Connie rejects the role of daughter, sister, and “nice” girl to cultivate her sexual persona, which flourishes only when she is away from her home and family. She makes fun of her frumpy older sister, June, and is in constant conflict with her family. Her concerns are typically adolescent: she obsesses about her looks, listens to music, hangs out with her friends, flirts with boys, and explores her sexuality. She takes great pleasure in the fact that boys and even men find her attractive. Connie has cultivated a particular manner of dressing, walking, and laughing that make her sexually appealing, although these mannerisms are only temporary affectations. She behaves one way in her home and an entirely different way when she is elsewhere. Her personality is split, and when she is at home, her sexuality goes into hiding. However, Arnold Friend’s arrival at her house forces her two sides to merge violently. In a way, Connie is not fully sexual until Arnold’s intrusion into her home—until then, her sexuality was something outside of her “true” self, the self that she allowed her family to see. Show
Connie works hard to prove her maturity, but despite her efforts with clothes and boys, she is not as mature as she would like to believe she is. She desperately wants to be attractive to older men, but once an older man—Arnold—actually pays her explicit sexual attention, she is terrified. She knows little about reality or what adulthood actually entails, preferring to lose herself in the rosy ideas of romance that her beloved pop songs promote. When Arnold appears at her house, she tries to seem in control and unfazed, but she eventually breaks down and is overpowered by him. In her moments of terror, she proves herself to be childlike: she calls out for her mother. ConnieThe fifteen-year-old protagonist of the story. Connie is in the midst of an adolescent rebellion. She argues with her mother and sister, June, and neglects family life in favor of scoping out boys at the local restaurant. She tries to appear older and wiser than she is, and her head is filled with daydreams and popular music that feed her ideas of romance and love. When Arnold Friend arrives at Connie’s house, she must confront the harsh realities of adulthood, which bear little resemblance to her fantasies. Read an in-depth analysis of Connie . Arnold FriendA dangerous figure who comes to Connie’s house and threatens her. Arnold has pale, almost translucent skin; his hair looks like a wig; and he appears both old and young at the same time. He seems like a demonic figure, perhaps even a nightmare rather than an actual human being, but his true character is never fully clarified. He speaks calmly and quietly to Connie, which makes him seem even more threatening, and in an ambiguous scene near the end of the story, he may attack her inside her home. He ultimately convinces Connie to get in the car with him. Read an in-depth analysis of Arnold Friend . EllieA friend of Arnold’s. When Arnold drives up to Connie’s house, Ellie stays in the car, listening to music and watching while Arnold talks menacingly to Connie. He seems mostly indifferent to what’s happening but offers to disconnect Connie’s telephone, an offer Arnold refuses. His strange first name is close to the name Eddie, the name of the boy Connie was with on the night she first saw Arnold. Connie’s MotherA near-constant source of frustration for Connie. Connie and her mother bicker constantly and disagree about almost everything. Connie’s mother envies Connie’s youth and beauty, which she herself has lost. At the end of the story, Connie’s mother is whom Connie cries out for when she is presumably attacked by Arnold. JuneConnie’s older sister. June is nearly the opposite of Connie. Twenty-four years old, overweight, and still living at home, she is a placid, dutiful daughter. She obeys her parents and does chores without complaining. Because June goes out at night with her friends, Connie is permitted to do so as well. The protagonist of the story, Connie is a pretty fifteen-year-old girl who loves spending time with her friends and flirting with boys. Connie takes great pleasure in her appearance, so much so that her mother often scolds her for being vain. Nonetheless, Connie’s long blonde hair and general good looks make her supremely confident, and she enjoys the power she holds over boys her own age. Meanwhile, she feels suffocated by her home life and resents her mother’s attempts to control her behavior as well as constant, unfavorable comparisons between her and her older sister, June. In many ways a typical teenager, Connie is eager to grow up and date; she also loves popular music, which has come to shape her expectations of romantic relationships and life in general. As the story unfolds, however, it becomes clear that Connie is hardly as mature and powerful as she would like to believe, and her vulnerability attracts the attention of the sinister Arnold Friend. When Friend arrives at Connie’s house, he comments on how he was drawn to her because of her physical appearance, that her family will not return to help her, and that he intends to take her away with him and rape her. Over the course of their conversation, Connie becomes increasingly alarmed and disturbed, and her confidence and sense of control is slowly worn down until her free will is seemingly obliterated altogether. By the time she passively submits to Friend, she is experiencing such intense alienation that she sees herself in the third person and has seemingly accepted her fate. Though the story ends with her stepping out of her house, it is heavily implied that Friend later murders her. Connie Quotes in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?The Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? quotes below are all either spoken by Connie or refer to Connie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
 ). 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. Her mother, who noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn't much reason any longer to look at her own face, always scolded Connie about it. Page Number and Citation: 118 Explanation and Analysis: Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was 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 highpitched and nervous anywhere else, like the jingling of the charms on her bracelet. Related Characters: Connie Related Symbols: Music Page Number and Citation: 119-120 Explanation and Analysis: She drew her shoulders up and sucked in her breath with the pure pleasure of being alive, and just at that moment she happened to glance at a face just a few feet from hers. It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold. He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn't help glancing back and there he was, still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, “Gonna get you, baby,” and Connie turned away again without Eddie noticing anything. Page Number and Citation: 120-121 Explanation and Analysis: Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been, how sweet it always was […] sweet, gentle, the way it was in movies and promised in songs […] Related Symbols: Music Page Number and Citation: 122 Explanation and Analysis: “Now, these numbers are a secret code, honey,” Arnold Friend explained. He read off the numbers 33, 19, 17 and raised his eyebrows at her to see what she thought of that, but she didn't think much of it. Page Number and Citation: 124 Explanation and Analysis: He was standing in a strange way, leaning back against the car as if he were balancing himself. He wasn't tall, only an inch or so taller than she would be if she came down to him. Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed: tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pull-over shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders. Page Number and Citation: 125 Explanation and Analysis: “Yes, I'm your lover. You don't know what that is but you will,” he said. “I know that too. I know all about you […] I'm always nice at first, the first time. I'll hold you so tight you won't think you have to try to get away or pretend anything because you'll know you can't. And I'll come inside you where it's all secret and you'll give in to me and you'll love me—" Page Number and Citation: 130 Explanation and Analysis: Arnold Friend was saying from the door, “That's a good girl. Put the phone back.” […] She picked it up and put it back. The dial tone stopped. “That's a good girl. Now, you come outside.” […] She thought, I'm not going to see my mother again. She thought, I'm not going to sleep in my bed again. Page Number and Citation: 134 Explanation and Analysis: “My sweet little blue-eyed girl,” he said in a half-sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes but was taken up just the same by the vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him—so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it. Page Number and Citation: 136 Explanation and Analysis: Connie Character Timeline in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?The timeline below shows where the character Connie appears in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Connie is a pretty fifteen-year-old girl with a “nervous, giggling habit of craning her neck to... (full context) Connie often goes to the shopping plaza three miles away with her best girlfriend. They catch... (full context) On her way to Eddie’s car, Connie feels overwhelmingly happy, a feeling she connects to the music playing more than her excitement... (full context)
Because it’s summer vacation, Connie is spending a lot of time around the house, dreaming about boys and the excitement... (full context)
One Sunday, Connie’s family go to a barbecue. Connie refuses to attend, however, rolling her eyes “to let... (full context) While listening to the music, Connie pays “close attention to herself” and once more feels an intense joy that seems to... (full context) Connie goes into the kitchen and watches the boys in the car through the screen door.... (full context) Connie is unable to decide whether or not she likes the boy and asks him about... (full context) As Friend stands beside the car, Connie observes his appearance; he is dressed the way all teenage boys dress (tight jeans, boots,... (full context) Friend lists the names of Connie’s friends and tells her that they’ve met before—she must just not remember him. He tells... (full context) ...daze until Friend pounds on the car to get his attention. When Ellie turns toward Connie, she is shocked to realize that he isn’t a kid either—he has “the face of... (full context) Connie claims that her father is coming home soon, but Friend says, “He ain’t coming. He’s... (full context) Friend is unperturbed by Connie’s threats to call the police. Ellie asks if Friend wants him to pull out the... (full context) Friend repeats that that Connie should come out of the house herself, before asking “Don’t you know who I am?”... (full context)
Connie picks up the telephone but can only hear a roaring sound and is unable to... (full context) Friend tells Connie, “The place where you came from ain't there anymore, and where you had in mind... (full context) How is Connie described in the story?The protagonist of the story, Connie is a pretty fifteen-year-old girl who loves spending time with her friends and flirting with boys. Connie takes great pleasure in her appearance, so much so that her mother often scolds her for being vain.
What happened to Connie in Where Are You Going Where have you been?Connie is compelled to leave with him and do what he demands of her. The story ends as Connie leaves her front porch; her eventual fate is left ambiguous.”
Where Are You Going Where have you been Connie relationship with her family?Connie's mother is an image of the future Connie doesn't want – the life of a domestic housewife. Connie has a love-hate relationship with her mother, with whom she identifies (her mother was once pretty too) but at the same time she has to distance herself from her mother in order to establish her independence.
Is Connie dreaming in where are you going?In Joyce Carol Oates's “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the reader can conclude that this story is Connie's realistic dream. Connie's familiar reaction to Arnold Friend and her “home” are evidence that this encounter is a dream.
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Connie from where are you going
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