Themes Discussed in Joyce Oates Where Are You Going , Where Have You B

Where Are You Going , Where Have You Been by Joyce Oates It is hale known that the most awkward and difficult time in iodines life is adolescence. One is faced with the challenges of discovering who one is and what one wants away of life. One finds themselves frustrated and confused in this particular stage. They are middle way between a bridge. They have left childhood solely have not yet reached adulthood. They struggle to find several(prenominal) intelligence of being and individuality in the homo. They are on a call for to find themselves, and in search of a path that will acquit them to future happiness. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, is a short story scripted by Joyce Oates .In her short story Oates shows how easily susceptible one is in this stage of life. Oates shows in her story how the quest of finding ones self, gives one a false sense of cognition. It is this false sense of association and the search for self and identity that produces the trag ic out set of the character indoors Oates story. The setting of Where Are You Going, Where have You Been, takes place in the late 60s former(a) 70s. This is evident by the reference to Bobby fag and the XYZ Sunday programming station which was mentioned within the story (p.122). The 1960s and early 1970s marked the era of the womens movement. Economic shifts meant that more women worked outside the home, and coitus passed the Equal Rights Amendment, resulting in many political battles during the long ratification process. In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that a womans right to privacy allowed for legal abortion. Woman know began to have voices. The world was drastically changing and it is within this drastically changing world that Oates introduces tetrad main characters... ...ave You Been, As nothing more then a dream. further others view it as, feminist allegory which suggests that young women of today, like the generations that have come before them, are headed into sexual bondage. (Korb). There is no indicate to suggest that Connie is experiencing a dream. However there is evidence that suggest that Connie had an awry(p) death. watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold athletic supporter waited.(p.135) Oates depicts in her story the important of self identity. Arnold Friend is not a symbolic representation of the devil as some critics believe him to be. Arnold Friend character is an representation of the challenges and test one faces in ones every day life. It is conquering these challenges and test , that instills in us knowledge, knowledge which brings us one step closer to finding ourselves.