Pondo 1Maria PondoC. Bustamante EGL 102 02015 October 2008A Death not in VainFrom Jesus dying on the cross thousands of years ago to more modern examples such as a teacher at Virginia Tech shielding students from a wave of bullets, history has been filled with self-sacrifice. In these acts, one forgets their needs and even in the case of Jesus and the teacher loses their life, not because it is wasted but rather sacrificed for a greater cause. People who are truly kings among men both in fiction and the real world, for they are people who find the courage to put themselves in harm’s way to save someone else whether they knew them or not. In Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where are you Going Where Have you Been?” this particular idea of self-sacrifice is explored through Connie, a fifteen year old in her own little world who gives up her innocence and life to save her family. Joyce Carol Oates was born June 16, 1938, in Lockport, New York (Contemporary Authors Online para. 2). After writing her first novel at fifteen she went toSyracuse University on a scholarship where she began what has been a long extensive career as a writer (Contemporary Authors Online para. 2). “The following year she earned a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin and married Raymond Smith, a former English professor” ( Contemporary Authors Online para. 3). She has earned numerous awards including the O. Henry Special Award as well as the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, Richard and Hinda Foundation Award, American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the Boston Book Review Fisk FictionPondo 2Award, and the first award which set it all off the Mademoiselle College Fiction Contest ( Honors and Awards). She has two grown children and teaches at Princeton University tothis day (Contemporary Authors Online para. 4.). In 1963 she wrote one of her masterpieces, “Where are you Going Where Have you Been?”, a story about Connie which begins like an ordinary story but sure does not end that way. Connie is your classicfifteen year old who twirls her hair daydreaming about love with a typical family of that time. She makes a decision to stay home from a picnic and comes face to face with a choice after an unexpected guest, ironically Arnold “Friend”, comes to her house. He begins seducing and harassing her until she ultimately submits herself to him in an effort to save her family. In Oates’, “Where are you Going Where Have you Been?”, Connie’s sacrifice and ultimate martyrdom in the hands of Arnold Friend can be compared to Joan of Arc and her innocence and fight for Christianity which also leads to her death.The hero of the story Connie surprisingly is not your typical candidate for a martyr. A martyr by default has characteristics of being caring, giving, loving, self-less, intelligent, and destined. Our title character seems anything but any of these things especially destined. Our story begins with Connie’s description and we immediately see her innocence and self-absorbed character contrary to that of a martyr who would be self-less and giving. “…she knew she was pretty and that was everything” (Oates para. 1). She is without a doubt someone who is not likely to play the role of a martyr because she is just not of that strong a character for she cannot care about others. In fact, she could care less about her parents whom she ultimately saves. Her dad just comes home, reads the paper, and completely ignores Connie (Oates para. 3). He is not making the effort but then neither is Connie. As for her mother, Connie herself says she wishes she was deadPondo 3(Oates para. 3). Although that may not be meant to be taken seriously, it shows us that Connie is distant from her parents and does not seem to have a reason to save them or hersister June. She constantly makes fun of and laughs at how June is a 24 year old who does not know what she is doing observing this: “…and in the back seat was poor old June, all dressed up as if she didn’t know what a barbeque was, with all the running yelling kids and the flies” (Oates para. 9). This shows that Connie thinks her sister is basically one big joke. Korb argues “she is suffering not from a malicious desire to be cruel, but merely from romantic delusions in her search for a ‘sweet, gentle love’ the way it was in movies and promised in songs” (para. 5). In this desire, she is just your average teenage and not capable of anything extraordinary. Therefore, Connie clearly needs to make some changes to live up to this title as a martyr. Furthermore, when the car pulls up and Arnold Friend comes out all Connie seems to care about is her appearance (Oates para. 12) for Connie sees only one thing andthat is herself, not realizing the danger coming her way. This is a key reason why she does not seem like a candidate for a martyr. In fact, it is not until nearly the end where wesee her desperation force her to come to a realization, an epiphany which turns the story. At this point, Arnold has gone from just asking her to come with him, to making sexual references, and then threatening her directly. Oates scares us and Connie with these few simple words “Promise not to come in unless you touch that phone, and I’ll keep that promise” (para.113). The tension continues to build up but it is when Connie’s family gets directly threatened that Connie really gets petrified. Oates keeps the tension high for after going in the house and initially deciding to call the police, Connie in agony puts down the phone almost as if to signal a shift in not only the story but her individualPondo 4character (para 123-124). Hence the epiphany previously mentioned; Connie morphs. When she comes outside she gives in to Arnold’s demands, the fiend gets his way. If Connie is a martyr for a cause and Arnold is this cruel, unforgiving, creepy man that perhaps he represents the evil that Connie has chosen to fight. Connie could just as easily have waited for her family to come, or even called the police. There are in fact numerous courses of action that Connie could have potentially taken. Like a true sacrificial person she willingly gives herself up and that is where the shift of character truly shows.On a completely different note, the patron Saint Joan of Arc exhibits the common traits of a sufferer for a cause. She by contrast is religious, intellectual, hardworking, and most importantly destined. At age thirteen she begins to
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