One can argue that the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” has a fitting open ending that both represents the mythical nature of the events occurring to Connie while also providing enough evidence to indicate what had happened to her. On one end, the reader realizes that she was most likely murdered, as “she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness” (Oates). However, when Connie recovers consciousness, she is experiencing something like an out of body experience.
It is obvious that she is dead and going into the afterlife, but it opens up numerous questions in the end as to who Arnold Friend really is, how is he all-knowing and seemingly omnipotent? There is always the potential that it may be a dream, given that she went outside and could have fallen sleep knowing her tendency to daydream. The open ending arises as to what is next for Connie and whether she is going into paradise, or just an illusion of it created by her killer. Connie’s spirit has seemingly changed from her physical appearance, but the audience is never given the full picture.
One critical analysis by Samantha Conover suggests that Connie actually experienced an abduction and some form of rape or sexual assault. The story does not directly portray this but potentially utilizes euphemisms and other literally devices to suggest that this powerful, rich man, that most likely stalked her was a sexual predator. It is known that the short story was based by Oates on a real-life serial killer, who murdered several young girls before capture, suggesting a typology and type of sexual aggression demonstrated through his fulfillment when murdering his victims. Connie’s situation represents that of so many other women that have faced sexual assault, she knew the perpetrator but not closely, she was encountered alone, but in broad daylight, seemingly when no crime should occur. Finally, her weakness and out-of-body experience could suggest that she simply was traumatized to the point of no longer having recognition of her own body (Conover 125). It is a horrifying, but sadly accurate comparison drawn through imagery and metaphors in Oates story, indicating that it may not have been mythical at all, but an example of terrible realism.
Works Cited
Conover, Samantha. R. “A False Sense of Security: An Analysis Of Victims Of Sexual Assault and The Progress We Have Made Compared to Joyce Carol Oates’ ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’”University of Central Florida Department of Legal Studies Law Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2018, pp. 121–134, Web.
Oates, Joyce C. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?NDSU, 1966, Web.