Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a literary short story first published in the 1966 Fall edition of Epoch Magazine by the American author Joyce Carol Oates. Originally titled “Death And The Maiden,” Oates was inspired to write the story when she read an article in LIFE magazine titled “The Pied Piper of Tucson” regarding three murders in Arizona. Despite this startling real-world source of inspiration, the story’s dedication reads: “for Bob Dylan.” Oates later explained that Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”, gave her further inspiration for the tale. This guide is based on the 2021 Kindle Edition of High Lonesome, featuring “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Other well-known works by Oates include We Were the Mulvaneys (1996), Blonde: A Novel (2000), and The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007).

Connie is a 15-year-old girl who is vain and overly concerned with her looks. When her mother suggests that she should not be so preoccupied with her reflection in the mirror, Connie dismisses her mother as a woman who was once pretty but is now aged and far less attractive. Although Connie seems to hold her older sister June to these high standards, stating that she is “so plain and chunky and steady” (249), she knows that her animosity toward her sister is a performance encouraged by her mother’s fickle affections.