Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the play over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Connie is forced into a terrible situation by Arnold Friend where she has no choice but to comply with him.

• What is the story trying to say about the options available to women in a patriarchy? (topic sentence)
• How is the extreme situation Arnold Friend presents similar to ones faced by Connie’s mother and sister?
• How does Connie’s lack of power resonate with these other characters’ situations?

2. The story’s first section details Connie’s public life out of the house, which foreshadows the darker tone of the events to come.

• How do Connie’s experiences serve as foreshadowing? (topic sentence)
• What similarities are there between the boys Connie sees and Arnold Friend?
• How does the ending of the story fulfill that foreshadowing?

3. Connie feels like she doesn’t fit in, both in her home and in the suburbs.

• What is Connie’s opinion toward the rest of her family? (topic sentence)
• How does her relationship to each character reveal something about herself?
• When Arnold says she is different from them, is it true?

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. The closing image of the story is one of greenery and life, yet Connie is almost certainly headed toward a violent death by going with Arnold. Use this closing irony as a launching point to explore the story’s ideas about what is expected of women in a patriarchal society and how the false perception of the suburbs as a paradise clashes with the much darker reality. What is the story ultimately trying to say about Connie’s options in life?

2. There are several thresholds in the story that Connie crosses, including the highway early in the story and her own front door at the end. What does crossing a threshold mean in this story, and how does it change throughout the plot? Please include evidence from the text.

3. Arnold Friend claims that Connie’s house will not save her from her fate, and the house is frequently described as fragile or small. How does Connie’s false sense of security speak to the larger anxieties about the suburbs and what they represent in our society? In what ways is Arnold right when he makes these claims?