Loss of Innocence in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

In the 1960s, women felt pressured to present themselves attractively; due to this, women came to the conclusion that if they didn’t they would be shunned by society. In the article, “Where are you going, where have you been” Joyce Carol Oates tells a story about a girl named Connie that was a victim of society and had a life-changing experience due to it. This event is the reason why sexual innocence is such a scary thing. The article is about a 15 teen-year-old girl that loves to go to the plaza with her friends and meet boys. This soon becomes a problem when she catches the attention of Arnold Friend. Connie loses her innocence because of the current conditions of society.

Connie was fifteen and was a pretty looking girl for her age. Based on social premises she believed that she always needed to look good. Her mom was angered by this but this didn’t affect her. During this time many things were going on including The Civil Rights Movement, the birth of the hippie counterculture, and boom of rock bands. Many issues were occuring during this short story including feminism, sexual freedom, and adolescent sexuality. There was a lack of protection back then and life wasn’t as strict as it is nowadays. The world Connie was brought up in was dominated by a male presence. This made it even harder on her because men had authority over her. This article from scienceleaderhsip.org talks about how the innocence of children is very important and the society that Connie was born into took that innocence from her. In the article “The loss of Childhood Innocence” by Brandon Jones he talks about how “Parents believe that exposing their children to vasts amount of knowledge at a young age will aid them in adulthood, however, what they don’t know is that this knowledge could at the same time ruin their innocence,” this quote relates to how Connie was a normal fifteen-year-old girl that was just introduced into the world at the wrong. She was shown that you won’t be accepted until you mature or had a sexual encounter. She was so caught up in learning about what being mature means than just living with the unknown factor of sex. The article also talks about how it is important to give children a vague reference of right and wrong and give them a black and white example. This is what is wrong with society in the short story because it showed Connie the grayness.

The loss of Connie’s innocence began when she wanted to mature at such a young age. To show that she was mature she would involve herself with sexual experiences. This was the main flaw that would take her innocence. She used her good looks to attract boys to experiment and to try to learn more about sexual interactions. Her want of a quick and fast childhood lead her fulfillment into a cruel and forbidding way when she met the man who took it all, Arnold Friend. Connie is forced into a high-stress situation when Arnold forces himself onto her with his sexual knowledge and supposedly rapes her. In the article “The loss of Childhood Innocence” by Brandon Jones he writes “Knowledge is a powerful tool in the hands of man. Knowledge can both help and hurt people, build and destroy relationships and help determine right from wrong,” this can be used to demestrate how Arnold used his knowledge of sex to terrify Connie. From what can be interpreted from before this Connie was a virgin that played around with sexual contact with boys. She never really did it just enjoyed teasing boys. This allowed Arnold to threaten and force her into a frightening situation based on what he was saying. Connie's joy came from her innocence and this was taken from her when Arnold raped and murdered her. This was the end of her young life. Joyce Carol Oates makes it prevalent that sexuality is a fundamental part of growing up. This short story seems to show how it is important for adolescents to discover sexuality for themselves. There is an occurring issue when they are forced to learn earlier than they are ready, which can lead to a very traumatizing moment in their life.

Oates wrote the short story called “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” to show the horrors of a girl who lost her innocent in the most tragic of ways. This was because of the struggles and fluctuations of society that shaped Connie into the girl she was. Whether you think that was good or bad let the fact of her being raped and murdered by Arnold Friend help you decide that. She was just a Fifteen year old girl exploring the vast possibilities of sexuality but never wanted to be forced into anything. She found the evil in something that should be mysterious and pleasant. Was Connie’s loss of innocence truly from the society she was living in?