In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates uses ambiguity and obfuscation to create an overpowering sense of dread and confusion that lingers long after a first reading. As a result, few analyses agree on various elements of the text, especially regarding the true nature of Connie’s fate at the hands of the enigmatic Arnold Friend. However, the text’s overall meaning is made up from subtle techniques that come together in Oates’s storytelling. 

Oates first sets the story’s tone and central tension immediately in the title. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a question that parents normally ask of their children when they leave the house or come home at the end of the day. However, this kind of oversight is entirely absent from Connie’s environment. In the title, Oates alludes to Connie’s dysfunctional home-life, underscoring the dangerous freedom afforded to her by her parents. Connie’s feelings about her family are easy to miss. However, in the context of Connie’s risk-taking escapades out with friends and her eventual self-sacrifice at the hands of Arnold Friend, they comprise the basis of her journey from the foibles of her youth to the final stroke of selfless maturity and humanity in the story’s last moments.