Modernism In 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

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Modernism is a genre of literature that explores human consciousness and alienation as well as the state of society. It is guided by an intent to move away from traditional literary style and experiment with literary form and expression. New modernist writing techniques included writing about the inner self and consciousness, writing about a decline in society as opposed to a growth in society, and writing from points of view that are uncommon such as third person plural. Through their style and theme, the short stories “A Rose For Emily”, “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been”, and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” express different tenets of modernism including decline of a society, human development, and use of the grotesque. “A Rose for …show more content…
Throughout the story, the main character who is a teenage girl named Connie searches for independence from her parents. Part of this is her attempt to become seen as sexual, despite her parents disapproval. On the first page, the author writes, “Her mother… always scolded Connie about it. ‘Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you're so pretty?’ she would say. Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything. (Oates 1)” Connie’s want to be seen as sexual is an intentional modernistic technique because it shows the dark truth about …show more content…
The situation with Arnold aries because, again, Connie tries to express her newfound sexuality by flirting with him, the older man who shows up at her house. The author describes Connie’s body language when Arnold is trying to entice her to his car as, “Connie smirked and let her hair fall loose over one shoulder,” as well as, “She pretended to fidget, chasing flies away from the door.” She acted this way as to seem mature and not interested, when really she was. However, her immaturity is shown firstly by her failing to listen to her judgement, as teengers do. In response to Arnold Friend’s repeated attempts on page four, “Connie blushed a little, because the glasses made it impossible for her to see just what this boy was looking at. She couldn't decide if she liked him or if he was just a jerk, and so she dawdled in the doorway and wouldn't come down or go back inside. (Oates 4)” Connie knew that she shouldn’t have trusted the strange man, but her ache for freedom led her to continue exploring her possibilities. This behavior continued even after the reader discovers on page 5 that Arnold is basically stalking
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