My take on the theme of "Where Are Your Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a journey into the psyche of a teenage girl. When Connie’s fantasies converge with her reality, it becomes a nightmare. Connie, after being in the sun too long, a recipe for hallucination, has fallen asleep listening to the radio and all of the songs that she bases the reality of love on. The next thing you know, a knock on the door by the stranger that she had seen the night before, Arnold Friend. His description fits perfectly that of Bob Dylan, presumably one of her idols; as he was for many in those times. Additionally, everything about Arnold is familiar to Connie, including his voice, but she just can’t put it together; “his face is a familiar face…” (Oates 213). It’s not just the physical description of Arnold, but the fact that he knows everything about Connie, her parents and what they are doing that gives light to the obvious fact that she is dreaming; having a nightmare due to a sun drenched haze. Connie, in reality, thinks she doesn’t need her parents or sister and that they are, as they said in the 60’s, “cramping her style.” In her fantasy world, due to the implied future harm that Arnold will do to her or her family, she realizes that she does, in fact, need her family as they are the first ones she calls out for when she begins to panic. Overall, the theme of this story is one of fantasy vs. reality. A fantasy is not always better than your current reality.

After reading all of the casebook articles, I agree in part with only two of them. The interpretations by Joyce Wegs and Greg Johnson do not to jive with my understanding of the story. I think you can go into just about any story about a teenage girl and draw Johnson’s feminist allegory theory. Also, Wegs’ Satan theory is just plain outlandish, you could find reason that any antagonist in any story is actually Satan. Generic is a word that comes to mind for these two interpretations. I do, however agree with Larry Rubin as far as it is a dream that is fueled by the hot sun and fear of adulthood. Mike Tierce and John Crafton’s argument seems partly correct to me as well. They too, see Arnold Friend as a rendering of Bob Dylan. With Rubin, Tierce and Crafton’s good points put together you get what I see as a logical interpretation. Connie fell asleep in the sun, had a bad dream about a boy she was fantasizing about. Since she didn’t ever hear his actual voice, he took on the voice of a radio host on a show that she was listening too. He scared the be-jeepers out of her and she realizes that her reality isn’t as bad as she thought. Simply a weird, inexplicable dream; we have all had them and they can’t really be interpreted.