Two Identities

Two Identities

Dr. John Slack

English 102

3 March 2010

Two Identities

In Joyce Carol Oates' short story, "Where are you going, Where have you been?" a quantity of good and evil symbolism is presented, assisting the development of the theme of the story - that occurs from the dealing with characters engaged in mental manipulation. But it is mainly about a young girl going through adolescence not knowing which road to take, being rebellious and wanting to be free. However at the same time Connie desires security with her family.

Connie has a conniving characteristic about herself in this short story. Connie would complete a task in her mother's household one way, but when she was no longer under her mother's supervision, she would completely do the opposite. She never took into consideration anyone's criticism. "She wore a pull over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at the home and another way when she was away from home" (Oates 281). Again Connie's actions lets the readers speculate that everything about her has two identities. The good Connie is for her sibling and household. The other, defiant, evil Connie, she displays is for her peers.

Another aspect of good and evil presented in the story is how Connie and her sister June are perceived in their mother's eyes. Connie is looked at as lazy and unreliable. On the other hand, that was not the same case for June - a planner, strong and dependable. For instance, "June did this, June did that, she saved money and helped clean the house and cooked Connie couldn't do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams" (Oates 280). As we have seen, dualities are being strained throughout the story - the good, which is June, and the evil, Connie. If Arnold is indeed the devil--and he may well be, on the level so perspicaciously analyzed by Joyce Wegs--he is certainly a comical one, with his wig, incompletely made-up face, stuffed boots, and stumbling gait. In the threat he represents to Connie, of course, he is indeed a figure of evil, but with all this fakery, what Oates seems to be showing us is the absurd emptiness and falseness of sexual fulfillment. Connie fears she will be destroyed by Arnold, and the critics (like Wegs) have concentrated on the immediate level of physical death; what makes the story so rich, it seems to me, is the possibility of seeing her pending destruction as a moral phenomenon. Her compulsive sex drive will destroy her, Oates seems to tell us, but not simply physically (which, if that were all there were to it, would make the story merely a luscious gumdrop for gothic horror fans). It