`Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?` and `The Man Who Was Almost a Man`

The Wages of Maturity

Joyce Carol Oates had distinctively portrayed the harmful consequences that teens may experience when they act much older than their ages . In the story Where Are You Going , Where Have You Been , Oates tells the story of a 15-year old girl who behaves more mature than kids of her age . Oates based this story on a Life Magazine story of a young man killing several girls in Arizona and in it she clearly wants to impart that maturity has its own time - and rushing it up will only lead

to unfavorable things

Such thing happened to Connie , the main character of the story , whose ways are a lot more grown-up than her 24-year old sister , June . June was simple and plain looking , whereas Connie is obsessed with her appearance and the need to always look good . Oates describes Connie to have 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 (1 . She goes out with friends who possess the same behavior and together they love going to the mall , restaurants , and movies houses up until an hour before midnight . One can never see them hang out in places where girls of their age usually are . Connie thinks that the sprees of a typical teenager are boring . And that 's the reason why she goes out in places where young adults spend time . She loves mingling with older boys and her mother never approved to any of those . Connie then , covers what she is doing outside her house by acting differently when she is at home . This is how Connie gets away with her need to show others that she isn 't an ordinary 15-year old with regular hobbies . She wants to show all the people that she was somebody different - somebody far more classy and superior to others

At 15 , Connie was adventurous and has cars and older boys enlivening her . She lives a wild and thrilling life when she 's outside . Her haven outside was the drive-in restaurant across the busy road where a lot of older kids normally hung out . It was a fly-infested restaurant , but Connie and her friends are d and expectant of the place as if it were a sacred building when they are inside it (Oates 1 . Connie 's love to live a mature life is exemplified by her preference for loud music and shiny cars . She chooses to talk to boys older than her when she 's inside the restaurant and ignores the ones who merely came from school Connie is obviously caught in a world not apt for her , and she is yet to know how harmful that could be for her

Connie never liked family affairs because she believes her personality wasn 't apt for those gatherings . She never liked household chores and doesn 't clean even her own room . One Sunday her whole family was invited to a...