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Ms. McCarthy
English 11 Honors, B Period
18 October 2013
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As the new school year begins in earnest, high school seniors take the frst steps towards
their adult lives by filling out college applications and choosing a ctreer path. For some students,
this new world is greeted with excitement and a desire to rise to the challenge; others crack under
the shess. The ease of this transition directly correlates to how much the young adults' parents
have prepared him or her. Teenagers that have been protected from the adult world cannot
fathom how they are supposed to exist in it, \ilhile those who were shown glimpses of this true
life make a smoother transition, as evidenced in multiple pieces of literature. In "$[here Are You
Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, The Odyssey by Homer, and "By the
Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Ben6t, truth is the catalyst that forces young adults to
mature. However, as demonstrated by these characters' strong reactions, the authors use this
journey
of maturation to critique society's tendency to shelter children.
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Connre, the protagonist of
*Where
Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" spends the
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4najoity of her life trying tyfitnto the adult world, but she remains unawtue of the dangers it
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Jnolds
until it is too lat/.Her parents heat her like a young and innocent child; however, she
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vividly remembers the 'oboy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been, how
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sweet it always was...the way it was in movies and promised in songs" (Oates 2). As her only
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knowledge of the adult world comes from
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which are merely fabricated storylines
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createO to entertain viewers, Connie's perception of the more mature side of life is unrealistic
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