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Joyce Carol Oates And Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

The point is she got these ideas from somewhere other than the actual story of the murders because Connie was not even the name of any of the girl's killed. Of course she had to put this kind of information in to make the story interesting and fictional or else it would have just been straight news, but if she admits all of her characters are composites of other people then who is this girl Connie a composite of. She also claims Connie's" mother was always nagging her with comments such as "why don't you keep your room clean like your sister? How've you got your hair fixed-what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don't see your sister using that junk" (149). Oates may have been showing characteristics of her own young adulthood through her character Connie. .
             It also seems that no matter the novel or short story Oates always portrays religion in one form or another. She states "I wanted to write about religious experience from the other side, about interior experience" when discussing her novel Son of the Morning. She describes the novel as "a first person narration by a man addressing himself throughout to God the whole novel is a prayer" (Westcott 3: 120). In order for a person to write a novel of this religious caliber it is important that they are well read in the bible, and she is, according to the author: .
             while writing this novel, Oates devoted hours each day to reading the Bible in an attempt to put herself in the place of a fundamentalist Protestant who could go to the Bible every day for guidance and would not have any critical or historical preconceptions. (3:121).
             The point is made that she is a very religious person so that it is easily conceived that she would be very touched by the murders in Tucson. The way Oates describes Arnold as "a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold" (Oates 150) initiates fear in the reader. Since Oates is very religious it is easily inferred that she associates Arnold with the devil because his hair is black which stands for evil and he is driving a old beat up jalopy which is unattractive like the devil.


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2. The making of a dream Where are you Going Where Have you Been

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3. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates

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4. Joyce Carol Oates

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5. Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been

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7. Where are you going, Where have you been?

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9. Where Are You Going Where Have You Been - Inspiration for

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