Joyce Carol Oates’s Story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, Research Paper Example

Abstract

The paper elaborates on the theme of identity development in Joyce Carol Oates’s story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been. The topic of identity is developed through its formation, growing duplicity and ultimate crash against the realities of life. The theme of identity in the story is compared to Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People. The two stories work to create the two different belief systems, which authors seek to develop, test, and finally destroy due to their inconsistencies and instability in the face of the tragic realism of life.

Introduction

Identity is a common theme in literature. Thousands of poets and writers tried to elaborate on the topic of human identity and its development over the lifespan. Joyce Carol Oates’s Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is the bright example of how adolescent identity develops and duplicates in its striving to break the limits of parental and social control. At the same time, the theme of adolescent identity in the story is designed to reveal the difficulties, which a young girl experiences when trying to distinguish reality from appearance, and to create an objective picture of human character behind it. In this context, the duplicity of human identity in the story can be compared to that in Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People – the story, which confirms the dubiousness of the human nature and reveals the complex confusions, which human soul experiences and undergoes while trying to grasp the meaning of life.

Joyce Carol Oates’s Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is all about how adolescent identity works to create its own picture of life, to distinguish reality from fiction, and to take adult decisions. The suggested rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl are more than serious crimes, and this psychological realism makes the story difficult to comprehend. At the same time, the story exemplifies the ways, in which the theme can develop to help readers grasp its true meaning. For Oates, it is the theme of adolescent identity, its fight between reality and illusions, its desire to break the lines of parental and social control, and to find its place in the world of cruelties. Really, everything in Oates’s story is about a young adolescent girl’s search for herself: “Her name was Connie. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right.. Her mother, who noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn’t much reason any longer to look at her own face, always scolded Connie about it” (Oates, 1967). As such, the development of the identity theme in Oates’s story begins with the brief description of Connie, a 15-year-old girl who is desperately trying to conform to the realities and the norms of her society and who, neither being a woman nor a child, is torn between multiple representations of the world.

Very often, these representations come from her mother, who seeks to impose strict boundaries of behavioral control on Connie. That she scolds Connie each time the girl looks into the mirror reveals the two opposite sides of the one worldview continuum, in which Connie silently praises her appearance, and in which her mother tries to bring her down to her earthy home obligations. “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed – what the hell stinks?” (Oates, 1967). This continuous opposition is probably the major source of the conflicting ideals in Connie’s mixed and rather ambiguous identity. This parental control and her mother’s striving to impose her visions on her daughter create favorable conditions for the development of duplicity in Connie’s identity. In this story, Oates shows a young girl who is, while still far from maturity, already knows how she should behave at home and how she should behave away from home in order to achieve the desired purpose. “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home; her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out” (Oates, 1967). This theme of identity and its dubiousness is used by Oates to create a disruption of the human nature in the face of a real danger, when a person, regardless of his (her) age, is expected to take only one and the most correct decision. For Oates, Arnold is the one who has either to make Connie change her beliefs about life or to follow him. The girl chooses the latter.

In the context of identity formation, Oates’s story is much similar to that of Flannery O’Connor, because her Good Country People also discusses the collision of female identity with the realities of life. Although O’Connor’s Hulga (Joy) is not an adolescent, and her 32 years and a doctorate degree in philosophy make her much different from Connie, both ladies show, how their immature female identities crash against the realities of life. Both characters create a vision of being extremely vulnerable under their seemingly strong appearance. For Connie, this vulnerability is expressed in her continuous search for recognition. Alfred ultimately appears to be the one, who uses value of appearance to satisfy his criminal desires. “He takes on another role, that of the sexual psychopath, who uses his knowledge of a person’s weaknesses to bring his victims to him” (Oates & Milazzo, 1989). The major Hulga’s vulnerability is her artificial leg, which no one, except Hulga, ever touched. Although her doctorate degree and her profound knowledge of philosophy have already “scraped her shame away” for everything she sees in her life (O’Connor, 1977), the Bible man is the one who can look deeper into her soul and use her weakness to deny the relevance of Hulga’s nihilist identity.

The difference between the two stories is in that Oates seeks to trace the development and crash of Connie’s identity from its very beginning, making its end confusing and leaving much room for literary interpretations. O’Connor, on the contrary, omits the process of identity development and formation but discusses the process of the identity disruption and crash in major detail. Both stories confirm the duplicity of the female identity and the impact, which family relations produce on it. Like Connie, Hulga (Joy) is torn between the world of her philosophic ideals and the good country people, with whom her mother constantly communicates and whom she sees as an ideal representation of a self-rewarding life. Simultaneously, the theme of identity in both stories stands out as the matter of self-denial which becomes even more obvious through difficulties and troubles, which both characters are bound to face in their lives. Moreover, both stories show identity as something that cannot protect characters from the fragility of life. Neither Connie’s appearance, nor her desire to escape Arnold can save her from trouble: “I’ll hold you so tight you won’t think you have to try and get away… because you’ll know you can’t” (Oates, 1967). In the same way, Hulga’s identity cannot protect her from the fragility, which she experiences upon her leg being taken away by the Bible man. When she softly asks to get her leg back, her trust and the sense of being recognized and valued are immediately replaced by the feelings of terror, alarm, and panic (Whitt, 1997). In this way, O’Connor and Oates crash their characters against the realities of life. They deny the relevance of their assumptions about self. They teach them a good lesson of what it means to be a human, without any sense of sympathy or compassion. The theme of identity in both stories shows as the combination of illusions and weaknesses, which other people can readily use to satisfy their corrupted desires.

Because both stories belong to one and the same genre, it is difficult to define, how genre can influence the way identity theme is represented in literature. At the same time, the reader has a feeling that both authors seek to create a new system of beliefs, to test it, and to deny its effectiveness in present day life. For Oates, it is the theme of “appearance” identity, which is so characteristic of young girls. Oates finally reveals the true dangers, which this belief system hides in itself. For O’Connor, it is the theme of “nihilist” identity, which does not lead anywhere but to losing one’s self. It is the complexity of the human character and mind that make these stories similar and, at the same time, dramatically different. The process of identity development goes through its culmination to its utmost destruction, revealing the meanest sides of human mentality and the common mistakes people make in their search for the perfect self.

Conclusion

The theme of identity is one of the most common topics in literature, due to the fact that identity offers broad opportunities for literary analysis. Joyce Carol Oates’s Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is not an exception. The process of identity formation in Connie is traced through its very beginning to its very tragic end. From being torn between her mother and the world outside her house, through the growing duplicity of her self, and up to the need to take the most difficult decision, Oates creates a picture of identity development through its culmination and up to its destruction. In this way, the story is much similar to O’Connor’s Good Country People, in which Hulga’s identity undergoes a profound and painful shift after a tragic accident with the Bible man. Both authors seek to create a new system of identity beliefs, to test it, and finally, to destroy it. They show identity formation as the continuous conflict between strong mind and weak emotions. They teach their characters a good lesson about the meanest sides of the human nature, about the falsity and uselessness of appearance and nihilist philosophic beliefs in the face of a real tragedy.

References

Oates, J.C. (1967). Where are you going, where have you been? A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page. Retrieved October 28, 2009 from http://jco.usfca.edu/works/wgoing/text.html

Oates, J.C. & Milazzo, L. (1989). Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates. University Press of Mississippi.

O’Connor, F. (1977). Good Country People. In F. O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Other Stories, Mariner Books.

Whitt, M.E. (1997). Understanding Flannery O’Connor. University of South Carolina Press.