Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

In this short story by Joyce Carol Oates, the main character, Connie, is a very vain teenage girl who is almost entirely consumed by her looks. She often does not listen to her parents' advice and instead goes to the mall to talk to boys. One night when she is on a date with a boy her age, a creepy older man in a gold convertible makes eye contact with her and says "I'm gonna get you". Weeks later, this same man shows up at Connie's house while her family is out. Connie gets scared by what he is telling her and does not know how to act. He eventually persuades her to leave the house with her by threatening the safety of her family, and although the story does not directly say it, the reader is meant to believe that he takes advantage of her and forces sex upon her.

1) "Her name was Connie. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right."
I chose this passage because it shows the kind of character Connie is, which ultimately gets her into the terrible situation in the end of the story. It is also the very first line of the story and gets the image of Connie across right away.

2) "So they went out to his car, and on the way Connie couldn't help but let her eyes wander over the windshields and faces all around her, her face gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place; it might have been the music. She drew her shoulders up and sucked in her breath with the pure pleasure of being alive, and just at that moment she happened to glance at a face just a few feet from hers. It was a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold. He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin. Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn't help glancing back and there he was, still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, "Gonna get you, baby," and Connie turned away again without Eddie noticing anything."
This shows how Connie's desire to be noticed by others ends up backfiring in the end. This very same man is the one who shows up at Connie's house in the end and pressures her into sex.

3)"She put out her hand against the screen. She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited."
Similar to the end of Trespasser, Connie has an out of body experience at the end of this story. It shows how unwilling she is to go meet Arnold, and is being forced to do so. She is doing it to save her family and that is perhaps why she is watching herself do it.