Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Connie's Decision

Nobody really knows what the future holds. We all live day by day wondering what God's will is for our lives. Yet we carry on and make decisions that may or may not shape what our lives turn out to be. In Joyce Carol Oates's "Where are you going, Where have you been?," we meet Connie, a fifteen year old beautiful girl. Connie like most teenagers is a little boy crazy and at times rebellious. She and some girlfriends would get together and go to a local drive-in restaurant where older kids would hang out. (153) One night at this drive-in a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible caught Connie's eye. (154) Connie had never seen him before. He made the sly statement of "Gonna get you, baby," and she just ignored him and walked on. (154) Little did Connie know he was speaking the truth. In a very short period of time Connie was about to make the biggest decision of her life, literally.

Connie was at home alone one day sitting in her room listening to music. Her mother, father and sister were out to a barbeque. An unfamiliar car pulled up in the driveway and Connie at first was worried about how she looked. This was the least of her troubles. When Connie got to the front door she was faced with two men. The driver whom we come to know as Arnold Friend and the passenger whose name was Ellie Oscar. Arnold comes off at first as kind of strange yet nice. He asks Connie, "You wanta come for a ride?" (156) Connie smiles but is still hesitant. Arnold proceeds to ask Connie to go for a ride with him, but soon his tone changed and he went from asking to telling. Connie started to get frightened when Arnold starting saying telling all the things that he knew about her. There was no way he could have known those things because she didn't know him. "I took a special interest in you, such a pretty girl, and found out all about you like I know your parents and sister are gone somewheres and I know where and how long they're going to be gone, and I know who you were with last night, and your best girl friend's name is Betty. Right?," Arnold said. (157) This to me is where the tone in the story really changed. Eventually in the story Arnold threatens Connie that if she calls the police