The 1950s brought a multitude of changes to U.S. culture: “conservative family values ​​and morals were threatened when the decade came to an end" (Literature and its times). What was unthinkable in the 1940s gradually became the norm in the 1950s. In Joyce Carol Oates' short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, the character Connie represents the clash of these decades. Having survived World War II, Connie's mother is still very supportive of the 1940s roles for women imposed by the male-dominated society and media of the time. Connie, on the other hand, is consistently adopting the most feminist attitude of the time. After American soldiers returned from the war, the continued progression of this feminist movement was hardly welcomed with open arms. Instead, women were expected to return to their “legitimate” positions. While some women resisted this regression, many felt compelled to take back their kitchen gloves and brooms. Connie's character and her experiences symbolize this conflict between women and men, women and society, and women and themselves. Oates' article defines the scripted roles that women have traditionally occupied in American history, suggests where they are going as a sex, and implies how this evolution will foster conflict in an unreceptive society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay During the time period in which the story is set, “it is [a woman's] nature to be small and cozy, domestic and weak,” as Margie Piercy describes in her piece “A Work of Artifice” (lines 12-14). Women were expected to quietly return to the life of housewives after years of working in the place of men during the war. like Connie – they want to explore other possibilities. Connie's mother is more of an advocate of the proper woman, believing that Connie should dress more conservatively and act shy rather than cocky or flirtatious. In her mind, women are maids who cook, they clean and serve their husbands. Connie's mother is unable to transfer this role to Connie, who is more interested in herself and “becomes aware of her sexuality” (Literature and Its Times 391). She tries to humor her mother, "[e]verything about her had two sides, one for home and one for anywhere that wasn't home...", but when her mother isn't around she is who she thinks she wants. be (291). Connie's mother and her sister June both conform to the ideal attire of the respectable woman, the nice "conservative Sunday dress"...and the high heels,” the typical face of 1950s women (297). Connie, on the other hand, wears the newest styles, “a jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another when she was out… shorts and flats… with charm bracelets that jingle on [her] thin wrist” (291). Connie's style showed more skin and was tighter; it left less to the imagination than her mother and sister's attire. Also, Connie's mother would never sneak out of the mall to see some boys, or make out with one in public, or go anywhere alone with one of them. . One of Connie's most frequent hobbies is for a parent to drive her and her friends to the mall and then sneak into the drive-in restaurant across the street, where the older kids hang out. Connie has notShe has no reservations about following a guy alone in a car for a dinner date, nor does she have any reservations about shamelessly flirting with or kissing this guy she barely knows. Connie knows her mother and sister wouldn't approve, but in a way that's the point; he doesn't want to be like his mother and sister. He wants to feel sexy, strong, unattainable and powerful. It is evident that she knows what she is doing, she walks alone, she goes from “childish and bouncy” to being “languish enough to make anyone think they hear music in her head” (291). She is attempting to seduce these guys, whose attention will boost her self-esteem. She feels less like a child and more like a woman when she practices the art of seduction, although at the time this behavior was still widely considered “morally reprehensible” (Literature and Its Times 393). This juxtaposition of her mother's values ​​versus Connie's allows Oates to show readers where American women were before the multiple waves of feminist movements. Oates continues to use Connie to suggest to readers the direction that women could be headed with the feminist movement, which was about achieving equality and allowing women to have a say in what they could and could not do, just as men dictated social norms for themselves. It was about allowing each sex to decide for themselves what their duties should be, how they should be represented, and who their role models should be. These were men granting women the same rights and pleasures that they themselves had so easily granted themselves. The feminist movement aimed for women to become more independent and in control of their own lives and futures. These were the ideals Connie pursued. When she is not at home she does not feel oppressed by her mother, who is a simple puppeteer of the chauvinist culture. He does not have to conform to his ideals or even indulge them. He can wear what he wants to wear, act how he wants, talk how he wants to whoever he wants. She is free. When not under parental supervision, he makes his own decisions. She's independent, she's her own woman. She's not just someone's wife or mother. She is more than a personal chef and a waitress. Through Connie's behavior, Oates tells the reader where their genre is heading in the future. The direction towards a more egalitarian future shocks men; some conservative thinkers argued that independent women gradually “don't have sex” with men and that immodest clothing like Connie's frustrates them and makes them even more eager to dominate and possess such women. Connie flirts with men like Arnold, who expresses his "special interest" in her (295), but quickly realizes that he doesn't want her attention. Connie "gradually dismantles her first impressions" of Arnold, quickly becoming "scared," but she has already dug herself a hole and Arnold knows it (261). Arnold sees her as a repository of his sexual frustrations: “I'll hold you so tight that you won't think you have to try to escape or fake anything because you'll know you can't. And I will come inside you where everything will be secret and you will yield to me and love me” (298). On several occasions he asks Connie to leave the house and leave with him: "I'm not going to come to that house where I don't belong, but only for you to come out to me, as you should." . Don't you know who I am?" (299). Connie is not equipped to handle this situation: she is terrified and wants independence, but does not want to handle it alone. Having grown up in a society that is not very receptive to feminist attitudes, Connie does not have the tools or the knowledge needed to overcome Arnold's dominance and threats, so he resorts to the traditional. 2013.