Delivering Moral Messages in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been a

Delivering Moral Messages in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been and A Good Man is Hard to FindSchool shootings, bombings, rape, and murder argon words that argon commonly seen in newspaper headlines and heard on the morning news. To most people these acts seem like senseless violence. However, writers like Joyce Carol Oates and Flannery OConnor wont these same violent images to deliver a powerful moral message. Their stories Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and A Good Man is Hard to Find are precise comparable in the lessons that they teach.Joyce Carol Oatess Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been begins with the introduction of its main character, Connie, a fifteen year- old girl. Oates makes Connies vanity soundless well know by telling the reader that Connie has the habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors. Indeed, it is this vanity and Connies innocence that places her right in the path of Arnold Friend. Arnold will confirm this by telling Connie that there is nothing else for a pretty girl like you but to be sweet and give in. In fact, critics mainly interpret this story as Connies initiation into evil.Whats in a name? If youre talking about one of Joyce Carol Oatess characters, a name can say a lot. Arnold Friends name can be interpreted as arent no booster rocket or A. Friend (Johnson 150). Either way his is a demonic figure that represents the death of Connies spirit. In fact, Arnold Friend is based on a ensuant killer know as The multi-colour Piper of Tucson. As Oates reports, this tabloid psychopath specialized in the seduction and occasional murder of teenage girls (Wesley). The Pied Piper was in his thirties yet, he managed to counterfeit teenage dress, talk, and behavior. He also stuffed rags into his leather boots to give him height. These elements of the Pied Pipers behavior are very obvious in Oatess portrayal of Arnold Friend (Johnson 148). Joyce Carol Oates dedicated Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been to B ob Dylan. His song Its All everyplace Now, Baby Blue was her inspiration. The many lines from Dylans song obviously influenced the story (see appendix A).The vagabond whos rapping at your doorIs standing in raiment that you once wore.However, the mood and tone of the story also reveal more subtle connections (Davidson).Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been has ... ... and The Misfit play similar demonic roles and litigate as a reminder that evil can come in many forms. They both violently lead their victims to make religious epiphanies. The price paid for their sacred rebirth is an immediate death.Both Flannery OConnor and Joyce Carol Oates have been criticized for their violent writings. However, the acts portrayed in their stories arent senseless. They are meant to show the purification of the involved characters. Also, they serve as a catharsis or reassurance of faith for the reader.Works CitedDavidson, Rob. Dedication of Joyce Carol Oatess Short Story to Dylan. 16 Mar. 2 000.Friedman, Melvin L., and Clark, Beverly Lyon. Critical Essays on Flannery OConnor. Boston G.K. Hall & Co., 1985.Johnson, Greg. Joyce Carol Oates A Study of the Short Fiction. New York Twayne, 1994.Portch, Stephen R. OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find. The Explicator 37 (1978) 19-20.Schott, Webster. Flannery OConnor Faiths Stepchild. The Nation 201 (1965) 142-44, 146.Wesley, Marilyn C. The Transgressive Other in Joyce Carol Oatess Recent Fiction. Critique Studies in Contemporary Fiction XXXIII (1992) 255-62.