Characterization of Connie

The most important characters in the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates are Connie and Arnold Friend. The other characters – Connie’s parents, Jane, her girlfriend, Eddie – are only relevant for the way Connie relates to them, like Ellie is relevant for the way Arnold relates to him.

Connie is the protagonist of the short story, whom the narrator follows through the whole narrative and whose perspective of the events he/she employs.

Outer characterization

The girl’s outer characterization presents her as a teen of fifteen (p. 162, l. 1) who has an older sister, Jane, and two parents with whom she does not relate well. The girls’ physical traits are also rendered and indicate that she is good-looking and attractive:

Connie had long dark blond hair that drew anyone's eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out and the rest of it she let fall down her back. She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home. (p. 163, ll. 4-8)

Inner characterization

Connie’s inner characterization presents her as a self-absorbed girl, whose mind is on music and boys, and who likes to think of herself as pretty: “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.” (p. 162, ll. 1-3); “…she knew she was pretty and that was everything.” (p. 162, ll. 9-10)

Connie is also two-faced, as she dresses and acts differently, according to circumstances:

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. (p. 163, ll. 8-15)

Her relationship with the other members of her family is flawed. Her father is absent; her mother scolds her constantly and compares her with her sister Jane, whom Connie despises because she finds her too righteous:

… Connie had to hear her praised all the time by her mother and her mother's sisters. June did this, June did that, 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. (p. 162, ll. 19-22)

Furthermore, she judges her mother and considers her too simple, lying to her when the woman asks about her friends and other girls at school: “She always drew thick clear lines between herself and such girls, and her mothe...