J. Oates' Story Review on "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

In this tale, however, Oates deliberately leaves the record of the events in the story ambiguous and open. Whether Connie's experience is genuine, a manufacturing involving the Devil him self, or even a dream (for which thither is plenty of evidence) the threat of adult sexuality that is inherent in Connie's current state of eager and somewhat reckless exploration achieves a level of fear that is unrelenting and all-consuming.

At the get down of the story fifteen-year-old Connie's dissatisfaction with her dull, ordinary family and her strategies to escape her p arnts' notice as she goes to the highest degree her pursuit of adventure, petting with un sleep togethern male childs in parked cars, be presented in quick, convincing strokes. The mall and the hamburger joint atomic number 18 as vividly drawn as her interactions with her mother that, in their "pretense of exasperation," see-saw from basic mutual sympathy to pointless, almost childlike antagonism (38). Connie's mixture of feelings about her mother typify a teenager's combination of creation satisfied with safe dependence and a desire for liberty. At times she even wonders if, since "her mother is so simple" it is "maybe cruel to fool her so often" (38). And, in light of the revelation of the terror that lies beneath Connie's plain fearless and casual pursuit of sexual knowledge, it seems that the title interview is not just one that Connie and her clever friends hope to avoid, entirely one that, deep down, she wishes her mother

Oates, Joyce Carol. "Where ar You Going, Where Have You Been?" The Wheel of Love and Other Stories. New York: Vanguard, 1970. 34-54.

Sullivan notes that the terror is especially effective because "horror resides in the transformation of what we know best, the intimate and comfortable details of our lives do suddenly menace" (8). But Sullivan, who sees no symbolism in the story, is apparently nitty-gritty as well to take the story as being a representation of something that is actually happening. He dismisses "dream landscape[s]" as an inferior type of terror and merely claims that Friend's c coveyhes and accessories which are "innocent symbols of a subculture under ordinary conditions, are made evil by Friend's illegitimate intention" (8).

He chooses, therefore, to geld the transformation that takes place as "shockingly, Friend's much older self begins to emerge through his painted lashes, black wig, reflecting sunglasses, and cosmetically suntanned face--when his telltale, aging throat is inadvertently exposed" (Creighton 118). He withal chooses to ignore Friend's seeming omniscience. All of these elements could, of course, be accounted for in a naturalistic setting. A good example of this is Connie's gullibility when he tells her that her mother is, at that event, cleaning corn with "a plop woman." Connie is convinced of his omniscience and 'identifies' the woman with "Oh, that's Mrs. Hornsby. . . . Who invited her?" (47). This is a perfect touch to explicate the seemingly unreal elements and to define Connie's lack of common brain and blurring view of reality if the story is to be seen as in all realistic.

But the details of Friend's visit generate the ambiguity have-to doe with in the story. He is glimpsed by Connie in the parking lot on one of her visits to the restaurant at precisely the moment where she feels happiest and most sure of herself while walking out with the boy she has met. The "boy with shaggy black hair, in a exchangeable jalopy pain
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