The story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" written by Carol Oats is about a girl who flaunts her beauty which ultimately leads to her kidnapping. After reading the story, the question is, was the author trying to show Connie's situation as fate or free will? The situation Connie found herself in was caused by free will. Connie's character played a major role in what ultimately happened to her. Connie's actions might give people bad ideas about her, and Connie leaves the house without physical strength. Connie's character plays an important role in what ultimately happens to her. Connie is a vain girl who thinks your looks are everything. She plays the stereotypical role for girls in today's society. She thinks that as long as you're pretty and dress a certain way then you're everything. This comes out when Oates writes “Connie thought her mother preferred her to June because she was prettier” (980). By flaunting her looks she could easily give a guy like Arnold Friend perverted ideas about her. She could have made them think of her as easy, which she did. Connie's personality also had two sides. The side she showed at home was mocking and mocking, while the side she showed in public made her look unkempt. He didn't seem to know who he was or what he wanted to be. All he let us know was that he wanted “the caress of love,” he wanted someone who was “sweet, kind, as he was in the movies and as was promised in the songs” (Oates 980). This may be why she didn't put up much of a fight in the end and went straight into Arnold's arms. It almost seemed like this was what he wanted and what he had dreamed of. Connie's actions also played a large role in her kidnapping. Connie loved to go out and hang out with boys. She liked going out with different guys, not the same one every night. Guys talk about girls like that and spread bad rumors about them. These rumors probably did not escape Arnold Friend's ears. So even before he saw Connie for the first time, he probably had the idea that she was an easy girl. He said this towards the end of the story when he started naming people she knew and telling her that they had told him things about her (Oates 983).