Where are you goin where have you been?
...d, close to Connie’s age. David, along with Connie, is trying to escape from his child-hood era and wants to prove to his parents that he isn’t a child, but instead, a man. In “Almost a Man”, David believes that owning a gun will make him more mature and an adult, but instead the gun shows his true lack of maturity and ends up making his already complicated life so much worse. Instead of doing the mature thing after his incident with the gun, David jumps a train out of town, leaving the hard work of replacing Jim Hawkins mule for his father. In the story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, I think that Connie fools around with all the boys to make herself feel more important and more grown up. It’s almost like she has a sense of control when she is with them. Both Connie and David really don’t get a lot of positive energy at home, so they both turn to things that will. Connie looks for attention in the street, where she meets Arnold Friend and gets a positive vibe from him. David on the other hand, turns to his gun for his positive energy, the energy that makes him feel powerful and more like a man. Joyce Carol Oates' short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have you Been?" and Richard Wrights short story, “Almost a Man” are both great examples of about entering new uncertain futures. In both stories, the main characters David and Connie, both have to grow up, learn to take responsibility and face the cruel and hard reality of life. David and Connie are both trying to escape from their child-hood era and prove to their families that they are not children any more and that their becoming adults, or so they think. While the physi...