What's up guys, my name is Dominic and this is the channel where I talk about some of the most popular short stories of all time. In this video, I'm going to talk about Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates. This is a story that I think we can learn a lot from. So let's talk about the family situation in this story. There are two daughters being raised by a mother and a father.
The youngest daughter is named Connie and she's about 15 years old. She is described as being very pretty and her oldest sister is named June. And she is 24 years old, but she still lives at home. She's described as not being as pretty as Connie, but she is praised by their mother more often than Connie is.
The father in this story is kind of non-existent. He's described as someone who doesn't pay much attention to his daughters. Connie doesn't receive a lot of...
positive attention at home. She receives attention from her mother but her mother often criticizes her for caring a lot about how she looks and making sure she looks pretty and it's implied in the story that the mother used to be a very pretty woman but because she's older she's not as pretty now and maybe she resents her daughter Connie because her Connie has that beauty that she used to have. So Connie doesn't have a very happy home life. But one thing that she does look forward to is going out with her friends a couple times during the week. And they go to drive-in restaurants where they meet boys and they are able to talk with people.
And one night, they go out to a drive-in restaurant and Connie meets this boy who wants to buy her something to eat. And she ends up hanging out with this boy for... I think three hours that night and her friends go off to go see a movie and they leave Connie at the drive-in restaurant with this boy. After the night is over, their friends meet her back at the drive-in restaurant and they all drive back to their home.
Connie then reflects back on this night with pleasure because she really enjoyed the time that she spent with this boy. Well, life goes on after this night out with her friends, but one Sunday afternoon, her family goes off to a barbecue being held at her aunt's house, and Connie is left home alone. While she is home alone, a car pulls up in her driveway and it is one of the guys who was there at the drive-in restaurant when she was out with her friends and this is a guy who is very interested in Connie and wants to take her out for a ride. Well Connie pokes her head out of the door and sees the guy there and they start having a conversation and the guy is trying to persuade her to take a ride with him. Connie doesn't know this guy at all and so she's very reluctant to take a ride with him but he keeps on pressing and won't leave her alone.
He keeps on trying to persuade her that it's okay that she can take a ride with him. Well eventually she tries to grab the phone and call the police. but he runs into the house and prevents her from doing that. The guy tells Connie that he wants to show her what true love really is, and he says that she has to do what he wants or else her family might get hurt. So at the end of the story, Connie is really left with no choice but to give in to this guy and go to the field with him.
So the main question that we can have after reading this story is how has this terrible situation been created? We have this situation of a young girl, 15 years old, being preyed on by an older man who is visiting her house and who knows that her family isn't around and coerces her. to go out in a field with him.
How has this terrible situation been created? How could one try to prevent this situation in the future? Well let's look at some details in Connie's life and maybe try to understand the situation a little bit better. First of all, we know that her father doesn't show much attention to her at all and we know that her mother might show her a little attention. But it's mostly negative attention.
It's mostly criticism of her for caring too much about her looks. Now, what generally happens when a parent criticizes a kid and tells them that they shouldn't do something? The kid generally starts to do that thing even more. So when Connie is told, don't care about your looks. You shouldn't care about looking pretty.
That causes Connie to kind of double down on her identity. as a pretty girl and to care even more about how she looks when she goes out. And there's no clues in the story that show that Connie has been able to form any kind of identity outside of the fact that she's a pretty girl.
seems to be the only thing that she really has to hold on to. And so she goes out with her friends and she dresses in a way that shows off her beauty and other people notice it. And there's guys who view that as her beauty.
her being sexually available. Then we have this guy who is a predator acting presumably out of his lust and trying to go after this younger girl because he sees a very vulnerable girl there. And there's no one to protect Connie when he comes and she has left no choice in the matter and her free will is really taken from her. So I think we can identify a lot of things that have caused this terrible situation. situation to happen.
We have a father who's negligent, a mother who's highly critical of the daughter, a daughter who is trying to show off her beauty in a way that displays to other guys that she is romantically available, and then we have a guy, an older man, who is preying on younger vulnerable girls. All these things help to create this terrible situation that unfolds in this this story. And that's all that we can see while reading the story. And we can be limited in our perspective.
In reality, the father who is negligent in the story might have his own story that we aren't even privy to. A story that has caused him to be the way he is. And the mother has a story that explains why she is the way she is. And that's not to diminish any responsibility that the parents carry in this situation. but I say that to help us understand the bigger reality here.
That's all I have to say about this story. Thank you for watching. Please leave a comment below if you have something to say.