Me, Myself, & I

The story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, is about a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie who is fixated on herself image due to her mother’s criticism. Her mother is constantly judging her by her appearance and comparing Connie to her sister June. Although Connie believes that she is pretty, the constant picking she received did affect her despite her denial about what her mother says about her being true. Gradually, Connie develops a split consciousness that is delivered through the characters Arnold Friend and Ellie. In, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Joyce Carol Oates effectively illustrates the psychoanalytic concepts of suppression, splitting of consciousness, and resistance through Connie’s character.

            Connie’s mother would constantly badger Connie about her appearance, one example is, “’Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using any of that junk.” (Oates 1). Connie did not intentionally put the constant complaints from her mother into her unconscious, she suppressed them, “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). This portrays Connie’s way of suppressing what her mother kept saying about her. Freud’s concept of suppression is shown through Connie consciously disregarding the negative things her mother says about her. The criticism she suppressed would then manifest into symptoms. One of these symptoms is shown when Connie constantly checks herself in the mirror, and always worries about how she looks in front of people. In one instance, when Arnold was pulling into the driveway, Connie’s first reaction is, “Her heart began to pound and her fingers snatched at her hair, checking it and she whispered, ‘Christ. Christ’, wondering how bad she looked.” (Oates 1). This shows Connie’s symptoms of being self-conscious of her looks due to her mother’s criticism. These symptoms may further manifest and may lead to a psychotic break or flood of emotions that were suppressed into the conscious.

Further in the story, the splitting of consciousness is demonstrated with Arnold Friend and Ellie. Their characters are developed as both sides of Connie’s consciousness. In the story it says,

“Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out; her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home—”Ha, ha, very funny,”—but high-pitched and nervous anywhere else, like the jingling of the charms on her bracelet.” (Oates 1).

This shows the different personalities that then separated into Arnold and Ellie. Arnold being the more arrogant, Ellie is more reserved and quieter especially when it comes to insults or being involved with the harassment Connie was experiencing. Ellie can be seen as Connie’s side when she is being criticized by her mother, she is quiet and reserved when it happens. Connie tries her best to brush off any nuisance to her. As opposed to when Connie is with her friends, she is more Arnold’s personality, more arrogant and gruesome. The Arnold side of Connie is shown when she wishes her mother is dead and when tells her friends that her mother makes her, “want to throw up” (Oates 1). Arnold’s character is arrogant and malicious, and this is shown in Connie when talking about her mother to others.

In addition, the psychoanalytic concept of resistance is what Freud explains as “They were in the patient’s possession and were ready to emerge in association to what was still known by him, but there was some force that prevented them from becoming conscious and compelled them to remain unconscious.” (Freud 2212).  This is portrayed in the story when Arnold Friend is trying to get Connie out of the house, Arnold could have been created as a result of a traumatic experience to Connie; this traumatic experience being the criticism from her mother. Arnold keeps emphasizing that Connie will learn to love him, this can signify that if she comes out of the house, where she is constantly being criticized, or releases her repressed memories she will learn to love herself and who she is. She still resists and tells Arnold that she does not know him and that he should leave, further proving the presence of resistance in the story.

            All in all, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, portrays Connie developing a split consciousness, she tries to suppress the criticism from her mother which manifests into symptoms. The symptoms finally lead to a splitting of consciousness which was Arnold and Ellie. Although Connie believes that she is pretty, the constant picking she received did affect her despite her denial that what her mother says about her is true. Joyce Carol Oates effectively illustrates the psychoanalytic concepts of suppression, splitting of consciousness, and resistance throughout the story.