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Joyce Carol OatesWhat is the central conflict in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates?...I am not allowed to write an essay for you, but I believe that I can get you on the right track by answering several of the questions in the prompt. There are several conflicts in "Where Are You...
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Joyce Carol OatesReading Joyce Carol Oates's short story "Journey," one is reminded of Robert Frost's famous poem "The Road Less Traveled": I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two...
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Joyce Carol OatesOn page 6 of Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, a local politician that the narrator, Maddy Wirtz, calls "Congressman X" shows up at her high school and gives a speech that is anti-communist in...
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Joyce Carol OatesJoyce Carol Oates's short story "...& Answers" is told in the form of answers a mental-health patient gives to questions posed by psychologist. The central theme in the story concerns the...
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Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?The original question had to be edited. Conditions of popularity occupy central importance in the story. Connie defines herself as "popular." Connie defines herself in conditions of popularity...
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Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?Arnold Friend wants to appeal to the popular sensibility that he sees in Connie. By pulling up to her home and honking in a manner that reflects a sense of being familiar, he figures two things...
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Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," what makes Arnold's tactics appealing to Connie as...Arnold's tactics are appealing to a teen like Connie in a couple of ways. The first is that he appeals to her sense of independence. The fact that he first sees her out on a Saturday night at the...
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Joyce Carol OatesI think that this question becomes the central issue in the work. For Oates, it seems to her articulation of the journey is one in which the protagonist is moving through it with a specific...
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Joyce Carol OatesI have a collection of Joyce Carol Oates short stories that I bought a while back so I could have a hard copy of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" to annotate for my classroom. This...
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Joyce Carol OatesI don't see Oates' usage of violence as any different than other writers that attempt to construct settings in which the characterizations of their protagonists can be developed. Oates does not...
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Joyce Carol OatesThis is an interesting question and one not easily answered, I think. Oates structures her story so that Zachary's struggle is witnessed through an observer's experience while the narrator tells...
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Joyce Carol OatesThe theme of this sorrowful story is teenage sexuality, particularly alternate lifestyle sexuality. In a way, it might be said that the central character Barbara "Sunny" Burhman serves to focalize...
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Joyce Carol OatesThe opening reference to the “balloon of gauze” suggests that lovers really create their own separate world even though it may be visible and perceptible only to their eyes. Because gauze is...
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Joyce Carol OatesIn "Shopping" by Joyce Carol Oates, paragraph 30 is remarkably perceptive and poignant about the enthusiasm of a marital relationship, with all the hopes for the future and with all the belief that...
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Joyce Carol Oates"Shopping" by Joyce Carol Oates is one of the quintessential short stories on the difficulties of raising children and of the conflicts within children themselves to be free of constraints and...
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Joyce Carol OatesThroughout the story Oates uses the names of fashionable stores and boutiques to be found at the typical American shopping mall. There is a good deal of criticism of the potential snobbishness and...
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Joyce Carol OatesThe story is primarily about Mrs. Dietrich, inasmuch as the narration is focused on her. The women possess the differences that naturally, but regrettably, seem to develop between children and...
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Joyce Carol OatesNeither Mrs. Dietrich nor Nola is unusual. What is important is the abundant detail about both of them, which indicates a changing relationship. Friction is inevitable since, generally, mothers...
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Joyce Carol Oates"Shopping" highlights relationships between mother and daughter, and demonstrates how such relationships may be deeply strained, even when the mother and daughter are on a shopping excursion at the...