"Where are you going where have you been?" Blog

"Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates was a story that had tension building up throughout it, whether you noticed it or not. The beginning where Connie talks about how her mother favors her sister and her father isn't around much makes me think that the story will be centered around her family. The author didn't have to go into so much detail about her family in order to explain why later on Connie doesn't want to attend the barbecue, there didn't need to be family history for that. But she does. I guess that is maybe to build up some tension in the home and within the family, so at the end when she says "I will never see my mother again" its a little more touching.
The first bit of tension seems to minute when the rest of the story has been read. When Connie and her friends are running across the street to the restaurant where the older kids hang out, my first thought is, is somebody going to get hit by a car? Then when Connie meets Eddie and he says he wants to take her to a movie and she leaves her friend and he says "she won't be alone for long", I almost don't trust him in that. It makes me wonder if he will either take her and do something horrible to her, or hold her captive and not have her back by 11 like promised. But he gets her back safely so I know there must be something else. And when Connie sees the guy with the slicked back hair and gold car, I know that he is coming back into the story again. The tension starts to build up faster when he shows up at her house, but then Oates brilliantly builds up the tension even more by stopping the tension, when they are just standing by the screen door having a conversation; this is when readers just want something to happen. First the conversation is pretty relaxed, but then it starts to build up tension in itself when he reveals that he knows her name, her family, where they are, how long they will be gone, and all her friends. The fact that he squints into the distance and describes her family makes me think he has some weird superpower or something. And what about his creepy friend that never talks except to say "do you want me to cut the phone cord?" And the rest of the story from there is just all tension, he's threatening her and her family and to burn down the house and encouraging her to come outside and to not call the police or else he will come inside after her. And the end of the story has the reader just wanting more tension as Connie is left weakened and he has led her to him.