W here A re Y ou Going, W here Have Y ou Been? ... By Joyce Carol Oates ...
literary elements you feel have been used, your opinion on the statement, ...
Name _______________________________ W here A re Y ou Going, W here Have Y ou Been?
Class Period _______ Short Story Reading Packet
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? By Joyce Carol Oates VOCABULARY Work together with a partner for this section. One partner should have a dictionary in front of him/her while the other partner should refer to the short story. For each word listed below, look up the definition in the dictionary and read it out loud. Then locate the word in the short story and read the way the sentence out loud. Determine with your partner how best to write the definition by discussing the way the word was used in context of the story. Gawk (verb on page 1): ___________________________________________________
Languid (adjective on page 1): _____________________________________________
Pretense (noun on page 2):_________________________________________________
Vexation (noun on page 2):______________________________________________ __
Contempt (noun on page 2): _______________________________________________
Intersperse (verb on page 3):_____________________________________________
Opaquely (adjective on page 3): ____________________________________________
Amiable (adjective on page 5): _____________________________________________
MEANINGFUL QUOTATIONS When writing, authors are very careful to construct their sentences a specific way in order to grab the attention of the reader as well as allow the reader to draw specific conclusions or inferences that will lead them through the story. Read the following quotes in this section carefully. For each quote, write a response that analyzes important conclusions and pays close attention to the way the writing is constructed. Feel free to mention literary elements you feel have been used, your opinion on the statement, or anything else you feel is important. DO NOT SUMMARIZE THE QUOTE!!
1 . “Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything” (Oates 1). ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
2. “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head…” (Oates 1-2). ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
3. “And his [Arnold’s] face was a familiar face, somehow: the jaw and chin and cheeks slightly darkened because he hadn’t shaved for a day or two, and the nose long and hawklike, sniffing as if she were a treat he was going to gobble up and it was all a joke” (Oates 4). ______________________________________________________________________________
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4. “She [Connie] recognized all this and also the singsong way he talked, slightly mocking, kidding, but serious and a little melancholy, and she recognized the way he tapped one fist against the other in homage to the perpetual music behind him…She could see then that he wasn’t a kid, he was much older—thirty, maybe more” (Oates 6). ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
5. “She was hollow with what had been fear but what was now just an emptiness. All that screaming had blasted it out of her. She sat, one leg cramped under her, and deep inside her brain was something like a pinpoint of light that kept going and would not let her relax. She thought, I’m not going to see my mother again…” (Oates 9). ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
For more information on the author of this short story, check out this website!
