As we see in the short stories "Araby" (Joyce) and "Where are you going, where have you been?" (Oates), innocence and experience are the themes which are prevalent throughout the plot in both of these stories. In general, both characters go through at an early age what one would say is a "rite of passage" or some sort of transformative experience in which their "youthful fantasy bubbles" are popped, thus forcing them to deal with reality, and leaving their naive thinking behind them. Connie and the unnamed boy in Araby both find themselves being attracted members of the opposite sex, and find a way to deal with the consequences of their endeavors. With Connie the innocence lost is her shattered reality, with the boy in Araby it is his disillusionment which ends up shattered.
Loss of innocence is arguably an integral part of growing up in today's society. Without it, one is left with a delusional, warped, naive point of view about the world in which he or she is a member. We see an example of this in "Where are you going, where have you been?" Some young children are eager to get rid of said innocence. Connie, who was bored of the boys her age, would go to "where the older kids hung out" (753) in order to do so, which meant spending hours with guys she most likely just met. Connie represents the typical fifteen year-old-girl; she a naive adolescent who is self-absorbed, and thinks about how she is perceived by peers while she stares at herself in the mirror. Much like the girls who are Connie's age, they find themselves caught between two worlds. These worlds are adolescence, and adulthood. Adolescence can be perceived as "innocence" or "inexperience," while adulthood can be seen as maturation. The innocence of Connie is ultimately the gateway through which Arnold is then able to take advantage of her vulnerability.
