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It was the beginning of the 1960s when D.K. Oatess writing style and socio-political views were formed. It is comprehended that this was a time of social activity growth and the emergence of several social movements. It is significant to highlight feminism, the ideology, canons, and ideas which influenced Americans in the second half of the last century. Although the writer does not classify herself as a feminist and denies extreme views in almost all of her works, she raises the theme of patriarchal chauvinism, which entails violence. A woman often feels invisible in the social plane because her corporeality is accepted as the basis. However, her secret inner world her deepest essence and emotional nature are much more complex. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is a vivid example of a book that raises the painful theme of violence and cruelty that reigns in human relationships and destroys them on every level.
The relationship between the leading characters in the story is grounded on symbolic psychological violence. The conflict depicted in the book grows out of a small sketch of the act of seduction by a young man a mysterious stranger Arnold Frand of a girl named Connie (Oates 3). The entire story is a dialogue between protagonists, which results in the girl agreeing to go outside her parents house and go on a picnic with a young man. This indicates that Connies seduction is carried out through a process of conversation in which the guy demonstrates his male authority and Connies female submission. Researcher Jackson sees power as the ability to terrorize and use self and power to induce fear (Jackson 37). Acts of terror lie in a wide range, from rape to insult by action, to sexual abuse, and such an act of terror, D.K. Oates depicts.
The writer shows how the romantic expectations of a blonde and naive girl are transformed into the cold and painful process of her seduction by the cruel and overbearing Arnold. It occurs on a personal level, diving into the girls inner world. The writer identifies the characters through matrices socially prescribed to the female or male gender. By placing the characters in these loci, Oates further emphasizes the binarity that exists, showing that in this compressed physical world, the personal and the private become openly accessible to any male interference from the outside (Oates 3). Moreover, the inner cannot resist and is forced to transform itself under the pressure of external force. The kitchen threshold takes on the function of the main boundary of the narrative (Jackson 44). It is an existential line crossing in which the heroine from her home and family enters the world of Arnold Friend, where she will be suppressed and psychologically destroyed.
Thus, the very title of the story combines both plans: the past, where you have been, and the future, where you are going. In depicting Connies character development, author reaffirms the idea that the lot is directly dependent on the past. As time is divided into past and future, space is divided into two main realms: the inner world and the outer one. It can be concluded that the concept of violence in work is multidimensional. Despite the dramatic ending of the work, the idea inherent in it is constructive: it is impossible to realize oneself, and ones desires through the acceptance of anothers experience. The poles of the story told by the author are innocence and experience, beginning and end, and both are seen in the temper of each of the characters.
Works Cited
Jackson, Sue. Young Feminists, Feminism and Digital Media. Feminism & Psychology, vol. 28, no.1, 2018, pp. 32-49.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Where are you going, Where have you been? Rutgers University Press, 1994.
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