Death and the Maiden

One of JCO's inspirations was the myth of the Death and the Maiden... there are a lot of questions around the myth, like good myths should have.
Apparently, the myth may be based on the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades. Persephone was hanging out in a field one day and picked a pretty little Narcissus flower. Suddenly, the ground opened up and Hades took her down into Hadesland. She became Queen of the Underworld (if that isn't a cool job title, I don't know what is).
(methinks there is a connection between Connie and Persephone-- considering the Narcissus thing. Narcissus = self-absorbed. Connie is definitely self-absorbed. This leads to her demise... hmmm [stroking chin thoughtfully])


The Death of the Maiden myth has some great interpretations in art, from the melancholy victim to the interested victim, sexual vs. non sexual, etc. The myth really came to full form in Germany during the Renaissance. Death is ugly and gross and the victim is beautiful and/or a virgin. The Death and the Maiden explores the ties between death and sexuality/sensuality.

There was definitely a didactic role for the story--- warning girls of Stranger Danger and also that their beauty is fleeting.

I found some great art that interprets the Death and the Maiden theme better than I could. Here goes...


by Hans Baldung Grien-
bad resolution sorry! But you can see that the "death" character has the maiden by the hair, looking down towards the grave (not pictured) that he has dug for her. Note the maiden's face-- she seems almost resigned to her death. Her body language is very passive and feminine. Not that females should be passive, ahem. But, still.

This one's my favorite! It's the most recent and most interesting interpretation, I think.
By Joseph Bueys (1959)
It's hard to see with this picture so small... but it's actually drawn on an envelope from an organization of Auschwitz survivors. Death and the maiden look almost exactly alike in this work-- bony, almost disappearing. Has the maiden already died? Is she no different than death?
Niklaus Manuel Deutsch - 1517
creepy, no? Is it just me or does death have wings? Flying death?
The maiden has her head turned towards death....
Edvard Munch
The maiden isn't afraid of death, but embraces him.
Another by Edvard Munch.
They kiss, but the maiden looks off, rather blankly, if you ask me.
Egon Schiele 1915
They're in a rocky landscape. He's kissing her head and she's embracing him? Or is she trying to avoid the kiss? And why are her arms so skinny/skeletal, when her legs are so muscular? And death isn't really skeletal... kinda looks like Dracula.

Marianne Stokes 1900.

Death is a woman? Huh? and more wings.... No sexuality here.
All in all, Death and the Maiden usually warns girls against vanity.
But there are a lot of interpretations of it.

Title questions - WAYGWHYB

Where are you going, where have you been?

If the 33, 19, 17 number code is truly Judges 19:17, then the title makes some sense for sure.

In this article,
the author suggests that perhaps part of the title is that the father who "doesn't talk much" doesn't ask the normal father-of-a-teenage-girl questions that SHOULD be asked of little miss Connie like "Where are you going?" and "Where have you been?"

O'Connor's Influence

When Joyce Carol Oates was asked in a 1969 interview whether she was like Flannery O'Connor, she responded,

"I don't know. I used to think that I was influenced by O'Connor. I don't know that I am really. She is so religious, and her works have to be seen as religious works with this other rather creepy dimension in the background, whereas in my writing there is only the natural world."

Interesting, no? Oates said that before "Where are you going, where have you been" was published. The truth is, whether JCO likes it or not, there is so much of the non-"natural" world going on in "WAYGWHYB."

Of course, the most obvious part of that is Arnold Friend as Satan or Satanic or a Seductor in general.

MOREEEEEEEEEEE

Fairy Tales Gone Wrong

It is worth noting that both WAYGWHYB and AGMIHTF seem to be based on a "fairy tale gone wrong" kind of plot.

The family in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is going on a cute little family vacay/road trip before disaster strikes.

And poor little Connie has her kind of "Red Riding Hood" plotline. She leads a somewhat charmed life until the seducer leads her away.

Just a thought.

Charles Schmid

Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Charles Schmid. The pied piper of Tucson.

Don't be fooled by the coy little eyebrow raise. He might kill you.


He was an inspiration for JCO's "Where are you going, Where have you been"

Read more here, ya'll.

Connie and the Grandmother

Vanity vanity vanity...

We can see a lot of similarities between the demeanor/narcissism of Connie and the Grandmother.

They are both so self-absorbed.

Is the Grandmother's death a Death and the Maiden tale as well?

Hmm...

Innocence and Experience

It's funny to read JCO's story again as a college student. My high school English teacher for my freshman and sophomore years went to Princeton, and so, being that JCO teaches at Princeton, I was immersed in the Oates.

At 15, I read "Where are you Going, Where Have you Been" and was struck by the oh-so-common "loss of innocence" motif. I remember actually going home after reading the story and writing my own version about a girl stuck in the moment in between innocence and experience. I named her Lavender. I had her floating around the house, in an out-of-body experience, unable to attach herself to the innocence of her childhood, and equally as unable to be in the realm of experience.

I saw Connie much that way, and I suppose so did Oates, because there is a lot of "she was in the kitchen but she didn't remember it looking like that" stuff in the text.

I'm always struck by the screen door.

It's only the screen door between her and death. Between innocence and experience. Just a flimsy, translucent/transparent screen door.

Now, all this innocence talk isn't to say that Connie is some angel, but she had only dabbled in the experiential world until Arnold Friend forced her to see the harsh reality of "adult" life.

It's mostly just sad for me to see that Connie has only the option of experience in the harshest way. There's no gray area at all. She's going to become experienced, whether she's willing or unwilling.

Sad.