Questions:
Character Analysis: Connie, in "Where Are Going, Where Have You Been?
In this week's literary club, you will discuss Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates. The discussion questions have been provided in advance to get you thinking while you read.
1. Describe the main character in Where Are Going, Where Have You Been?
2. Is she flat or round?
3. Is she representative or individual?
4. In the beginning, the family and town seem as ordinary people.
5. What makes the setting and the people at the beginning of the story seem so ordinary?
6. What kind of ordinary person does Connie seem to be? When do you notice the first hints of something extraordinary?
7. Is there an antagonist-protagonist relationship in this story? Why or why not?
8. What and how do you learn more about Connie? What and how do you learn about the treatment of Connie by her family?
9. How does Connie become an obsessive preoccupation with the stranger?
10. How does the plot slowly change and shift?
11. How does its meaning change or evolve as the central theme in the story?
12. What are some major stages?
13. What is the symbolic contrast between the stranger and the ordinary townspeople? Can Connie's action at the end of the story seem as a betrayal of her family?
14. What, for you, is the symbolic meaning of the way the story ends? Can the ending be read as a kind of warning? Why or why not?
Provide your answers to the following questions, and discuss them with other literary club members:
15. What is the conflict between June and Connie? How does it contribute to the plot?
16. How do you interpret the symbolic meaning of the stranger's name?
17. What could the symbol of the letter X? mean?
Like the writing of other women authors, Oats story is read by today's readers with a new awareness of traditional gender roles and women's issues. How does Connie action compare with young women today? How does the story compare to today's headlines concerning young women?