Watermarks Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Oates' Figurative and Literal Reasons behind "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Bess Rhode

A discussion of prolific American authors cannot be complete witout including Joyce Carol Oates. Oates is one of the most productive writers of our time--a statement never argued. Between 1971-95, Oates published twenty-five novels, eighteen short story compilations, three collections of novellas, five volumes of poetry, six editions of plays, eight books of essays, and countless more umcollected works (Kellman 487). As the format for her writing varies, so does her subject matter. Her creations cover a wide range of genres, but Oates' main fascination is contemporary America with its "colliding social and economic forces, its philosophical contradictions, its wayward, often violent energies" (Johnson 8). Oates' works, and somethimes even Oates herself, have been subject to responses ranging from extreme praise to harsh criticism from the literary community. Oates has won many significant literary awards and has even been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature but has also received her share of bad press. Oates' work has time and time again been criticized for being too violent, too bizarre, degrading to women, and "the exact antithesis to the feminist movement" (gtd. in Wesley par. 32). I believe the opposite is true.

Oates herself has been quoted as saying that her subject matter is "today's culture," and that all she is trying to do is to bring the ills of our cuture "to a place where it can be examined" (Johnson 10). Some of her stories are purely fictional, but many stories seem to be ripped from the headlines. Zombie, a 1995 novel, is loosely based on the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings (Seltzer 288). The highly acclaimed short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" draws its inspiration from the case of an Arizona serial killer, the "Pied Piper of Tucson" (Johnson 99). Oates' subject matter reflects the violence in society. Her writing is violent, but it has to be to reflect American culture today. Some detractors argue that there is enough violence in life; literature does not need to celebrate it. People do not like to be reminded of what disturbs them, but elimination of that violence will not occur if it is just ignored.

While many reviewers concentrate on the violence in her writings, others choose to interpret the stories in other ways. Oates' works are the focus of criticisms and interpretations that are sometimes on point and sometimes far off in left field. The aformentioned 1966 short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?," has received the mainstay of criticism and misinterpretation. This is the story of Connie, a fifteen-year-old girl in the throes of adolescence, who becomes the victim of a rapist and possible murderer. The meaning behind the story has been a subject of continuing debate. Some critics have taken this story and spun it into a tragically beautiful allegory of a young girl growing up to the harsh realities of the world and not the horror of the rape and murder of an actual young woman. Oates herself has described this story as "realistic allegory" (Kellman par. 2), and, in that description, I have foumd a two-fold explanation for the writing of Connie and her story: (a) a figuartive commentary on a young woman maturing, and (b) the often overlooked, but more important, literal translation addressing the pressing issue of rape in today's culture.

When examining "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?," numerous scholars look deep into the story for a figurative meaning. Competing interpretations of the story include an advisory against drugs, a drug-induced Sunday dream, a tribute to Satan, a warning against promiscuity, and an admonition against rock-and-roll music. I believe these theories, while amusing to read, are just the products of critics trying to create their own unique and brand new explanations of the story. One reading that resounds true claims that the story represents an allegory of a naïve young woman being abruptly thrown into the harsh reality of today. The physical violence Connie experiences at the hands of sinister Arnold Friend leads her to an increasing awareness of the horrors of human existence and a resulting growth of her spiritual nature.

In the beginning of the story, Connie is a shallow, self-centered adolescent who "knew she was pretty and that was everything" (118). Connie is spending her summer "dreaming about the boys she met" at the hamburger stand (121). Home alone one beautiful Sunday afternoon, a boy Connie has seen once before drives up to her house in a gold jalopy. Through conversation, Connie slowly becomes aware that this Arnold Friend is not a boy to come to call on her; he is a "thirty, maybe more" man who has come with his accomplice to take her "for a ride" (128-9). Arnold tells Connie that she is his "lover" and that he is going to "come inside of her where it's all secret" (130). With this, Connie realizes what this man wants, but, if she does not go willingly with him, he threatens that her family is "all going to get it" (133). Connie must trade herself and her life for the lives of her parents and sister.

Connie's realization that she must sacrifice herself to spare her family a deadly encounter echoes the eventual realization that many women face today, the realization that we still live in a predominantly patriarchal society with sometimes violent consequences. Most amazing about this story, the reader experiences, even with multiple readings, a tightening of the stomach and quickening of the pulse as it slowly becomes clear exatly what Arnold is up to and what he demands from Connie. It is through this suspense that Oates' message really hits home. Oates is able to transform an unfortunate but all too common story on the six o'clock news into a real life drama, one that leaves us speechless as we gasp at Connie's fate.

The problem behind searching for figurative meanings in literature is that sometimes we do not see the literal meanings glaring right in front of us. The author may have written the story to stand for something figurative, but sometimes the story can stand completely on its own. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is such a story. All the figurative interpretations may provide readers with wonderful side effects, but they should not obscure the direct literal meaning. It is through the word for word translation that Oates' true motive can be found: to begin to address the serious issues of rape and violence against women in today's society.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that women sustained about 3.8 million assaults and 500,000 rapes a year in 1992 and 1993. These figures are believed to be vast underestimates (Crowell and Burgess 1). The National Research Council estimates that between 13 and 25 perent of all U. S. women will experience rape in their lifetimes. These figures,which are not new, should be terrifying to both men and women, but a national discussion about rape has not occurred. The feminist movement has been trying, for years, to get society as a whole to talk about rape. Without discussion, solutions will be hard to find.

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" was written to reflet what is going on in America and to help bring the word "rape" into everyday vocabulary. Brenda O. Daly states that Smooth Talk, the 1985 film based on the story, broke "the silence imposed upon rape victims" (149). Rape is not just a consequence of the behavior of a few disturbed men; it is a product of cultural forces within our society. Susan Brownmiller argues that rape is a "political crime" from which "concepts of hierarchy are established" (17, 378). History has shown that rape was used as a weapon of terror by the German Huns as they marched through Belgium in World War I (32). The many dimensions of rape, along with its dire consequences, are issues that cannot continue to be ignored.

Opponents may argue that the ideas behind "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" are sensationalized to sell books. Yet Oates' description of Connie's situation is neither exaggeration nor fanciful interpretation; it is a mirror of events that happen all too often. A short list of such events should suffice to remind us of their horror. For instance, a Littleton, Colorado teenager, Jacine Gielinski, was brutally raped and murdered in 1999. Last summer, CNN reported the murder and rape of an eight-year-old California girl, Danielle Van Dam. Oates' story itself represents one chapter in the saga of Charles Schmid, Jr., the infamous "Pied Piper of Tucson," who raped and killed teenage girls, burying their bodies in the Arizona desert. Upon hearing of these recurring tragedies, we must not shudder in disgust and return to our everyday lives. We must take action against a serious epidemic.

Joyce Carol Oates writes things for many reasons. Let us not get bogged down in an arcane pursuit of scholarly interpretation. Let us hear what "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is meant to be, a call for action, a call to stand up and let the world hear that we will not sit idly by as thousands of women are raped every day. Rape is not a new crime. Rape is present in the earliest recorded history and, if society does not begin actively to prevent it, rape will be in our future. Instead of just reacting to a victim of a horrible rape, we need to be proactively searching out the rapists, seeking the causes of rape, and stopping this epidemic at its source. Many victims cannot cry for help, but Oates' carefully crafted story has given them a voice. It is our turn to listen.

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