Symbolism and language

Here, we will focus on the symbolism and language of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates.

Symbolism

In the story, the author also inserts various symbolical elements meant to further contribute to its themes and messages.

Connie’s home is a symbol of weakness in a dangerous world. Although the house is meant to physically protect her, Arnold attacks Connie at a psychological level by playing with her mind and issuing threats until he eventually wins and Connie willingly exit her house.

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Language

The language of the short story has a medium difficulty in comprehension. Though the vocabulary is meant to be simple and easy to follow, some of the sentences are longer and the choice of words is closely related to society in the 1960s, which may make some terms or slang harder to grasp:

She sat on the edge of her bed, barefoot, and listened for an hour and a half to a program called XYZ Sunday Jamboree, record after record of hard, fast, shrieking songs she sang along with, interspersed by exclamations from "Bobby King": "An' look here, you girls at Napoleon's—Son and Charley want you to pay real close attention to this song coming up!" (p. 165, ll. 23-28)

Still, overall, it is not hard to understand the plot.

The author mixes narrative and descriptive passages with dialogue, making the story more dynamic. In fact, dialogue plays an important role in the short story as most of the tension in the plot is created using it:

"Honey—? Listen, here's how it is. I always tell the truth and I promise you this: I ain't coming in that house after you."
"You better not! I'm going to call the police if you—if you don't—"
"Honey," he said, talking right through her voice, "honey, I m not coming in there but you are coming out here. You know why?" (p. 171, ll. 34-38)

Apart from these overall features, it is also important to look at the figures of speech employed by the author, which add to the language of the short story.

Imagery

The use of descriptive words creates overall images related to sight, sound, movement, which we call imagery in literary texts. Imagery contributes to helping the reader imagine the way characters act or look like, or the setting.

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