Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Style 1 key example

Oates’s writing style in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is full of detailed imagery pertaining to both the external elements in the story (such as the setting and other people’s appearances) and Connie’s internal experience. The following passage—which comes as Connie observes Arnold's sidekick Ellie closely for the first time—captures both of these elements of Oates’s style:

Ellie turned for the first time and Connie saw with shock that he wasn't a kid either—he had a fair, hairless face, cheeks reddened slightly as if the veins grew too close to the surface of his skin, the face of a forty-year-old baby. Connie felt a wave of dizziness rise in her at this sight and she stared at him as if waiting for something to change the shock of the moment, make it all right again.

Cite this Quote