fiction class thing - where are you going, where have you gone?

• i need to start writing my short stories.....

where are you going, where have you been

as far as writing style, it is described as straightforward and imagistic. 
Shmoop says"he style of "Where Are You Going?" is somewhat journalistic in the sense that there are few excessive stylistic flourishes or cumbersome sentence structures. But Oates's spare style enables the images in the story to stand out in vivid clarity, in a way that makes you feel they have some mysterious significance. Ordinary objects such as Arnold's sunglasses take on a whole new emotional force. Ordinary phrases (how many times have your parents asked you "Where are you going?" or "Where have you been?") become weightier, more existential questions about life, ethics, identity, sexuality, and anything else that keeps you up at night."

when i was looking up different interpretations of the story i found one that i really liked and agreed with, 
***** Nick Courtright, an acclaimed English professor
"The story is written in 1966 and it served as a consistently horrifying on which a young girl is lead out of her house by a creepy fellow. There are lots of interpretations... but at its very most surface its about a girl being kidnapped by a molester. 

he goes on to talk about how Connie is considered attractive and its her vanity that gets her into trouble and how the lack of a steady father figure in her life influenced her.
there are lots of things Arnold could represent - the devil (trouble standing up and things are stuffed into his boots/hooves and wearing a wig; ellie seems vampiric with the pale skin and upward collar) he could also represent how popularity attracts (popular car...but from last year, says popular phrases that aren't quite right...) he could "represent Oat's critical commentary on what it means to follow the popular things, even when the popular things aren't quite right."

he also talks about how it is often debated on whether or not connie was asking for this b=via her behavior..... and he makes the point that it brings up the "general plight of women, that women are constantly in a situation that they have to fear retribution from a stronger male figure at any point in their lives" which is somethign that has come up in her writing before.

he also talks about how the title itself is a reference to the bible, and using the numbers on Arnold's car he found judges 19 verse 17 :"And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the wayfaring man in the broad place of the city; and the old man said: 'Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou?'"
which in newer translations is said "where are you going, where have you been?"

he talks about how its too much of a coincidence for him to believe that Oates numbers were random. I agree. I think a lot more thought went into the writing and planning and underlying illusion to the story.