The means of creating tension in Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

I think the way Joyce Carol Oates creates and maintains tension in her short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is a great example for how to set up short fiction successfully. The main conflict is introduced in the first paragraph, as well as the characters of Connie and her mother and some hints to the mother's past, which make the reader curious. June, Connie's sister and important part of the conflict is introduced in the second and third paragraph. Finally a sentence like "Connie wished her mother was dead" sets up high stakes right at the end of the introductory part of the story.

When Oates describes the public behaviour of Connie, how she attracts people with her "long dark blond hair" and her mouth, "bright and pink on evenings out", the reader immediately gets a sense of what is going to happen next: the typical way of teenage resistance. When the stranger on the street announces he's "gonna get" Connie, it adds an unpleasant feeling to the seemingly familiar high school – adolescence plot.

Another well-known plot motive which always promises action is the idea of the girl left alone at her house. It is clear that something is going to happen in the absence of Connie's parents and the reader gets drawn in by the scenario. The following dialogue between the two boys and Connie has an alarming undertone to it from the very beginning. The reader knows what is going to happen and it is nearly unbearable to slowly see how Connie is won over (first by Arnold's jokes, than by his "hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders"). At some point it gets to much even for her teenage naivety ("I have and interest in you") and the situation loses every ambiguity. Arnold delivers his threats with a violent calmness ("If the place got lit up with a fire") and the reader hopes for a plot twist until the very end. There is none and the end of the story feels just empty, but the effectiveness of letting the reader hope for a happy end until the very last line is proven by Oates. In the end it is the opening conflict which works as a final trigger for Connie giving up resistance: "they don't know one thing about you and never did and honey, you're better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you."