Behind the Screen Door

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a story heavily embedded with symbolism. Upon reading Joyce Carol Oates’s short story, I was a bit frightened. It bothered me that fifteen-year old Connie was so careless with her life. Furthermore, I realized how easy it is for vulnerable teenagers to be wooed. After contemplation, it occurred to me that although the story is a bit scary, there are far more underlying messages besides the simple theme of distrust.

Connie is young, naïve, and insecure. She, unlike her older sister, is neglected by her family. Thus, she soon begins to rely in finding happiness elsewhere—in her good looks and in boys. For Connie, boys represent something she is lacking: love from her family. However, Oates makes it clear that Connie does not find adequate relief in boys, “But all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face, but an idea, a feeling mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July” (10).

Similarly, music serves as another outlet for her. After Connie decides not to go to the barbecue with her family, she “went inside the house and turned on the radio to drown out the quiet. She sat on the edge of her bed, barefoot, and listened for an hour and a half to a program…” (14). Music is something that seems to settle her always. During her date with Eddie, Connie seems to find satisfaction in something: “her face gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place, it might have been the music” (8). Unlike boys, music is something that will never fail her—that is perhaps why she puts so much faith into it.

During her family’s time at the barbecue, she encounters the sketchy Arnold Friend. After flirting with him for a bit, she realizes he is the same boy that told her he was “gonna get her” (8) when she was on her date with Eddie. To Connie, Arnold almost seems fictional. He comes from a completely different world, and he is determined to make Connie part of it. She soon becomes scared and realizes the peril she is in. The fact that her family does not come home represents their disregard for her. They are unaware of her life, thus allowing her to be swept away forever. When Arnold is convincing her to come with him, he says, “But why lock it…It’s just a screen door. It’s nothing”(18). The screen door represents the barrier between her current life and the life she could potentially lead with Arnold. She realizes that there has always simply been “a screen door” stopping her from starting a new life. In a sense, her family has pushed her in Arnold’s direction. When she ultimately makes the decision to leave with him, she is at the point where there is no other option. Connie’s departure with Arnold does not simply show that she is going off with another boy. Her opening of the screen door represents leaving her old life behind for somewhere she belongs. Her family’s ignorance leads her to make this decision where she will lead a life “out in the country here where it smells so nice and it’s sunny” (154). (558)