Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

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Of all Joyce Carol Oates's stories, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” has generated the most critical commentary and the most discussion. After it was originally published, Oates added the dedication to Bob Dylan for his song “It's All Over Now Baby Blue” (where the title question occurs), a song she called “very beautiful, very disturbing,” and which recalled to her the legend of Death and the Maiden. The story itself moves from intense psychological realism to surreal myth.

The story starts innocently enough with a description of the fifteen-year-old...

[The entire page is 556 words long]

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