Analyzing Grown-up Teenagers in the Work of Joyce Carol Oates

Being grown up to a teenager means a lot of things; it means someone has a nice car, has lots of money to spend, can drink, can have sex, and can do whatever and whenever he or she wants to. It is not a surprise that being grown up is a really appealing thing to most teenagers. However, the appealing things for teenagers are only parts of being grown up because being grown up also means being responsible and mature, but most of the teenagers can only see the appealing parts of it. By showing the protagonist’s characterization, internal conflicts, external conflicts, and a symbol of adult world in the story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, author Joyce Carol Oates tries to tell us how teenagers want to grow up too fast even though they are far from getting ready yet.