Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” exemplifies the nature of repression and wishful impulses as described within the “Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis,” by Sigmund Freud. We are given an omniscient perspective that often provides insight onto how the protagonist feels. With this information we can rationalize the seemingly demonic antagonist by interpreting him as a manifestation of her repression. In the lectures, he goes into detail on how wishful impulses are the result of unconventional desires that cannot be expressed because they conflict with societal norms. When these impulses are repressed, they remove the issue from the conscious mind, but in unconscious realms such as dreams, these impulses manifest themselves once again. Therefore, we can argue that the latter events of this story take place in a dream, where the antagonist embodies her repression creating a boundary between her and her wishful impulse for acceptance.
From our introduction to Connie we come to understand that she is troubled at home. As an adolescent who is coming of age, she acts out by creating a dual personality. Connie’s reclusiveness versus her rebellious attitude is best described where it states, “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home,” (Oates 1). Due to the toxic relationship with her mother, Connie is unconsciously motivated to rebel against the image of her sister that she finds dull and overly proper. She even goes off with random guys who are interested in her and abandons her friends, accentuating her desire to pursue danger. Freud would describe this pursuit of danger as the symptom of repression, in that her sexual pursuit of intimacy is a substitute for the intimacy that she craves at home. Connie is aware that she is good looking, though the idea that her mother resents her for this is so upsetting that she removes her true personality from home, and intentionally takes actions that she knows would disappoint her parents. With this, we can infer that Connie’s true wishful impulse is to have the approval and love from her parents that her sister gets.
The day that Connie’s parents leave it said that she falls asleep in the yard, but the events that proceed imply that she never actually woke up. Arnold Friend is a character outside of the laws of reality, and he speaks with a sort of hypnotic persuasion that allures Connie. If we are to interpret their interaction as a dream sequence, then there is clear symbolism behind the character of Friend. From the lectures, Freud discusses the manifest and latent content of dreams in relation to the unconscious. He simply describes the manifest content as “a disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes,” and the latent content being the conscious interpretation of that fulfillment (Freud 2222). If we consider the role of Friend in Connie’s dream, he is representative of her repressed wishes to be loved, though he clearly is not how she wants that love. Since Connie’s true wishful impulse is to be approved by her parents, she resists him at first.
The way in which Friend breaks down Connie’s psyche is interesting particularly because he never actually touches her. We get a clearer idea of how dangerous Friend is when it states, “She could see then that he wasn’t a kid, he was much older—thirty, maybe more, at this knowledge her heart began to pound faster.” (Oates 3). With this and other hints we can conclude that Friend is not who he seems, and his intentions become more sinister the more she resists. Surprisingly, she gives into him to protect her family, which is the first instance where we see Connie care for them at all. Yet knowing her true wishful impulse it all makes sense since she desired to be loved by her family, and she sacrifices herself to the danger she so curiously pursued, for their sake.
It is through a Freudian lens that we can come to understand the internal struggle of Connie, whose repressed desire for approval at home manifested itself as dangerous intimacy in the real world, and Arnold Friend in her dream. By dissecting Freud’s lectures, we see how the symptoms of repression are found in Connie, giving reason to her rebellious nature and dual personality. Additionally, from the lectures, we analyze the manifest content of her dream to uncover the disguised symbols of her repressed desire, that being approval. In the end, Connie succumbs to her repressed desire through the form of Friend. Though it could be interpreted that through this self-sacrifice she comes to realize how much she truly cares for her family, and how much she would miss them.
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