Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

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1,006,970 females are stalked each year in the US and 206,371 females under 21 went missing in 2022 in the US. Millions are affected by stalking and kidnapping every year. Men obtain information about young women to appear like a friend and stalk them until they eventually kidnap them. There are dangerous men who prey on young women and use ways to make them feel safe with them, until they realize they’re not. Connie was personally affected when she found out Arnold had been stalking and following her, knowing too much information about her. After a long stand off with him, she realized she must go with him, he’s kidnapping her. In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” the author Joyce Oates shows how dangerous men can …show more content…
Her beauty causes her to go around with many different guys from the “wrong side of the track,” meaning no good men. Connie’s beauty contributes to how men perceive her and interact with her. They want to use her for her looks and become obsessive over things like her hair. Connie has lots of interactions with other men and these interactions show how dangerous men can be to young females. Connie and her friends often cross the tracks to meet guys on a drive-in, often much older guys. An article from Salisbury State University describes interactions Connie and her friends have with men: "...that it is Jill, the more cautious and reticent of Connie's girlfriends (in earlier scenes we see her trepidation about sharing the front seat with the driver of the half-ton that stops to offer the girls a ride home from the beach, her refusal to attend the movie favored by the "eighteen-year-old" boys whom the girls had been shadowing at the mall, and her contempt for the idea of crossing the highway to check out Frank Men follow around Connie and her friends when they wander around the mall or to the …show more content…
But this information would be easily available to anyone who frequents teen gatherings, as Arnold does. That Arnold has gone to the trouble of "researching" Connie merely emphasizes that he has had an eye for her for some time”(Coulthard). When Arnold comes to Connie’s house he begins talking to her through the screen describing all the things he knows about her: "I took a special interest in you, such a pretty girl, and found out all about you"(Oates 12). It is shown that Arnold has been obsessed with Connie for some time now as he talks about all the details he knows about her and her family. He has been stalking her for some time, even knowing when her family would be gone, and is now using that to his advantage to make it seem as if he cares. Arnold is demonstrating how men use stalking as their ability to find out information about young women and use it to make them feel safe with them, only to use it to take advantage of them. Arnold saw Connie and instantly became obsessed with her and knew everything about
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