive girl who wants the freedom to meet and know boys but who is too young to understand that there are "good boys" and then there are "bad boys."

Connie goes out at night with her friend and meets a guy. They seem to have a good time together, but it's just one of those things where you have a good time and you wake up the next morning having forgotten much of what happened the night before. Life just goes on. At least that's the case with Connie. But she soon learns that that's not quite the case with the boy she met, named Arnold Friend. When her parents leave for a barbecue, she's left home all alone. She couldn't be happier. Finally she has her space, she has nobody talking down to her or criticizing her, she finally feels that spirit of freeom she so craves, which involves the lack of parental supervision and control. But in a very scary way she soon comes to know that this parental security is actually an important safety net, one that every adolescent needs. She comes to realize that independence has a price, and when a naive innocent unsuspecting teenager carelessly invites too much independence, it may turn out to be a dangerous thing.

As I say, Connie is alone in the house and the whole family is away--moreover, they're not expected to come back for a long while. Suddenly, Arnold Friend pulls up in front of her house with his shy music-listening friend. He calls for Connie to come out for a drive. Connie is quite started. She had not been expecting him. She seemingly can't even remember who he is. Arnold seems to know a lot about her, which naturally makes her uneasy given her ignorance of him. He keeps telling her to go for a ride in the car with him, but she refuses. After all, he's pretty much a stranger to her and he's actually quite a bit older than her, although he plays down his real age. The verbal exchange continues, and her anxiety and fear only grow as he peppers his insistent request with threats on her family and even her own life when it comes to telling her he can burn the house down over her head. She locks the door, but it's only a flimsy little screen door; she threatens to call the cops, but he threatens to break into the house if she does. The tension grows with every word, every gesture. Finally Connie loses it and there's no safety net to catch her. She's at the mercy of this obsessed psycho who only the night before came across as such a nice sweet studly type. She makes a feeble attempt to call the police, but it's no good. She's completely under his manipulative sway. She decides to face the consequences of her recklessness and leaves with Arnold rather than to test his threats. Fortunately nothing happens to her, and as a result, she learns the valuable lesson of being careful who you trust in life and what friends or male friends you make, and one is also convinced that by the end of the story, within her is born a new awareness of the meaning and value of family.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"