Yunhong Li

FIQWS 101008 &100008

Prof. Elisabeth Von Uhl & Prof. Alyssa Yankwitt 

9/17/2019

Connie’s Inner World 

Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is about a 15-year-old girl named Connie. She lives with her mother, sister, and father, but she doesn’t get along with her family. Connie is internally annoyed by her mother’s criticism, and she is being neglected by her father. The story helps to clarify Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and his concepts of absence, the unconscious and dream in his lectures. In Oates’s story,  the reproaches of her mother, and the indifference of her father lead to Connie’s lack of self-confidence, and cause her strange behavior, splitting of consciousness and daydreaming. 

At the beginning of the story, Connie’s mother always blames Connie which makes Connie become vain and cause her strange behavior. According to the story, “she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates n.pag.). This obsession reveals that she pays great attention to the reaction of others in making sure she looks good. She seems to be very worried about her appearance. Connie attributes her insecurity about her own appearance to the feeling that her mother is becoming old and ugly now, and her mother is taking out her anger and lack of confidence on Connie. Actually, in Freud’s first Lecture, he states “It was observed that, while the patient was in her states of ‘absence (altered personality accompanied by confusion), she was in the habit of muttering a few words to herself which seemed as though they arose from some train of thought that was occupying her mind” (Freud 2202). Connie’s behavior appears to be like the hysterical patient Freud mentions. Connie’s nervous giggling habit seems to be unconscious, she couldn’t think of other things and in the meantime held the habit back. Which means she appears to have the early symptoms of hysteria. Connie’s giggling habit corresponds to the hysterical patient’s muttering habit. Furthermore, Connie’s other behaviors show her consciousness is splitting. 

Connie represses her true self by showing two sides of how she behaves at home and outside of the home, which led to Connie’s split personality, which is a sign of absence. Connie’s altered personality appears in the story, “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; … her laugh, which was cynical and drawing at home— ‘Ha, ha, very funny,’—but high pitched and nervous anywhere else” (Oates). That shows she gets along with her family perfunctorily, and she freed herself. She can easily switch and pretend to be two different appearances, that hide and lose her true self as well. Accordingly, Freud says a person has several mental groupings, they are independent of each other, but they can consciously alternate with each other (Freud 2208). Based on this piece of evidence, through the lens of Freud, Connie has a double personality so that she finds a way to survive happily without the love of her parents. 

In addition to the criticism of Connie’s mother caused Connie’s dual personality, Connie also creates Arnold Friend in her daydream because of her father’s lack of presence. In the story, Connie’s mother says Connie can’t do anything by daydreaming all day, that means Connie indulge in her daydream. She seems to try to escape from reality and get satisfaction in her dream. Connie would be “dreaming about the boys she met. But all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July” (Oates). Connie would unconsciously dream about the boys who have accosted her, but the boys all become into “an idea”. Based on what Freud states about the dream, “that the analysis of dreams has shown us that the unconscious makes use of a particular symbolism, especially for representing sexual complexes” (Freud 2223). That reveals Connie’s latent dream-thoughts slowly emerges. When Connie’s family went to her aunt’s house for a barbecue, Connie dreamed again in her backyard. This time, she dreamed of Arnold Friend the boy she had seen on her last outing, that relates to “an idea” came up in Connie’s last dream. 

Connie never received attention from her father which leads her to fantasize about Arnold Friend to displace her father. In Connie’s dream, Connie can’t clearly see the appearance of Arnold Friend, but she thinks he has a familiar face, and as old as her father. The characteristics of his father showed on Arnold Friend. Connie is lack of paternal love, she craves attention from males. She uses the desire to create Arnold Friend in her dream. For Connie,  Arnold Friend represents her father, and becomes the symbol of Connie’s “disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes”. 

Connie’s parents had a great influence on her whole life. Their criticism and indifference cause Connie’s incertitude. Connie masks her lack of confidence by repeatedly checking her appearance. She also pretends into two sides to protect herself. For Connie, her father’s nonchalance leads her dream about Arnold Friend. Connie’s strange habit, dual personality, and daydreaming have proved and elucidated by Freud’s concepts of absence, dreams, and the unconscious. Connie, a girl who yearns for family love, tells us how a good family is important to children’s life.  

Work Cited 

Freud, Sigmund. Sigmund Freud: Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis. Penguin, 1995. 

Oates, Joyce C. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Selected Early Stories. Princeton [N.J.: Ontario Review Press, 1993. Print.