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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Analysis

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Throughout the history of the world, society has been plagued by periods of extreme brutality and disorder, and it is often difficult to come to terms with what happened. All forms of literature, from novels to short stories to poems, can offer a way to understand those kinds of atrocities in which people may not be familiar or able to come to terms, by presenting a coping mechanism that is relatable. Examples of how literature allows society to accept the violence and oppression that surrounds them can be found in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Since both stories contain events that seem cruel and horrifying, readers can analyze the actions of the “villain” and make connections to the real world and relate it to the horrors of everyday life. …show more content…
Mankind can link the events of the story to the real world if they can embrace the reasoning behind why the “bad guy” does what the “bad guy” does. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” The Misfit is a vicious killer, which is made obvious by the fact that he murders five people. However, he still doesn’t believe that makes him a bad person. O’Connor writes “Nome, I ain’t a good man,” The Misfit said after a second as if he had considered her statement carefully, “but I ain’t the worst in the world either” (O’Connor, lines 91-92). He later explains his backstory, the path he took that turned him into the person he was, and it’s as he’s giving his explanation that the reader is able to fathom why he committed such terrible acts of violence. It often occurs in literature that the antagonist will present their tragic backstory in an attempt to make the reader more empathetic towards them. In doing

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