Teaching “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: Analysis Questions, Discussion Ideas, and Lesson Plan Strategies

I’ve loved Oates’ most popular short story since I first read the line that Connie “wore a pullover jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home.”  The 1960s culture, the teenage experience, the rising dread, a main character who makes a seemingly baffling choice—there is so much to appreciate in this classic story. 

And it’s also one that students love—the relatable teen angst, the love of pop music, and the true crime vibes all contribute to the story being a perennial favorite.

There is something about this story, though, that really leads readers to think that it’s “not that deep.”  Honestly, I think it’s the fact that Oates is such a masterful writer she just makes it seem effortless.  

Considered by many to be one of the best American short stories of the 20th century, Oates’ story is actually a lot more complicated than it seems on first reading.   The effect of the subtle choices that she made in constructing the text—from the title to the indirect characterization to the two distinct parts of the story to the dramatic irony to the dialogue to the open ending—all come together to create a masterpiece that is both fun to read and worthy of in-depth analysis.

Getting students to go past their initial enjoyment of the story and really understand how Oates creates an effect on the reader and meaning through the literary elements of the story is not an easy task, but it’s so worth the effort!   

My complete unit on Joyce Carol Oates’ most anthologized short story has been a labor of love; this is what I learned in creating it.

Here are my 8 tips for teaching “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates.

Get students thinking about the essential questions of the story before you start reading.  I love freewriting for so many reasons (Writing fluency! Idea development!  A few minutes of peace and quiet before the chaos!) and one of my favorites is that it gets students primed to notice and think about the essential questions of a text before they even start reading.  I prefer prompts like “The ancient Roman poet Virgil said ‘Trust not too much to appearances.’  Agree or disagree?” or “The poet T.S. Eliot has said, ‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.’ Are you more likely to go too far or to never find out how far you can go?” This kind of prompt doesn’t push students to oversimplify or simply identify themes but rather to consider them and be open to finding them in the story when they read. Those early reflections make the later analysis questions much richer. While I pretty much do this with every text, it’s especially useful for a story that can seem straightforward. 

Have students experience indirect characterization from the inside out.  In my experience, high school students are very practiced in labeling or identifying indirect characterization, but they don’t spend much time focusing on how it works or why an author might want to use it.  So I have developed a simple game that pushes them to really see how characterization works. They try their hand at writing their own and then guess what their classmates are saying with their writing.  They think they’re playing a “chill” game but what they’re actually doing is starting to think more about how the literary element functions in a text.  This is an important element in a unit on a story that has such masterful characterization.

Let students react to Arnold’s red flags.  Part of the horror—and maybe a bit of the fun?—in reading this subtle masterpiece is the ways that we as readers see Arnold’s red flags way before Connie does.  Like the character in the slasher movie who runs towards the deep woods, she seems to be unable to figure out the difference between safety and peril.  So before students buckle down to analyze the text, I have them take an informal poll of when they saw Arnold’s red flags. Some might say that they caught him from the beginning when he says “Gonna get you, baby” but I bet most don’t pick up on his menace until later.

Get students to grapple with the details of the text on their own.  On students’ first reading of the story, they are likely so wound up in the plot that they aren’t paying much attention to the details of the text. So before we discuss, I have them go back and unpack and analyze specific passages and lines.  Carefully crafted “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” analysis questions help students slow down and notice the subtle choices Oates makes in those moments. It might seem easier to just give them a powerpoint explaining all the literary elements of the story, but that kind of passive learning never really goes over well. 

Get students thinking about the many choices that Oates made in constructing the story.  In my experience, simply asking students questions like “what is the effect on the theme of the author’s choice to include dialect in this passage” leads nowhere.  So instead, I ask questions like “How would the second half of the story feel different if there was more narration instead of dialogue?” or “How would your experience of the story change if Oates had kept the original title of Death and the Maiden?”  Getting students to contrast concrete elements is a much easier way to get them thinking about this kind of high-level question.

Analyze Oates’ source material.  Yet another element of this story that seems uncomplicated but is actually quite remarkable is the way that Oates draws on so many different sources and texts.  And so having students analyze and discuss visual art of the Death and the Maiden motif, the Bible story Judges 19, as well as the Life magazine article on the serial killer Charles Schmid that inspired her story all help them to both appreciate and better understand the short story. 

Give students discussion questions that don’t have easy answers.  To me, the mark of really great literature is that it both deals with multiple themes and ideas and doesn’t offer easy answers to the questions it asks.  The best discussion questions on “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” don’t close interpretation down—they open it wider. Oates’ story touches on universal fears, teen culture, power, death, and evil—there is so much here!  But I want to make sure that my discussion questions open the story up more rather than shut down discussion.  Questions like “Does Oates’ portrayal of American teenage life seem dated? Why or why not?” get students thinking about the bigger themes of coming of age as well as about the function of setting in a text—all while they are eagerly debating an interesting question.

End with meaningful assessments.  Sure, a multiple-choice quiz that asks students Connie’s sister’s name might seem easy, but it doesn’t really add to students understanding or teach them any meaningful skills.  Instead, I like to have them complete a graded discussion in which I as the teacher play no role at all.  This is as easy to grade as a quiz, but so much more enjoyable (for me!).  Another option I like is to have students write a synthesis essay on story and all of the source material we analyze together.  Since students do this writing in class with a graphic organizer, I can also be sure that they are truly doing the thinking themselves.  Add in a comparison to the Death and the Maiden theme in “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson and you’ve got a next-level assessment that goes far beyond plot and comprehension.

There is a lot here—but spending time on this masterpiece will pay off! The best part of a unit that truly does this short story justice is that it doesn’t just teach students to analyze this story, it teaches them to read and analyze any story.