Delivering Moral Messages in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been a

Delivering Moral Messages in Where be You Going, Where Have You Been and A Good Man is Hard to Find tame shootings, bombings, rape, and murder atomic number 18 words that are commonly seen in publisher headlines and heard on the morning news. To most people these acts seem puddle care senseless violence. However, writers like Joyce chirp Oates and Flannery OConnor use these same waste images to deliver a powerful moral message. Their stories Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and A Good Man is Hard to Find are very interchangeable in the lessons that they teach.Joyce chant Oatess Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been begins with the introduction of its main character, Connie, a fifteen year- old girl. Oates pees Connies vanity tranquility well inhabit by telling the reader that Connie has the habit of craning her fill in to glance into mirrors. Indeed, it is this vanity and Connies innocence that places her right in the road of Arnold Friend. Arnold will confi rm this by telling Connie that there is nothing else for a pretty girl like you but to be sweet and give in. In fact, critics generally interpret this story as Connies knowledgeability into evil.Whats in a name? If youre talking somewhat one of Joyce Carol Oatess characters, a name gutter utter a lot. Arnold Friends name can be interpreted as arent no friend or A. Friend (Johnson 150). all way his is a demonic figure that represents the death of Connies spirit. In fact, Arnold Friend is based on a serial killer know as The Pied genus Piper of Tucson. As Oates reports, this tabloid psychopath specialise in the seduction and occasional murder of teenage girls (Wesley). The Pied Piper was in his thirties yet, he managed to counterfeit teenage dress, talk, and behavior. He besides stuffed rags into his leather boots to give him height. These elements of the Pied Pipers behavior are very obvious in Oatess portrayal of Arnold Friend (Johnson 148). Joyce Carol Oates dedicated Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been to Bob Dylan. His song Its whole Over Now, Baby Blue was her inspiration. The many lines from Dylans song evidently influenced the story (see appendix A).The vagabond whos rapping at your doorIs rest in clothes that you once wore.However, the mood and tone of the story also reveal more subtle connections (Davidson).Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been has ... ... and The Misfit play similar demonic roles and serve as a reminder that evil can come in many forms. They both violently lead their victims to make religious epiphanies. The price paid for their spiritual rebirth is an immediate death. some(prenominal) Flannery OConnor and Joyce Carol Oates have been criticized for their violent writings. However, the acts portrayed in their stories arent senseless. They are meant to show the purification of the involved characters. Also, they serve as a catharsis or reassurance of faith for the reader.Works CitedDavidson, Rob. Dedication of Joyce Carol Oatess Short Story to Dylan. 16 Mar. 2000.Friedman, Melvin L., and Clark, Beverly Lyon. Critical Essays on Flannery OConnor. capital of Massachusetts G.K. Hall & Co., 1985.Johnson, Greg. Joyce Carol Oates A Study of the Short Fiction. New York Twayne, 1994.Portch, Stephen R. OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find. The Explicator 37 (1978) 19-20.Schott, Webster. Flannery OConnor Faiths Stepchild. The Nation 201 (1965) 142-44, 146.Wesley, Marilyn C. The Transgressive Other in Joyce Carol Oatess Recent Fiction. Critique Studies in Contemporary Fiction thirty-three (1992) 255-62.