Nov 15, 2009

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? | Overview

Joyce Carol Oates was inspired to write "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" after reading an account in Life magazine of a charismatic but insecure young man who had enticed and then killed several girls in Tucson, Arizona, during the early 1960s. The story begins with Connie, a fifteen- year-old teenager growing up in 1960s suburbia. She is preoccupied with typical teenage concerns: her looks and popular music. She argues with her mother, makes fun of her older, plainer sister, and hangs out with her friends in restaurants, movie theaters, and shopping malls. During these...