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Joyce Carol Oates 'Story Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?'

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To fully understand Joyce Carol Oates’ story, “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” one must pay close attention to the symbols Oates’ places throughout. There are many different interpretations on this piece of literature, for one example, Greg Johnson interprets it as a feminist allegory (Johnson 201). I agree that feminism plays a major part of the story, however, I believe Oates was portraying something much larger than that; it is obvious with the abundant symbolism all through the story. One of the more popular, and more supported, theories, suggested by Joyce M. Wegs, is that Arnold Friend is a “symbolic satan” (Wegs 202). Another theory given by Larry Rubin implies that the whole story was Connie’s dream (Rubin 202). My

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