Have you ever been so focused on achieving your dreams that you are no longer aware of your current situation? When we focus on the goals in front of us, we fail to see the obstacles and dangers that lie ahead. In order to achieve our goals, we unwittingly put ourselves in an undesirable situation. Connie, herself, struggles to achieve her goal of being a desirable girl who turns heads when she walks into the room. She is so determined to be that girl that she doesn't realize the danger of the situation. In “Where are you going, where have you been?” » Oates uses metaphors, diction, and imagery to show how Connie is constantly torn between her reality and her dreams, and how this limits her freedoms in a world surrounded by malevolence. Oates uses a Garden of Eden metaphor to emphasize Arnold Friend's deceptive and malicious ways and how his deception caused Connie to imagine things. Throughout the story, Connie proves so naive to the dangers of her world that all she sees is the fact that a man is paying attention to her. You see this early in the story (Oates 505-508) when Connie and her friends go to the drive-in restaurant and a boy named Eddie invites her to go get something to eat. She's so caught up in the moment a guy noticed her that she doesn't realize a guy with shaggy hair is looking at her. When Connie finally returns to Earth, she realizes that he is looking at her and he snickers and tells her "I'm going to have you, baby". Connie turns away and continues as she was. Later in the story, when we find out that this shaggy-haired guy is Arnold Friend, you start to see him exhibit characteristics like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. One Sunday when Connie was next to him... in the middle of a paper......Joan. "The Shadow of a Satyr in Oates `Where Are You Going, Where..." Studies in Short Fiction 27.4 (1990): 537-544. Academic research completed. Web. April 2, 2014. Gillis, Christina Marsden. "'Where are you going, where have you been?' : Seduction, space and the fictional mode " Studies In Short Fiction 18.1 (1981): 65. Academic research completed. Web. May 9, 2014. Gratz, David K. "Oates's Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Explainer45.3 (1987): 55-56. Academic research completed. Web. April 2, 2014. Oates, Carol Joyce. “Where are you going, where have you been?” » ". Kirszner and Mandell. 505-516. Compact literature. Boston: Wadsworth, 2013, 2012, 2007. Print. Urbanski, Marie Mitchell Olesen. “Existential allegory: “Where are you going, where have you been?” Joyce Carol Oates. Studies in Short Fiction 15.2 (1978): 200-203. Internet Academic Research.. 2014.