Killer in "Where are you going, Where have you been?"

Joyce Carol Oates´s inspiration for writing “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”  resides in her reading of a tale by Charles Schmid plus her listening to Bob Dylan’s song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. Oates’ curiosity came after reading about this killer who seduced three young girls, even though he was somewhat weird.

Oates, in her writing of her story, wanted to tell the story from the point of view of the potential victim. This victim was Connie, who succumbed as the three girls from the stories Oates had read did before. She was caught by the killer, in this case a peculiar man named Arnold Friend and even though she was scared of him, she felt a certain attraction for him. Even though at first she didn’t want to go with, she ended up doing it; despite the fact that she had realized how weird he was, that he seemed older than she thought at first he was and also that he walked in a strange way doe to his stuffed boots, which are some of the characteristics that this character shares with Schmid’s character.

Connie, was presents as Oates’s way of criticizing society, presenting her as the prototypical American girl of the time, with superficial preoccupations who wasn’t interested in anything but having fun. She is also the representation of the exaggeration of violence to women, which is the prototypical object of violence.  The attraction that Connie felt for this man was based on her desire for someone who offered her more than she could imagine. This also makes clear the social view of women as an object erotic object.

Even though, the end of the story is not really explicit about what happened to Connie, knowing the inspiration for Oates makes it a little bit more clear what was Connie’s fate.

I let you a short preview about a video representing this story.