Leading a Double Life
Being your true self is the most important thing people should do in their lives. When you know yourself, you might be able to understand what you want so that you can succeed which is why people should plan a life for themselves and not for other people. Does the restriction of being able to standup for yourself affect the person you become or project to be? Well, people repress their feelings when they don’t want to publicly lash out. They think that they’re doing the right thing by not confronting their problems but, the more you keep in, the greater the impact will be. In the story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie, the protagonist, seems to have these two sides to herself and this led to the result of splitting of consciousness. Having these two personalities, can be frustrating due to not fully understanding yourself. People keep resisting because they refuse to accept the life they have because they’re fearful of what the world will think of them. When they keep resisting, it gets easier to push away things. Connie demonstrates Freud’s ideas of repression, splitting of consciousness, and resistance which allows her to begin the process of understanding herself and manifesting the goals she may intend to achieve later-on in life.
When people repress their feelings, they’re trying to hide their emotions from people. It’s okay to keep your emotions to yourself, but to a certain extent. In the text, the mother keeps comparing Connie to her sister June and says, “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister? How’ve you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using that junk” (Oates 2). Since Connie’s mom is always nagging her to be more like her sister, it makes me think that she’s tired of being picked on by her family and is repressing all these feelings that she has built up inside her which will eventually make her “explode.” She can’t stand the fact people are constantly criticizing her every move. Freud explains that “…consciousness sends a disguised and unrecognizable substitute for what had been repressed…” (Freud 2215). This explanation can relate to Connie because she didn’t want to be the person that her mom and sister pictured her to be which is why she hides her feelings for a bit. Since she kept repressing her feelings, her consciousness made it go all away by letting her have thesedifferent sides to her. Because of her repressing, a wishful impulse was created. “Connie’s mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead…” (Oates 2) which shows that from keeping everything in, she accumulated this wishful impulse that made her say some hurtful things to her mom.
Oates wants her readers to understand that Connie was two completely different sides to her. She states, “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates 4). After analyzing Connie, I’ve concluded that having multiple sides in her, is the result of splitting of consciousness. I connected Ellie and Arnold as being Connie’s two sides. One side would be more reserved and quieter which is exactly how Ellie is and the other side would be arrogant and persistent just like Arnold. Freud defines splitting of consciousness as “a splitting of the personality such as this has occurred, consciousness remains attached regularly to one of the two states, we call it the conscious mental state and the other, which is detached from it, the unconscious one” (Freud 2208). This can most definitely relate to Connie because as noticed in the text, she has these two personalities to her which questions if she’s mentally stable to help herself.
Experiencing resistance can be manipulating because it allows you to brush something off to the side. Sometimes if you resist and keep putting ignoring things, it may make everything harder. In the case of Arnold Friend, he attacked and threatened Connie. For some people, when you lose someone you truly love or care about, you may find the need to find someone who is very much like them so that you can replace them as quickly as possible and resist the fact that there’re no longer there with you. Friend states, “I’ll hold you so tight you won’t think you have to try to get away or pretend anything because you’ll know you can’t” (Oates 15). Arnold Friend is refusing and resisting to let Connie go because he most definitely sees her as someone else. This person probably made Arnold feel whole and complete and by losing her, he is fearful and rejects the idea of being alone for the rest of his life. Arnolds actions also shows that something is clearly wrong with him because of the way Oates is describing him. This relates to Freuds viewpoint on resistance by stating “The force which was maintaining the pathological condition became apparent in the form of resistance on the part of the patient” (Freud 2212). This identifies how resistance can develop into something terrifying for that person to experience.
A traumatic situation can affect a person’s mentality. Easing your way through these obstacles will be a hassle, but in the long run, it would be totally worth it. In the story, Oates, the author, incorporates some Freudian concepts such as repression, splitting of consciousness and resistance, which helps her readers and audience understand the protagonist. Repression comes in place when not everyone is strong enough to project themselves to the rest of the world. It gives people the chance to hide for a bit, but it eventually comes out one way or another. Splitting of consciousness is the result of having many sides or personalities in a person. Connie for sure aced this. Resisting in general, can get a bit tricky and be a risk at times but it won’t hide the situation or at least, you can refuse to accept it. By connecting the story Oates wrote to Freud, it develops a relationship that serves people an idea on how psychoanalysis can be portrayed in a person.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. “Five Lectures on Psycho-analysis.” (1909): 1-45
Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Celestial Timepiece, 22 Dec. 2016, https://celestialtimepiece.com/2015/01/21/where-are-you-going-where-have-you- been/.
