ENGLISH WRITING(1) Literary Analysis Essay--Final Submission

Using your peer reviewer's comments and suggestions, but without necessarily adhering to each and every one of them, carry out a revision, rewriting, and editing of your literary analysis essay. Use the literary/narrative terminology covered in class and described in materials on the website. We are analyzing the story from Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" Follow the instructions in the webpage document on how to carry out the literary analysis essay as well as the document on literary/narrative vocabulary. Minimum 1500 words for final submission (Maximum approximately 1600 words). Submission should be in doc, docx or pdf format. Composition of the essay must be in either Microsoft Word, LibreOffice or Open Office. No use of Google Docs, Pages, or Hangeul Word Processing allowed. (For the Korean version of MS Word, four defaults have to be changed. International versions are likely OK but check first). Any instances of plagiarism will mean a failure on the assignment as well as the course. Please be forewarned. The complete draft of the essay is due Friday, April 14. However, a grace period applies for the assignment until Monday, April 17 at midnight. It might be well worth your time to review the lectures on academic writing from the second week of class as well as the lectures and documents related to this assignment, including narrative vocabulary, how to carry out the literary analysis essay, and how your first essay will be evaluated. You may find these materials on the website. Keep your use of quotes from the story to no more than two or three, and use less than five percent of non-original material on the final submission (i.e. quotes from the text).

 

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Taming of the Shrew

 

          Have you ever thought of being the parent of a spoiled, stubborn kid? What would you do to improve the relationship between you and your kid if problems between them? Being a parent of a teenage girl who is going through puberty is tough work that requires sophisticated skills to communicate and interact with her. Often times, lots of parents fail to get along with their kids when they get older. What would you do to solve this complicated problem with your kid as a parent? Joyce Carol Oates' short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? shows the reader one way parents try to tame a teenage girl. The plot of the story is very simple. The story takes place in 1960s America, in Connie’s house, on a peaceful Sunday. A girl is being left alone in the house and then gets threatened by an uninvited stranger. Even though the plot of the story is rather simple and short, the hidden, implicit meaning of the story and possible assumptions of the story are much deeper than its explicit plot. This short story shows Connie's mother's plan to teach her naughty, spoiled daughter Connie, who daydreams all the time, the importance of family by hiring an errand boy. Arnold Friend, who intimidates Connie into accompanying him, was actually hired by Connie's mother to bring Connie to the barbeque party.

 

           Let’s first think about why Connie’s mother had to do this to her. This story is about a young girl named Connie, who is the main character of the story. The narration of the book is narrated in third-person limited point of view. Using this point of view, the narrator of the book tells readers what Connie is thinking and describes what she feels in the situations that happen in the story. From this point of view, we could see that, whether she has a mental problem or is going through severe puberty, Connie is mentally unstable. In the beginning of the book, Connie has the thought of both killing herself and killing her mother, which is very unusual for normal teenage girls to think. Also, the narration of the story, which depicts Connie’s mental state, is very vague and obscure. Readers cannot be sure, by reading the narration, whether Connie is dreaming and whether the incident she underwent is happening in real life. I think that the author of the story intentionally wrote the narration in third-person limited point of view to show readers how abnormal Connie’s mentality is. Also, the author intentionally wrote the narration vaguely and obscurely to tell readers that Connie’s mind is unsecured and uneasy. Another of Connie’s problems, which is shown in the story, is that she isn’t aware of the dangers of strangers. In the beginning of the story, Connie hangs out with her friend, meets a boy in the bar, and goes out with the boy whom she just met a few hours ago, leaving her friend behind. I think this is a very dangerous thing for a teenage girl to do. Connie and her friend regroup at around eleven p.m., which is very late, and probably Connie would have come to her house at around twelve a.m. while her mother was worried about her. Lastly, Connie doesn’t show any respect to her parents or her sister. She doesn’t talk to her father; she thinks that her mother prefers her sister to her; and she hates seeing her sister work at her school. Connie definitely has some problems that need to be fixed.

 

          This is why Arnold Friend happened in Connie’s life. Being worried about her daughter coming home late often, Connie’s mother hired Arnold to look after her and help her when she gets into trouble so Arnold Friend kept an eye on her as she was dating a boy at the bar. When Connie insists on staying home alone and not participating in the family gathering event on Sunday, her mother, who is sick of arguing with her daughter, asks Arnold to bring Connie to the barbeque party at her aunt’s house. Whether her mother tells Arnold to scare her a little or it is just Arnold’s mischievous prank, Arnold goes to the house where Connie is and demands her to follow him. One noticeable thing to mention is that Arnold has lots of information about Connie. The only reasonable explanation for why Arnold knows everything about Connie is that Connie’s mother gave him some information about her daughter. First, Arnold knows what music Connie is listening to at that moment. I think when Connie’s mother came to her room to ask whether she was going to the barbeque party, her mother could have heard the music played on the radio and complained to Arnold about her daughter always listening to this annoying, noisy music on the radio. Arnold also knows who is in the aunt’s house, as if he had been there. Well, I think he had already been there before he arrived at Connie’s house. Arnold knows all the family members at the party, and he even knows what color Connie’s sister's dress is. But he doesn’t know the neighbors, whom Connie’s mother probably hasn’t mentioned before. By scaring her daughter a little and bringing her to the barbeque party, Connie’s mother would have wanted to teach Connie the importance of family and her duty as a family member to participate in family affairs. This dramatic irony makes the story intense and thrilling. Also, Connie’s mother chose a guy like Arnold, who is attractive and draws interest at first but soon gives a terrifying and strange impression, to teach her daughter the dangers of following a stranger you don’t know well. In the end, Connie grabs the phone and asks for help from her mother, who wanted to teach Connie that she should listen to her mother’s instructions and that she still needs her mother’s support. This very moment, I think, when Connie realizes the significance of her mother’s guidance and her parents support in her life is the climax of the story. I think Connie’s mother’s plan of shock therapy to tame Connie and teach her a lesson with the help of Arnold is successful.

 

          Some people might think that Connie’s mother was mean to her daughter, but since the narration only narrates thoughts of Connie’s, it tends to describe Connie more positively than her mother. Although Connie insists that her mother favors her sister over her, she actually unconsciously thinks that she is prettier than her mother and her sister, to the extent of ignoring and disregarding them. In the story, Connie’s mother said to Connie harsh words like "do you think you are pretty?". I think Connie’s mother wanted to teach Connie that appearance is the least important thing in human traits and that Connie would find other more important things on which to focus other than beauty, which will soon fade away like her mother. I assume that what Connie often daydreams about is her beauty and her appearance. The same explanation can be applied to Connie’s mother’s quote, "Don’t wear such junk as hair spray on your hair”, when she caught her daughter wearing hair spray.

 

          When Connie goes to the shopping plaza with her friend, her mother isn’t worried, and I think her mother would have given her some pocket money to spend with her friend. But when Connie’s mother found out that Connie hangs out with strangers in the bar, she would have worried about her daughter’s safety and made a plan to ask someone who is reliable to look after her. I assume that Arnold's friend could be Connie’s distant relative or Connie’s parents’ close neighbor or friend whom they know well because Arnold has a similar age to them. And since Arnold is portrayed by Connie, his appearance and style probably could have been distorted and interpreted falsely by this view. Last thing to mention about Arnold is that he said somewhat disturbing quotes to Connie, such as "You’re cute."; "Gonna get you"; and "I want you". I think this quote is intended to make Connie uncomfortable and uneasy so that she will desperately want to be under her parents' protection.

 

          As mentioned above, I interpret this story’s topic as the difficulties of dealing with a teenage daughter and the thesis as Connie’s mother having Arnold Friend bring her to the barbeque party and trying to teach her daughter the importance of family. Joyce Carol Oates intentionally used a third-person limited point of view that only reveals Connie’s thoughts and feelings to show readers that Connie has an unstable mind and a weak mentality. Also, the author kept the style of the story mysterious and unclear and described Arnold as unique and abnormal, which Connie sees him as, to raise the tension and thrill of the story. The ending of the story is also unclear and vague, which leaves readers to think and imagine what will happen. Personally, I think Connie’s relationship with her family would be improved thanks to this incident.