Joyce Carol Oates is considered to be one of the most captivating authors. Her novels and short stories introduce numerous themes, which are significant for both men and women of any age. Her Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? was written in the 1960s as a kind of response to the events in Arizona, connected to the times, when one man raped and killed several girls. This essay shall analyze the main scenes and the ending of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
This is why realism and real-life cruelty are the things, which are inherent to this story and turn out to be significant points for any time. The main character in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? , Connie, is a 15-year-old girl, and Arnold Friend, the antagonist, is an adult man. The interactions, which happen between Arnold Friend and Connie and several rather provoking moments connected with Connies young age, immaturity, and her familys lack of understanding, lead the story and Connies life to a tragic end.
Lots of students and ordinary readers find Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? as an educative story that captures so well their sense of rebellion against their patriarchal mothers, in particular, and family and society in general (Doll, 94). Lots of young girls try to become independent earlier than it is possible. They try to pay the attention of other people to their appearance, their hair cut, and their style, but they do not comprehend that their behavior is not that appropriate.
What happens to Connie in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? ?Connie faces specific problems within her own house: her mother cannot comprehend her daughters intentions and always compares her with her sister. The mother does not want to search for the necessary way to help her daughter; she just let Connie be more closely to the cultural phenomenon and be under threat to choose the wrong way. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other peoples faces to make her own was all right (Oates, 25).
To my mind, this very age requires thorough attention from the parents side: a child should feel her relatives care and support. If there is no chance to find such kind of care, the child starts paying attention to numerous real-life examples and does not have an opportunity to comprehend what is wrong and what is right. This is what resulted in the conflict in the book. This is why this lack of parents comprehension and support is one of the crucial reasons, which cause Connies tragic end.
As Connie does not see any support from her familys side as they fail to become involved in a meaningful way in her life (Seibel, 367), she starts searching for something outside. As the analysis essay on Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? shows, Arnold Friend turns out to be one of those people, who were eager to provide this little girl with the necessary support. His criminal past and his cruel intentions are not the main reasons, which may lead to the tragic end. To my mind, they are just the other consequences, which appear as a result of family situations and personal uncertainty.
I do agree with the authors ideas for the relations between the members of the family. If parents are not able to provide their child with the necessary support, this child may face numerous troubles and unpleasant situations, which lead to the tragic end. The analysis of the main scenes and the ending of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? shows that, with the help of one concrete case, Joyce Oates demonstrates how one or two misunderstandings may influence the future of a person, the prospect of a child.
As is clear from the summary, Arnolds criminal past and his terrible attitude to other people, young ladies, in particular, is not the reason that leads to Connies tragic end. Connies family, parents inattentiveness, and teenage culture these are the major factors that result in the tragic end of the major character of the story under consideration.
Works Cited
Doll, Mary, A. Like Letters in Running Water: A Mythopoetics of Curriculum. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.
Oates, Joyce, C. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Seibel, Hugo, R., Guyer, Kenneth, E., Conway, Carolyn, M. Barrons MCAT: Medical College Admission Test. Barrons Educational Series, 2008.
The short stories The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates disclose the sudden realization of facts about life by two young female characters. When people encounter incredibly horrifying or disturbing situations or face facts about their conditions, and especially when the outcomes posed by the sudden realizations are not predictable, they tend to change greatly viewing life from different perspectives.
The paper compares and contrasts the epiphanies of the major characters in the two short stories giving an account of what triggers the epiphanies in each of them and further addressing the insights that the characters arrive at about themselves, human conditions and the world at large.
Differences
In Toni Cade Bambaras The Lesson , although she does not admit it, the main character Sylvia, a young girl learns a lesson about how life really is after the trip to the Toy store sponsored by Miss Moore, the young girls neighbor. Earlier on in her life, the young girl is just as cheeky as other little girls are and never stops to wonder about her situation.
Her experiences of the trip to Toy store where Miss Moore takes them changes her perception about the society they are living in. Her friend Sugar seems to echo her thoughts when she says, Imagine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven. What do you think? (Bambara 5). Through this trip, that she realizes that the society is not as fair as she thinks and that something is worth doing as Miss Moore always says.
This shapes her epiphany and motivation to working hard and taking Miss Moores advice seriously. The epiphany experienced by the main character Connie in the story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is somehow different from this in that Connie has got no way out, hence the force into giving in to the rapist Arnold Friends demands since her fate seems completely determined.
The freedom provided to her by her parents lands her into the hands of the rapist and a potential serial killer. She reflects back on her previous and current living style and wonders whether it will ever take after the life of her dreams. She comes to the realization of declaring the shape of her as determined by the rapist. Her epiphany seems different from that of Sylvia in The lesson in that she resigns into her fate by herself face whatever that may happen.
The epiphany of the character Sylvia in The Lesson comes because of the challenge that she gets when Miss Moore her neighbor takes her for window-shopping together with kid friends in the neighborhood. This challenge shapes the perception of the kids towards life since they do not put much thinking into it.
Their childish nature has blocked their sight in that they do not experience things evident in the society such as class differences. After the encounter at the toyshop, the kids come into the realization that life is much more than just kidding around and not taking things seriously.
The epiphany shows the fact that the kids now realize how their lives seem different from that of others that of others and that they should not behave as they do. In the short story Where are you Going and Where Have You been , Connies epiphany is not really an epiphany considering the fact it seems motivated by regrets of the freedom she receives from her parents and which she misuses.
Rather than reciprocating on her parents, trusting effectively and going where she claims: to the movies, she takes the advantage to go to clubs where people like the rapist and the serial killer Arnolds friend identifies and targets her. She falls prey of her misfortunes because of her deviant behavior and neglect.
One can attribute the conditions that lead to the epiphany of the young character Sylvia in the short story The Lesson by Bambara to her behavior and too the manner in which the society organizes itself. Sugar who is her friend echoes her thoughts when she says, I think& that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me.
Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, doesnt it? (Bambara 5 ) implying the fact that the kid comes to realize the unfairness of the society after all as she does, though earlier on in her life.
Though she still has four dollars that belongs to Miss Moore, she does not feel good after this realization of how the society seems so unfair. On the other hand, the teenage Connie succumbs to her fate because of her own defiant behavior. Had she taken heed to her mothers concern, as the case appears with her elder sister, she would have avoided the misfortunes that befall her. Further, should she have gone to the movies avoiding the club, she would have not met Arnolds friend.
Therefore, on that eventful Sunday, she would have accompanied her parents and sister to the barbecue avoiding the encounter with the rapist. Anyway, experience, as people say, passes for the best teacher and fortune knocks at least once to every persons door.
The seemingly trivial fact of the prize of a toy triggers Sylvias epiphany giving her the realization that her freedoms have a limit economic wise and that she cannot get everything that she wishes. Even the cheapest toy in the toy store, which goes for thirty-five dollars is worth the rent that the family pays for the house that they live in.
The realization provokes more thoughts in her head to the extent that she starts experiencing headache. Connies world on the other hand seems to flow as she wishes it to until the unexpected happens. A stranger who seems to know everything about her shows up and starts demanding that they go out for a ride. At first, she does not take him seriously until he reminds her that she can do nothing to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do with her.
The realization induces to her a feeling of hopeless that leads Connie to start reflecting upon her life seeing how it has been like and how different it will be after her encounter with Arnold s Friend. The case appears more different considering her lack of certainty of her fate as the case seems with Sylvia in The Lesson . The aforementioned epiphanies too feature some striking similarities.
Similarity
The two characters from the different stories come to the realization that they have been viewing life differently from how it actually is and that their futures would not be the same again. In addition, the two as portrayed in the stories, have lived a life of carelessness blinded by their youth.
For instance, in the story The Lesson , the character Sylvia and her friends never looks at life from the perspective of what it holds for them neither do they consider what their future would be like. Instead, they think that their childish adventures will shape their life. For instance, they never imagine of things such as having a desk for doing homework as important (Bambara 3).
Similarly, in the story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Connies life is never inclusive of any serious considerations prior to the appearance of the rapist Arnold Friend. Life seems characterized by girlish adventures, boys, clothes, as well as her looks. She really portrays so little sense such that she only values her deviance. Therefore, her encounter opens her eyes about the other things that can happen to her despite the tragic and suspended ending of the story without hinting on what happens to her next.
Insights
The two girls come to the realization that what has earlier on formed their world is a mirage. What they cared for was themselves and nothing more. Sylvia in The Lesson has never thought of the existence of any limits to her freedom since that is the level of her exposure before Miss Moore takes her out, together with her friends. Certain realities such as the existence of social classes seemed unclear to her before.
She says, So we heading down the street and shes boring us silly about what things cost and what our parents make and how much goes for rent and how money&the part about we all poor and live in the slums, which I dont feature (Bambara 2). Connie on the other hand never thought of the existence of any bad people in her world. She had trusted any one to the extent that the night when she first encounters Arnolds Friend, she never considers seriously the threats that he issues to her.
Conclusion
The epiphanies of the two characters in the short stories have more differences than similarities because the short story by Joyce Carol Oates lacks a proper ending leaving the reader to speculate on what happens next to the character Connie who falls in the hands of a rapist and a potential serial killer. There is no clarity whether Connie survives the encounter to experience the change as per the epiphany.
Works Cited
Bambara, Tony. Black Woman: An Anthology. Washington: Washington Square Press, 2005.
Joyce Carol Oates is considered to be one of the most captivating authors. Her novels and short stories introduce numerous themes, which are significant for both men and women of any age. Her Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? was written in the 1960s as a kind of response to the events in Arizona, connected to the times, when one man raped and killed several girls. This essay shall analyze the main scenes and the ending of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
This is why realism and real-life cruelty are the things, which are inherent to this story and turn out to be significant points for any time. The main character in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? , Connie, is a 15-year-old girl, and Arnold Friend, the antagonist, is an adult man. The interactions, which happen between Arnold Friend and Connie and several rather provoking moments connected with Connies young age, immaturity, and her familys lack of understanding, lead the story and Connies life to a tragic end.
Lots of students and ordinary readers find Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? as an educative story that captures so well their sense of rebellion against their patriarchal mothers, in particular, and family and society in general (Doll, 94). Lots of young girls try to become independent earlier than it is possible. They try to pay the attention of other people to their appearance, their hair cut, and their style, but they do not comprehend that their behavior is not that appropriate.
What happens to Connie in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? ?Connie faces specific problems within her own house: her mother cannot comprehend her daughters intentions and always compares her with her sister. The mother does not want to search for the necessary way to help her daughter; she just let Connie be more closely to the cultural phenomenon and be under threat to choose the wrong way. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other peoples faces to make her own was all right (Oates, 25).
To my mind, this very age requires thorough attention from the parents side: a child should feel her relatives care and support. If there is no chance to find such kind of care, the child starts paying attention to numerous real-life examples and does not have an opportunity to comprehend what is wrong and what is right. This is what resulted in the conflict in the book. This is why this lack of parents comprehension and support is one of the crucial reasons, which cause Connies tragic end.
As Connie does not see any support from her familys side as they fail to become involved in a meaningful way in her life (Seibel, 367), she starts searching for something outside. As the analysis essay on Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? shows, Arnold Friend turns out to be one of those people, who were eager to provide this little girl with the necessary support. His criminal past and his cruel intentions are not the main reasons, which may lead to the tragic end. To my mind, they are just the other consequences, which appear as a result of family situations and personal uncertainty.
I do agree with the authors ideas for the relations between the members of the family. If parents are not able to provide their child with the necessary support, this child may face numerous troubles and unpleasant situations, which lead to the tragic end. The analysis of the main scenes and the ending of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? shows that, with the help of one concrete case, Joyce Oates demonstrates how one or two misunderstandings may influence the future of a person, the prospect of a child.
As is clear from the summary, Arnolds criminal past and his terrible attitude to other people, young ladies, in particular, is not the reason that leads to Connies tragic end. Connies family, parents inattentiveness, and teenage culture these are the major factors that result in the tragic end of the major character of the story under consideration.
Works Cited
Doll, Mary, A. Like Letters in Running Water: A Mythopoetics of Curriculum. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.
Oates, Joyce, C. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Seibel, Hugo, R., Guyer, Kenneth, E., Conway, Carolyn, M. Barrons MCAT: Medical College Admission Test. Barrons Educational Series, 2008.
The short stories The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates disclose the sudden realization of facts about life by two young female characters. When people encounter incredibly horrifying or disturbing situations or face facts about their conditions, and especially when the outcomes posed by the sudden realizations are not predictable, they tend to change greatly viewing life from different perspectives.
The paper compares and contrasts the epiphanies of the major characters in the two short stories giving an account of what triggers the epiphanies in each of them and further addressing the insights that the characters arrive at about themselves, human conditions and the world at large.
Differences
In Toni Cade Bambaras The Lesson , although she does not admit it, the main character Sylvia, a young girl learns a lesson about how life really is after the trip to the Toy store sponsored by Miss Moore, the young girls neighbor. Earlier on in her life, the young girl is just as cheeky as other little girls are and never stops to wonder about her situation.
Her experiences of the trip to Toy store where Miss Moore takes them changes her perception about the society they are living in. Her friend Sugar seems to echo her thoughts when she says, Imagine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven. What do you think? (Bambara 5). Through this trip, that she realizes that the society is not as fair as she thinks and that something is worth doing as Miss Moore always says.
This shapes her epiphany and motivation to working hard and taking Miss Moores advice seriously. The epiphany experienced by the main character Connie in the story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been is somehow different from this in that Connie has got no way out, hence the force into giving in to the rapist Arnold Friends demands since her fate seems completely determined.
The freedom provided to her by her parents lands her into the hands of the rapist and a potential serial killer. She reflects back on her previous and current living style and wonders whether it will ever take after the life of her dreams. She comes to the realization of declaring the shape of her as determined by the rapist. Her epiphany seems different from that of Sylvia in The lesson in that she resigns into her fate by herself face whatever that may happen.
The epiphany of the character Sylvia in The Lesson comes because of the challenge that she gets when Miss Moore her neighbor takes her for window-shopping together with kid friends in the neighborhood. This challenge shapes the perception of the kids towards life since they do not put much thinking into it.
Their childish nature has blocked their sight in that they do not experience things evident in the society such as class differences. After the encounter at the toyshop, the kids come into the realization that life is much more than just kidding around and not taking things seriously.
The epiphany shows the fact that the kids now realize how their lives seem different from that of others that of others and that they should not behave as they do. In the short story Where are you Going and Where Have You been , Connies epiphany is not really an epiphany considering the fact it seems motivated by regrets of the freedom she receives from her parents and which she misuses.
Rather than reciprocating on her parents, trusting effectively and going where she claims: to the movies, she takes the advantage to go to clubs where people like the rapist and the serial killer Arnolds friend identifies and targets her. She falls prey of her misfortunes because of her deviant behavior and neglect.
One can attribute the conditions that lead to the epiphany of the young character Sylvia in the short story The Lesson by Bambara to her behavior and too the manner in which the society organizes itself. Sugar who is her friend echoes her thoughts when she says, I think& that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me.
Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, doesnt it? (Bambara 5 ) implying the fact that the kid comes to realize the unfairness of the society after all as she does, though earlier on in her life.
Though she still has four dollars that belongs to Miss Moore, she does not feel good after this realization of how the society seems so unfair. On the other hand, the teenage Connie succumbs to her fate because of her own defiant behavior. Had she taken heed to her mothers concern, as the case appears with her elder sister, she would have avoided the misfortunes that befall her. Further, should she have gone to the movies avoiding the club, she would have not met Arnolds friend.
Therefore, on that eventful Sunday, she would have accompanied her parents and sister to the barbecue avoiding the encounter with the rapist. Anyway, experience, as people say, passes for the best teacher and fortune knocks at least once to every persons door.
The seemingly trivial fact of the prize of a toy triggers Sylvias epiphany giving her the realization that her freedoms have a limit economic wise and that she cannot get everything that she wishes. Even the cheapest toy in the toy store, which goes for thirty-five dollars is worth the rent that the family pays for the house that they live in.
The realization provokes more thoughts in her head to the extent that she starts experiencing headache. Connies world on the other hand seems to flow as she wishes it to until the unexpected happens. A stranger who seems to know everything about her shows up and starts demanding that they go out for a ride. At first, she does not take him seriously until he reminds her that she can do nothing to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do with her.
The realization induces to her a feeling of hopeless that leads Connie to start reflecting upon her life seeing how it has been like and how different it will be after her encounter with Arnold s Friend. The case appears more different considering her lack of certainty of her fate as the case seems with Sylvia in The Lesson . The aforementioned epiphanies too feature some striking similarities.
Similarity
The two characters from the different stories come to the realization that they have been viewing life differently from how it actually is and that their futures would not be the same again. In addition, the two as portrayed in the stories, have lived a life of carelessness blinded by their youth.
For instance, in the story The Lesson , the character Sylvia and her friends never looks at life from the perspective of what it holds for them neither do they consider what their future would be like. Instead, they think that their childish adventures will shape their life. For instance, they never imagine of things such as having a desk for doing homework as important (Bambara 3).
Similarly, in the story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Connies life is never inclusive of any serious considerations prior to the appearance of the rapist Arnold Friend. Life seems characterized by girlish adventures, boys, clothes, as well as her looks. She really portrays so little sense such that she only values her deviance. Therefore, her encounter opens her eyes about the other things that can happen to her despite the tragic and suspended ending of the story without hinting on what happens to her next.
Insights
The two girls come to the realization that what has earlier on formed their world is a mirage. What they cared for was themselves and nothing more. Sylvia in The Lesson has never thought of the existence of any limits to her freedom since that is the level of her exposure before Miss Moore takes her out, together with her friends. Certain realities such as the existence of social classes seemed unclear to her before.
She says, So we heading down the street and shes boring us silly about what things cost and what our parents make and how much goes for rent and how money&the part about we all poor and live in the slums, which I dont feature (Bambara 2). Connie on the other hand never thought of the existence of any bad people in her world. She had trusted any one to the extent that the night when she first encounters Arnolds Friend, she never considers seriously the threats that he issues to her.
Conclusion
The epiphanies of the two characters in the short stories have more differences than similarities because the short story by Joyce Carol Oates lacks a proper ending leaving the reader to speculate on what happens next to the character Connie who falls in the hands of a rapist and a potential serial killer. There is no clarity whether Connie survives the encounter to experience the change as per the epiphany.
Works Cited
Bambara, Tony. Black Woman: An Anthology. Washington: Washington Square Press, 2005.
Some would say that in society people hold a stereotypical idea of most teenagers. Many people would say that all teenagers don’t think before they act which gets them into life changing consequences. They think teenagers are self-centered and only care about the opposite sex and that’s all they want. This one day comes to the young people one day having to grow up and they will have to realize that the choices they make while they are still young will one day affect them in the future. As they make the transition from adolescents into adulthood this is when the decisions that they have mad can soon be catching up to them. Updike and Oates both portray these ideas in “A&P” and “Where are You Going Where Have You Been”. The author also uses different literary devices and writing techniques to further emphasize the views which they are headed towards.
Teenagers often make crucial life changing decisions which can change their lives forever. “A&P” written by John Updike and “Where are You Going Where Have You Been” written by Joyce Carol Oates are both story’s that teenage children have to make life changing decisions. John Updike an award-winning writer born March 18th, 1932. Updike grew up in Shillington, Pennsylvania where his father was a high school math teacher and his mother wrote short stories. Joyce Carol Oates was born in Lockport, New York, where she grew up on her parents’ farm. Oates’s grandmother gifted her with her first typewriter at 14 years old. That’s when she began writing novel after novel.
The views that John Updike in “A&P” and ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ written by Joyce Carol Oates both illustrate the life changing decisions that teenagers make. Updike and Oates both also illustrate in “A&P” and ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ the story of teenagers who make the life changing choices and not thinking before these decisions. In ‘A and P,’ written by John Updike, a nineteen-year-old teenager named Sammy quits his job and A&P to impress three girls in bathing suits, to later realize that he does not know what is going for him in the future. In ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ written by Joyce Carol Oates introduces a fifteen-year-old teenage girl named Connie who leaves her home and her family to run off with a random man. The man described to drive in a gold car Connie wants to run away with the man and start a new life. Connie is clueless to all the life long challenges which she is going to have to face now. Updike and Oates both make their character out to be typical teenagers they are self-involved, resent authority, and can sometimes exaggerate, only to end the stories with the main characters as more mature adults.
Desire is at the heart of human existence. Joyce Carol Oates explores desire as an outgrowth Freud’s Theory of Personality Modes in her short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.
Desire is an expansive concept. It can be classified in many ways, as many different things. In general, it is most commonly seen in two ways: it may be seen more narrowly as “passionate sexual desire” (Hofmann & Nordgren 5), or it can be understood in a broader sense, encompassing “all sorts of ideals and wishes” (Hofmann & Nordgren 5). But the concept of desire has varying connotations across disciplines. In Buddhism, for example, desire is the root of all human suffering. To desire is to “crave pleasure, material goods, and immortality” (Basics of Buddhism), all of which are insatiable wants, meaning they can only bring suffering.
In Christianity, desire is unending, but not a solely negative phenomena — they do some good too; “our desires get us out of bed in the morning” (Cavanaugh). As human beings, we desire because we live – the issue is desiring something that is not satisfying. But that’s where God comes in. “The solution to the restlessness of desire is to cultivate a desire for God,” according to Cavanaugh.
Even though desire can lead you to God, it can also distance from Him. For example, all of the seven deadly sins are founded in desire, one way or another. Lust is sexual desire, and Gluttony is the excessive desire for pleasure eating. Pride is the desire to be important and attractive to others, the excessive love of self. Envy is coveting your neighbors, the desire to be equal and/or better than them. Anger is the desire to get revenge/punished and justice, and Sloth is the omission of desire. “The majority of the seven deadly deadly sins have their bases in desire” (Ratneshwar et al. 108). (this feels incomplete. Needs a sentence or two to wrap up)
In Philosophy, desire is believed by Thomas Hobbes to be the fundamental motivator of human action (Schmitter). Aristotle described desire as the appetite for pleasure. It is something that exists beyond our wants and needs; it is something stronger. Desire is overpowering, a force that demands to be given in to. Needs are internal forces, while desire originates externally – “needs push, desires pull” (Ratneshwar et al. 99).
This doesn’t make desires any less compelling than needs, though – they are typically more so. The lure of our desires can make us ignore our needs in pursuit of them, with us rationalizing it them as needs. Desires are specific wants, exacerbated by imagination, thought, and longing. It’s the dwelling on a desire that makes it so powerful. The longer time spent dwelling on a desire, the more likely we are to fall victim to a state of mind in which one acts against their better judgment through weakness of will, or as Aristotle termed it, Akrasia (Ratneshwar et al. 100).
For the purposes of this essay, the term desire is used in a neutral way; it refers to the generality of wants and wishes held human beings.
Sigmund Freud believed that human behavior is driven by desire, locked away in the unconscious mind. Born in the Czech Republic in 1856, Freud was an Austrian neuroscientist and psychoanalyst. He invented the field of psychoanalytic psychology; he believed that all human behavior occurred as a result of interaction between distinct parts of the mind. Freud was famous for his theories, some of which include the unconscious mind, repression as a defense mechanism, interpretation of dreams, and the psychosexual stages of development. (Franzen). Freud’s theories had a vast impact; it “shaped the culture” of the twentieth century (Franzen). The usage of his work in media is so frequent, a term has been created that refers to the incorporation of his theories into a literary work: “Freudian manifestation” (Franzen). Despite the fact that his theories are nearly one hundred years old, they are still being applied to various works today.
One of Sigmund Freud’s most popular theories is the Structural Model of Personality. Also known as Freud’s Personality Modes, the theory proposes that the human psyche is comprised of three parts: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. Together, these agents make up an individual’s personality.
If you were to imagine an angel and a devil sitting upon your shoulders, the Id would be the devil. The Id, is the disorganized part of a person’s personality; it hosts the most primitive and instinctual drives of a human being, such as thirst, anger, hunger, and desire. The Id actively ignores all consequences, “lacks morals”, and is “self serving” (Franzen). The pleasure principle is the driving force of the Id, meaning it is based on instant gratification and impulse; it allows us to get our needs met (Franzen).
Unlike the Id, which is present in a person from birth onward, the Superego is the part of personality we are taught. The Superego is the angel on your shoulder, telling you to do what’s right. Influenced by our parents, the Superego develops through the moral and ethical restraints placed upon us as we grow. The Superego that utilizes these teachings to keep the Id in check, so we can learn to act in “socially acceptable ways” (Franzen). The Superego is our moral conscious that “manifests our ideals,” distinguishing “right from wrong” (Franzen). It always considers the consequences of choices and how they influence those around us.
The third component of Freud’s Personality Modes is the Ego. The Ego is always the shoulders upon which the angel and devil sit — it is the decision maker. The Ego’s purpose is balance; it is “the judge who mediates between the Id and the Superego” (Franzen). The Ego tries to accommodate the desires of the Id in a realistic manner, while simultaneously complying with the limitations established by the Superego.
Freud’s Structural Model of Personality is commonly applied to pieces of literature, such as Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.
Works Cited
Franzen, Lori. (2019). Freudian Personality Modes. Personal Collection of L. Franzen, Los Alamitos High School, Los Alamitos, CA..
Franzen, Lori. (2019). Freudian Psychosexual Stages of Development. Personal Collection of L. Franzen, Los Alamitos High School, Los Alamitos, CA..
Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” Literature: An Introduction, edited by X.J. Kennedy. Little Brown and Company, 1987, pp. 373-385.
Hofmann, W., & Nordgren, L. F. (2015). The Psychology of Desire. Guilford Press.“Basics of Buddhism.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/edens/thailand/buddhism.htm#:~:targetText=In%20Buddhism%2C%20desire%20and%20ignorance,them%20can%20only%20bring%20suffering.
Ratneshwar, S., Mick, D. G., & Huffman, C. (2000). The Why of Consumption: Contemporary Perspectives on Consumer Motives, Goals and Desires. London: Routledge.
Lorenz, Hendrik. (2009). The Brute Within: Appetitive Desire in Plato and Aristotle. Clarendon Press.
Schmitter, Amy M. “17th And 18th Century Theories of Emotions: Hobbes on the Emotions.”
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 2010, plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD3Hobbes.html#:~:targetText=Hobbes%20does%20allow%20that%20there,them%E2%80%9D%20(Leviathan%2013.14).
“Where Are You Going, Where Are You Been” follows the story of a self-absorbed teen named Connie who meets a smooth charmer named Arnold. However, curiosity killed the cat as his personality and behavior got the best of Connie as she runs off with him. The author, Joyce Carol Oates has used the classic Bluebeard tale with this story set in the 1960s. While reading this short story, there is a lot of detail and meaning going on from the perspective of Connie as she is put into a situation of her own. And so forth, Oates has used symbolism in her story as plot devices in a way to move the events and characters of the story along.
Connie’s character and actions are considered symbolic in terms of how the story is set up and foreshadowing later on. This excerpt, “Connie couldn’t do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams” (Oates 454) emphasizes how her air-headed persona shows a character detail that will strongly affect her in the end. Since she is vain about what is happening, her negligence of her parents will soon make her realize something when she’s in danger near. The end. This other quote also gives a detail that as she is trying to make herself appealing while not at home, which leads her to go out with boys like Eddie. “Her mouth… pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out; her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home—’Ha, ha, very funny,’—but high pitched and nervous anywhere else” (Oates 454). Overall, the establishment of has surprisingly attracted the attention of the story’s antagonist, Arnold Friend, as he has enough entail on her to start his plan.
Arnold’s personality and traits make him symbolize himself as the the story’s antagonist. There are a few instances of foreshadowing again showing how he is the story’s villain. First, when he draws an “X” in the air in page 460, it is a sign that she has got Connie right where he wants him. Also, his first line directly at Connie, “Gonna get you baby” (Oates 455), is another first sign of him as a villain once we first see him, despite not having any background. It makes it clear in the climax as Arnold threatens Connie that he will kill her family if she calls the cops. “She could see then that he wasn’t a kid, he was much older—thirty, maybe more” (Oates 460). Also, an online article says “many critics also believe that Arnold Friend is simply ‘An old fiend,’ (notice the two r’s removed), another name for the Devil” (McManus). This means he could be representing as the Devil through the examples previously mentioned. This makes it clear that alongside Connie’s egoistic personality, he was able to maintain control of Connie and take her as his lover.
Besides the characters, music within the story’s era represents some of the concepts and conflict that goes on between Connie, Arnold, and Connie’s family:
– It defines part of Connie’s behavior and thoughts.
– It has shown Connie to connect and fall for Arnold.
Also, objects such as Arnold’s car shows us symbols that tell us about his character and one of the supporting backbones of the story. “Closely related to the freedom Americans wanted from their cars was a sense that their car reflected something about themselves” (McAllister). This quote can give us an idea about Arnold just by looking at his car. “And up at the front fender was an expression that was familiar—MAN THE FLYING SAUCERS… She looked at it for a while as if the words meant something to her that she did not yet know” (Oates 459-460). Along with the bright paint hurting her eyes (Oates 459), Arnold’s car signifies to Connie that something is up with him. Adjacent to the end as Arnold takes control over Connie, his car summarizes his own character as he is a disguised villain that is about to set the curious Connie into her trap.
As much as cars, internal conflict can be symbolized through other objects such as Connie’s home and screen door where she has a protected life inside, but she doesn’t know what’s outside in a larger world. “Connie let the screen door close and stood perfectly still inside it, listening to the music from her radio and the boy’s blend together” (Oates 460). The screen door acts as a barrier between Connie’s naivety and Arnold’s assertiveness, but more importantly, her safe place from trouble. Even as Connie tries to prevent Arnold from killing her family, it’s another way to represent that home can also signify Connie’s safety as she doesn’t want to go outside. However, this exchange shows us that Connie decides to break down that barrier leaving behind her family and safety as she leaves with Arnold. “Arnold Friend was saying from the door, ‘That’s a good girl. Put the phone back.’ She kicked the phone away from her. ‘No, honey. Pick it up. Put it back right.’ She picked it up and put it back. The dial tone stopped. ‘That’s a good girl. Now, you come outside” (Oates 465). Now her house can’t protect herself as Arnold forces her to drive away with him from her safe zone.
Overall, the entire story seems to be an allegory of “Death of the Maiden” giving us a similar feel within the situation that Connie faces against Arnold. To explain it, “Persephone gathered flowers in company of carefree nymphs when she saw a pretty narcissus and plucked it just as Hades came from the underworld and abducted her” (“Jeune Fille Et La Mort”). To compare it to the story, Connie is vulnerable and looks beautiful, much like Persephone, about her attraction to the devil, Arnold, with no clue he is seducing her. Connie is also seen as the young, and as she decides to stay with Arnold in the end, it is almost as a sign that we will face death one day in the long run. Oates has probably based off this folktale as a guide by using her main characters as symbols to Persephone and Hades so we can relate to the story’s plot.
Drawing to a close, Connie’s personality has set herself up into trouble with Arnold Friend and his custom car. She steps away from the screen door away and her family to the music of the outside world and oblivious affection of boys like Arnold that make her character interesting to explore. Many of the symbols we see has connected to a modern-day twist on the classic “Bluebeard” tale only with a few unexpected details. Symbolism in Oates’ story is important because it doesn’t give just the characters like Connie and Arnold something to represent, but also the concepts and objects that surround them too giving us a new understanding to the story we read. Now we know when to think twice as things get suspicious sometimes.
Works cited
McManus, Dermot. ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol.’ The Sitting Bee. The Sitting Bee, 22 Jul. 2014. Web.
Oates, Joyce Carol. ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?.’ Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, 2016 MLA Update. Ed. Laurie Kirszner, Ed. Stephen Mandell. Cengage Learning, 2017. 453-466. Print.
Oates, Joyce Carol, and R. P. Hale. Blue-Bearded Lover. William B. Ewert, 1987.
“Jeune Fille Et La Mort.” La Mort Dans L’Art, www.lamortdanslart.com/fille/maiden.htm. Web.
McAllister, Ted V. “Cars, Individualism, and the Paradox of Freedom in a Mass Society.” Front Porch Republic, 2 May 2018, www.frontporchrepublic.com/2011/10/cars-individualism-and-the-paradox-of-freedom-in-a-mass-society/.
Once a research conducted by a Chinese marriage consulting center indicated that in one hundred and fifty cases of nearly collapsed marriage, seventy-eight of them are under the influence of families of origin, in which more than fifty percent of cases consist of parents who have quarrels and family violence (Bliss, 2019). Revealed in this study, families that lack harmony and care cause marriage’s unhappiness. Since this problem took place previously, many writers produce essays to convey their desire of solving this problem especially in a female’s perspective. Joyce Carol Oates is one of them. In her two essays, “They All Just Went Away” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” she describes in the first essay that Mr. Weidel destroyed his family and caused great damage on his daughter Ruth’s happiness in her future marriage; likely, in the second essay, Connie’s parents were careless about her, and finally she was easily tempted and deceived to go out with a strange man, which suggests that the disharmony of family results in realistic unhappiness of a female’s marriage. From females’ points of view, this idea opposes the female’s imagined happiness of marriage depicted in the fairy tale—Snow White through the parental generation’s aspect—the female character’s parents’ poor relationship leads to her mother’s unfortunate life after marriage from which fairy-tale happiness of marriage is alike, and through the aspect of daughters’ generation—families’ partiality and families’ violence trigger female characters’ unhappiness of marriage.
To begin with, a mother’s aloof relationship with her husband causes postnuptial unhappiness, which is opposite from the fairy-tale premarital happiness of Snow White. As for the essay, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You been,” Oates portrays that Connie’s mother nearly lives with her two daughters—June and Connie without actual relation and conversations between her and her husband. She writes, “Their father was away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted supper and…after supper he went to bed. He didn’t bother talking much to them…Connie’s mother kept picking at her” (Oates 1). According to the author, Connie’s father does not care about his wife and children and lives like a puppet. This wordless relationship affects the mother’s characteristics to become nagging and favor of expressing her annoyance and complaint. Oates depicts that the mother repeatedly scolded one of her daughters without time interval (Oates 1). Similarly, as stated in the fairy tale, “Little Snow-white,” the King had another wife soon after his first wife’s death, and the second Queen merely know to regularly ask the magical mirror if she is the most beautiful woman (Jacob & Grimm, n.d.). On the one hand, no matter how happy the mother’s premarital life was, the father shows a cold face on his wife, which is the manifestation of lacking responsibility as a husband. Owing to this kind of alienation of his wife, the mother’s loquacious nature comes into being, which provokes marital unhappiness. On the other hand, even in Little Snow-White, the second queen’s marriage is incomplete and of no warmth because the King offers her only an identity of queen or wife, which is analogous with the marriage of Ruth’s mother; this evidence demonstrates that the fairy-tale happiness of marriage itself does not appear all the way through the story. To sum up, in both the reality and imagination of parental generation, the situation of entire happiness of marriage does not endure. This rule is the same with children’s generation.
Furthermore, in the age of adolescence, parents’ unhappiness of marriages, or concretely, neglection and prejudice, determines children’s conjugal unhappiness in the future, which challenges the fairy-tale marriage of women. Connie’s elder sister, June, is one ideal female in people’s traditional mind about industrious women at Oates’ living society. Against this background, Connie’s mother compares Connie and June and criticizes Connie all day long with her relatives. Oates writes, “Connie had to hear her praised all the time by her mother…she saved money and helped clean the house and cooked and Connie couldn’t do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams” (Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, 1). Without focusing on how to educate Connie well, the mother unconsciously and consistently finds Connie’s short-comings and does not offer encouragement to Connie, which deepens Connie’s loneliness and undermines her sense of belonging. What is more, in the author’s another essay, “They All Just Went Away,” the care of children differentiates from the author’s mother and Ruth’s mother. Oates says, “My mother, unlike Mrs. Weidel, had time to houseclean. It was a continuous task, a mother’s responsibility…Crimson peonies that flowered for my birthday, in mid-June” (Oates, They All Just Went Away, 6). From the opposite side of description, the author suggests that Mrs. Weidel is not concerned about her daughter and, on the contrary, Oates’ mother knows to prepare gifts for her, which creates a warm atmosphere of mother’s love that will decide the happiness and satisfaction of the daughter’s marriage. By using both the positive and side description, Oates indicates that the mother’s behaviors of ignoring and lack of responsibility are the origin of misfortune, and false and critical attitudes toward children raise their averse feeling. This indication comprehensively object to the imagined marriage—a prince immediately decides to marry Little Snow-White the first time he encounters her that realistic marriage of females needs a process to adapt and prepare, which can be impeded and destroyed by parents’ inaccurate education and treatment.
Eventually, as the supplement, families’ violent behaviors towards children hurt their wholesome characteristics prepared for happy marriage in the future contrary to the imagined fairy-tale happiness of marriage in “Little Snow-White.” In the essay, ‘‘They All Just Went Away,” the author compares his parents to Ruth’s and navigates to the theme that parents’ excessive violence exists in Ruth’s family. Oates writes, “Have I said that my father never struck his children, as Mr. Weidel struck his? And did worse things to them, to the girls sometimes…and Mrs. Weidel…had beaten the younger children when she’d been drinking” (Oates 6). The question used in these sentences emphasizes the degree to which the daughter suffers from the violence implemented by her parents. Even two or three years later, after Mr. Weidel set the fire, Ruth’s scar is not cured naturally, but follows her intrinsically and persistently. Oates says, “Ruth was special, the way a handicapped person is special. She was withdrawn, quiet; if still prone to violent outbursts of rage, she might have been on medication to control it” (Oates, They All Just Went Away, 8). No matter for how long time has passed, the influence of family violence is carved into Ruth’s inner heart, and most likely, twines around her when she grows up to be a bride in the marriage. Hence, unfortunate marriage has its origin, which is from endless violence. Ruth’s dissocial and aggressive nature comes from her parents, which will injure her happiness of marriage. Nevertheless, in imagined “Little Snow-White,” the protection and care from the hunter, seven dwarfs and the prince create harmonious atmosphere that function as realistic family to shape a female into friendly and outgoing personality which brings happiness in the future marriage. Thus, realistic marriage is different from fairy-tale marriage presented in “Little Snow-White.” By way of conclusion, domestic violence pushes a female as a daughter to an endless hole of unhappiness of marriage.
A female’s fairy-tale marriage, as an imagined object, has no reason to be aligned with marriage in reality because some realistic power stems the happiness of a woman’s marriage, which is considered to be indifferent relationship within the couple in parental age, and unfair attitudes and domestic violence toward a daughter. In “Little Snow-White,” admittedly, happiness is required to inform children of marriage’s beauty. However, in the real world, happiness of marriage does not exist in every female’s life. Therefore, families that have problems treating their daughters, deliberately or unconsciously, should correct or pay more attention on their treatment and attitudes, which not only represents a kind of responsibility for females, but provides a healthy and fair growing environment for females leading to actual happiness of marriage instead of an illusionary one.
Works Cited
Bliss, P. (2019, 3 26). How big will the influence of families of origin be? Retrieved from Knowledgical Discussion: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/s4Y2N9boMuYs1axvz1bh-A
Jacob, & Grimm, W. (n.d.). Little Snow-White. Retrieved from https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html
Oates, J. C. (1966). Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.
Toni Cade Bambara and Joyce carol Oates, the authors of the allegorical stories the lesson and where are you going, where have you been respectively describe the epiphanies of the principal characters.
Through her interaction with Miss Moore, Sylvia is able to awake to the reality of the socioeconomic class that exists in her community. Initially, Sylvia seems to be happy with her lifestyle but when she realizes her level of poverty, she becomes angry. Miss Moore is a figure that represents the fight for minority like blacks against racism and discrimination especially in America.
On the other hand, Connie’s personal experience with a stranger Arnold who forced her to lose her sexual innocence awakens her into the reality of oppression, abuse, and discrimination of women in the society. Besides, the epiphanies that occur in the lives of the main characters like Sylvia and Connie opening them up to the bleak future in a discriminatory or oppressive society, have comparison and contradictory elements.
Sylvia’s exposure and observations about the other side of the town puts her in somber mood while Connie’s personal experience with Arnold puts a permanent mark in her life. Sylvia is a tough, witty, or distrustful Harlemite girl. She is also bright and her trip to Manhattan exposes her to the injustices and discrepancies or inequality in her society.
Her hometown is filthy, dirty and only occupied by uneducated blacks who live in abject poverty. Their playground is not safe because it is not only a waste disposal ground but also acts as urinal thus producing a bad odour. Although she is an American, discrimination has divided the society in two diverse worlds. On their way to Manhattan, Sylvia and her friends gape at the dressing and the lifestyle of the whites.
Due to cultural differences, she is unable to comprehend why the white people wear stockings or fur coats during summer. At the toy store, Sylvia and her friends become perplexed at the elegant but expensive toys, which cost more than they can afford. Only the children of the white people can afford such expensive toys, which may not live forever. The white community lives in a lavish lifestyle while the black anguish in poverty.
Finally, reality dawns on Sylvia that she can neither touch nor buy the toys at the store. Instantly, she becomes mad not because that she hates anybody around her but because of the poverty, discrimination, and oppression in her society.
She feels that due to racial discrimination and that she is unable to afford or live the same lifestyle as the majority in the society. Her observation, wittiness and intelligent compels her to hate the discriminatory nature in the society. Her anger is symbolizes that she is ready to fight for her rights and that of the minority people in the society.
Furthermore, her moment of epiphany gives her the urge to come out of the prison she lives. For instance, her happiness mood changes to sadness and she tells her friends “let’s go” (Bambara par.12). This means that she does not want to continue being a prisoner or see the inequality that exists in her society. Thus, Sylvia’s brightness opens her to a future that is full of obstacles but her anger is a symbol of determination that she is ready to fight on.
On the other hand, Connie is a beautiful but disobedient girl in her adolescent stage. She listens neither to her mother nor to her aunties who want her to change her mannerisms and attitude towards life. Her dressing, walking and laughing styles are ways to seek attention from members of the opposite sex (Oates 2).
Regrettably, one of the male figures she attracts turns out to be violent, which leads to a conflict and eventually to rape. Connie is unable to resist Arnold’s advances due to his threats and leaves with him to unknown destination (Kurkowski par.2). Nevertheless, the conflict, rape, and forceful eviction from her home open her to the reality of oppression, sexual or physical abuse and disrespect women undergo in the society.
If Connie had listened to her parents and accompanied them to the barbecue party, she would not have had the awful experience. Therefore, Connie’s moment of epiphany comes in a form of a fight and personal experience that leaves her distressful while Sylvia’s moment of epiphany is through an observation that indirectly touches her life compelling her to fight for her rights.
Sylvia’s moment of epiphany has both a social and political orientation. All the leaders in either public or private institutions are from the majority group or race. Miss Moore symbolically represents the black people in the society who have risen above all odds to fight for their rights. She mainly speaks for the author when she enlightens Sylvia and her friends about the division of the world into social classes (Brandon par.1).
She is both educated and has relevant information about the social, political and economic state of her country thus volunteering to give lessons to poor black children. Through Miss Moore, the moment of epiphany in Sylvia’s comes through a learning process that makes her envy the white people or the majority group in the society. Moreover, Sylvia is able to realize the political, social, and economic status of her society through Miss Moore, which was the aim of the author.
On the contrary, the epiphany moment in Connie’s life is only socially oriented. Connie’s transition from adolescent stage to adulthood seems to have thrown her into confusion leading to frequent fights with her mother. Arnold appearance puts her into fear and when he forces himself into her, he not only makes her frightened but also enables her to understand the level of inhumanity in her society or in the world.
Although the author does not give the fate of Connie, the rape and harassment from Arnold are a premonition of the bleak future that lay ahead of her. Therefore, through Connie, the author is able to highlight the social discrimination and traumas women or poor people undergo in hands of men while through Sylvia the author mainly focuses on racial discrimination in the society.
The moments of epiphanies in the main characters are similar because they not only occur to young girls but also change the course of their lives. Additionally, their social nature makes them to interact with strangers who give their lives a different direction. Although Connie resists the advances or the oppressive nature of Arnold, eventually she has no choice but to follow his footsteps.
Therefore, Connie succumbs to Arnold when she realizes her feminine nature and the society’s perception of women as inferior cannot save her. In addition, she realizes the world is full of evil people because she is unhappy and Arnold forces her to smile when he says” let’s see a smile try it “ (Oates 9).Similarly, Sylvia’s poor living conditions and lack of adequate education gives her the urge to fight the oppressiveness, discrimination or inequality that prevails in the society.
Moreover, Sylvia asserts, “ain’t nobody is gonna to beat me at nuthin”, which means she is ready to fight for the rights of the minority in the society (Bambara par.12). Therefore, the moment of epiphanies in the two principal characters reveals to them about the unfairness that is in the world they live in. Therefore, the authors of the two books use the youth to enlighten the society about feminine rights.
In summary, through the description of the way of life of the main characters, the authors are able to describe their epiphany moments, which reveals to them the inhumanity, oppression and discrimination that exists in their world. When Sylvia realizes about the discriminatory nature of the black people in her society, she decides to fight for equality. On the contrary, although Connie is able to learn about the poor perception of women and the poor people in her society, she is unable to fight for her rights.
Sylvia’s moment of epiphany has political, social, and economic orientation while Connie’s epiphany is mainly socially oriented especially on the aspect of poverty and women. The similarity in the epiphany moments in the two cases is that it not only occurs to youths but also transforms the daily lives of the young girls. Finally, Bambara uses Miss Moore to highlight explicitly the political, social, and economic situation in her country.
Works Cited
Bambara, Toni. The lesson, 1972. Web.
Brandon, Martin. ‘The Lesson’ as an Analysis of Societies Economic Differences, 2009. Web.
Kurkowski, Clifford. A Psychological Analysis of Connie: A Feminist Viewpoint of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? N.d. Web.
Oates, Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Ed. Elaine Showalter. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Can it be too late to see and understand the real nature or real value of definite things and relations? Different people can experience a kind of awakening or catharsis as a result of the external factors’ impact or as a result of the long spiritual journey toward the self-awareness.
The narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” published in 1983 is a self-centered man who is inclined to see the world in a way which is convenient for him that is why his world is limited and framed because of his lack of sensitiveness and ability to feel and learn.
Thus, the story’s narrator is focused on himself, he does not understand his wife and her feelings, and he does not want to see the wife’s blind friend in his house because this man is associated with the wife’s past life, however, this blind man helps the main character ‘see’ and understand himself or to awake.
Carver’s character receives the chance to awake in time, when something can be changed. However, Connie as the main character of Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (1966) seems to receive the chance to understand the values in the life too late, while facing the threat of being abused by the cruel men.
Although both Raymond Carver and Joyce Carol Oates focus on the topic of self-awareness and awakening in their stories, the authors choose different approaches to emphasize the significance of these actions; Carver demonstrates the possibilities to awake through the understanding and learning when Oates shows the negative effects of not being awakened in time.
In his short story “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver uses the first person narrative point of view in order to represent the situations and events through the eyes of the main character who interacts with his wife and the blind man. The important role of this approach is in the fact that the reader receives the opportunity to understand that the narrator lacks self-awareness, and he is rather ‘blind’ while discussing himself and other people with the focus on the narrator’s own words and descriptions.
From this point, the narrator’s narrow-mindedness and impossibility to see the deeper meaning is emphasized with references to his thoughts about the blind man’s visit. Thus, the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his [the blind man’s] visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies.
In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed” (Carver 1). Thinking over the visit, the narrator is focused only on his own feelings and negative associations related to the ‘idea of blindness’, without paying much attention to the wife’s expectations, although the wife discusses this blind man as the closest friend, thus, the first person narrative point of view serves successfully to accentuate the narrator’s true emotions.
According to Clark, “Carver’s laconic speakers often narrate in a reportorial, self-effacing manner. They objectively document subjective sensory experiences, requiring a heightened degree of interpretive synthesis” (Clark 106). To demonstrate his perception of the situation, the narrator describes his emotions in short abrupt sentences, using words with negative connotation.
However, in spite of the worst expectations, the narrator’s meeting with the blind man provides the main character with the opportunity to experience the self-awareness and become awakened in order to understand himself, the other persons, and the real sense of life. Being unable to see beyond the surface, the narrator does not want to learn how to grow spiritually and how to awake.
From this perspective, Carver refers to contrasting the narrator who does not want to act to understand himself and his wife and the blind man for whom “learning never ends” because he “got ears” (Carver 9). Although the narrator can use eyes and ears, he cannot use them appropriately in order to examine the external world and his inner world of feelings.
Clark explains Carver’s approach to depict the main character while stating that “the narrator is emotionally close to the actions he describes, yet maintains a detached stance”, thus, the suggestion about the author’s intention is that “he wants his audience to form their own conclusion” (Clark 108). The narrator is even detached from the life he lives because he cannot open his eyes and learn the deeper meanings or examine the hidden emotions and feelings expressed by his wife.
Nevertheless, the main difference of Carver’s story from Oates’s one is in the fact that the main character receives the chance to learn the truth, to experience catharsis, and to awake with the help of the blind man’s words.
Trying to describe a cathedral, the narrator follows the blind man’s words and closes his eyes in order to draw the cathedral and to feel it. Following the blind man’s advice, the narrator experiences the true awakening, and he says, “I was in my house … But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything. “It’s really something,” I said” (Carver 13).
Carver ends his story with these words, and the reader can assume that the life of the narrator can change significantly because of the experience and these new feelings. It is possible to refer to Clark’s discussion of this ending because the researcher states that for the first time, the narrator “has wrestled with matters of “truth and illusion” and become more aware of a world outside of himself” (Clark 110).
Self-awareness becomes the result of the interactions with the blind man, and it is possible to expect that the narrator can use his chance to learn how to see beyond the surface, while changing his arrogance and ignorance directed toward his wife and the blind man because of the spiritual awakening.
If Carver provides the main character with the opportunity to experience self-awareness and to learn the importance of awakening in order to change the life, Oates demonstrates the significance of self-awareness and awakening though presenting the possible outcomes of not following the right path. Connie, a 15-year-old main character of Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, is described as a person who intends to present herself as a mature woman while being a teenager who ignores the parents’ rules.
Describing Connie, Oates states that “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” (Oates 1). The author accentuates the girl’s lack of self-awareness while emphasizing Connie’s extreme focus on herself, on her appearance, and on the other people’s vision of the girl.
To give the readers an opportunity to conclude about Connie’s actions and the story’s ending independently, Oates uses the third person narrative point of view in contrast to the first person narrative used by Carver. That is why, Connie’s considerations and thoughts are presented in a rather ironical manner.
The girl is described as rejecting to follow the right path from the teenager’s maximalist visions and naïve discussion of the world around to the spiritual awakening. Thus, for instance, Oates draws the reader’s attention to the fact that “her [Connie’s] mother was so simple, Connie thought” (Oates 2). Connie is inclined to judge the people round her as ‘simple’ without understanding that she lacks the real vision of the mature life.
While discussing Connie’s abilities in understanding herself and the real world, Cruise states that “Connie lacks interest in what either lies outside her orbit or does not bear directly upon the urgencies of her life” (Cruise 97). That is why, Connie needs to experience the awakening from her illusory reality in which she is the mature woman who can have the sexual relations with men or act as women who have the significant background.
Describing Connie’s thoughts and ideas in detail and developing a lot of dialogues, Oates focuses on the fact that Connie used to live in the world of her fantasy. Nevertheless, the author does not provide the young girl with the real chance to change her life and attitude to it with the help of awakening because Connie’s way to self-awareness is too long in spite of her young age, and the author makes the reader assume that, finally, Connie experiences awakening, but there is no time to change something in her life.
The approaches used by Oates and Carver to discuss the topic of awakening and the necessity of self-awareness are similar in relation to the fact that both authors provide the hints to understand the main characters’ significant experience in the final words of the stories. Thus, following the cruel men, Connie focuses on much land which is observed everywhere, “so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it” (Oates 9).
In this case, Connie develops “the capacity to define herself actively or consciously” (Cruise 102). Although these final words can be discussed as the culmination of Connie’s spiritual awakening, the reader can assume that this experience cannot provide Connie with a chance to change the life for better.
In their short stories, Carver and Oates discuss the topic of self-awareness and awakening while using similar methods of presenting the important experience of awakening in the final words of the stories. However, the authors’ approaches to the presentation of the topic are different because Carver and Oates are inclined to use to contrasting variants to demonstrate the importance of the discussed experience.
Thus, if Carver’s narrator receives the chance to change his life and to grow spiritually, Oates’s Connie has few chances to change any thing in her life because it is too late to analyze the weaknesses in her attitudes and behaviours. From this perspective, in spite of the fact that the authors focus on the same topic of self-awareness, Carver and Oates’s approaches to discussing the topic are quite opposite and rather intriguing.
Works Cited
Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. n.d. Web.
Clark, Robert. “Keeping the Reader in the House: American Minimalism, Literary Impressionism, and Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”. Journal of Modern Literature36.1 (2012): 104-118. Print.
Cruise, James. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and Cold War Hermeneutics”. South Central Review 22.2 (2005): 95-109. Print.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? 2003. Web.