As life continues throughout a world of uncertainty, many believe that a messiah or Christ figure is needed to uphold a life of purity. Those in need of saving obtain a sense of mentality in which they would never stare into the eyes of grief. Connie, a girl concerned with genuine beauty, endures a lifelong hardship of worries until eventually a “Friend” comes to release her of her deprivation. Through plot, characterization, and setting, in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Joyce Carol Oates successfully achieves making Arnold Friend a savior for Connie. Oates uses plot to build up to Arnold Friend’s unexpected arrival. In the short story, “It was a boy with shaggy black hair, convertible jalopy painted gold [...] without Eddie noticing anything” (Oates 1). Connie is walking with Eddie to his car when she sees Arnold. Arnold made his sign, the X, the first letter of the Greek word for Christ. Coincidence? One would think not, although others agree in this sense. From a critic who has the same views, “And if Arnold Friend is not satanic [...] golden ‘machine’” (Tierce and Crafton 2). When Connie notices Arnold pulling up to her house in her jalopy, she whispers “Christ, Christ,” watching him pull up and fixing her hair. But she could also be watching a messiah pull up in a golden chariot, proving the point of …show more content…
"The Wishes and Dreams Our Hearts Make in Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'." Short Story Criticism, edited by Joseph Palmisano, vol. 70, Gale, 2004. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=avl_madi&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1420056819&asid=22c8b2317a25bc24bae39d92a1b7b8ed. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017. Originally published in Journal of the Short Story in English, no. 33, Autumn 1999, pp. 89-103. Tierce, Mike, and John Michael Crafton. "Connie's Tambourine Man: A New Reading Of Arnold Friend." Studies In Short Fiction 22.2 (1985): 219. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 26 Oct.
Oates uses a great number of symbols in her short story "Where are you going? Where have you been? to create an aura of unease and Devilishness. Her principal symbols are Arnold Friend, his disguise, and the music Connie listens to. Oates' use of symbolism and Biblical allusions to Satan force the reader to raise an eyebrow to the character of Arnold Friend and the doomed future of Connie.
"Connie, don't fool around with me. I mean—I mean, don't fool around," he said, shaking his head. He laughed incredulously. He placed his sunglasses on top of his head, carefully, as if he were indeed wearing a wig…” (Oates 6). Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” highlights an altercation, meeting, conflict and dispute between a teenage girl, named Connie, and a psychotic rapist named Arnold Friend. Throughout their altercation, Arnold Friend tempts and encourages Connie to get in the car with him and lead her to a variety of possible dangerous situations, one of which includes her getting raped . There is no doubt that Joyce Carol Oates’ uses Arnold Friend in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” to symbolize the Devil and embody all of the evil and sinister forces that are present in our world. This becomes apparent when the reader focuses on how deranged Arnold Friend is and begins to
Oates shows archetypes throughout the story. The symbolic archetype shown is “the friendly beast” or “the tempt”. The friendly beast, of course, would be Arnold Friend; Arnold never hurts or does anything to Connie, he just tempts her by saying, “we’ll drive away, have a nice ride.” The temptation for Connie is that she wants to grow up, get away from her family and live her own life. Although, Connie is very ignorant; Connie believes her looks will get her very far in life, but what she doesn’t realize is that ignorance does not equal bliss. In The Sitting Bee Dermot McManus talks about how Connie struggles with independence and how she wants to do things on her own. McManus says “that Connie still relies on others to take her home and other things, and how
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” focuses on two main characters, Connie and Arnold Friend. The two characters have extreme conflict throughout the short story and in the end only one wins. The literary device of characterization in the story helps to clarify the Greek and Biblical reasons for one character’s win and the other’s lose.
This is especially true when someone like Arnold Friend is out to get us. We see this allegory of Arnold friend in everyday life. Everyday Satan tries to temp and deceive anyone he can get. We can either blindly give into it like Connie or we can be alert. The archetypes and allegories described by word choice and details give us an incredible reminder to stay alert. In the short story review from “the sitting bee” it is explained, “Probably the most obvious sign of conflict is the struggle Connie encounters with Arnold.” The sad thing is she eventually gives in without thinking. Her vision went from hazy to clear to hazy again. She was helpless throughout the entire
Arnold Friend imposes a devilish and menacing pressure upon Connie, who ultimate gives in, like a maiden entranced by a vampire's gaze. His appearance, sayings, and doing all combine to form a terrifying character that seems both reasonable and unlikely at the same time. There are people like Arnold Friend out there, not as incoherently assembled, and still he seems an extraordinary case of stalker. A small and even insignificant aside about his name, Arnold Friend, is that with the R's his name would read A'nold F'iend, or "An Old Fiend" i.e. the devil. But, regardless, Arnold Friend is very precisely portrayed as a corrupter of youths and a deflowerer of virgins. Without his useless sweet-nothings or his strange balance problem, he would come across less dangerous and alluring.
In “Where are You Going, Where Have you Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses an allegorical figure of evil to illustrate the theme of temptation. Oates alludes to hell through the character Arnold Friend, as the devil, and his victim Connie, who invites him in by committing the sin of vanity.
Gale Kozikowski, Stan. " The Wishes and Dreams Our Hearts Make in Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'. " Journal of the Short Story in English. 33 (Autumn 1999): 89-103.
Oates, Joyce Carol. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. By Frank Madden. 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 436-48. Print.
* Wegs, Joyce M. "'Don't You Know Who I Am?' The Grotesque in Oates' 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'" Critical Essays on Joyce Carol Oates. Ed. Linda W. Wagner. Boston: G. K. Hall 1979.
Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is about a young girl's struggle to escape reality while defying authority and portraying herself as a beauty queen; ultimately, she is forced back to reality when confronted by a man who symbolizes her demise. The young girl, Connie, is hell- bent on not becoming like her mother or sister. She feels she is above them because she is prettier. She wants to live in a "dream world" where she listens to music all day and lives with Prince Charming. She does not encounter Prince Charming but is visited by someone, Arnold Friend, who embodies the soul of something evil. Arnold Friend symbolizes "Death" in that he is going to take Connie away from the world she once knew. Even if she is not dead, she will never be the same person again, and will be dead in spirit. With the incorporation of irony, Oates illustrates how Connie's self-infatuation, her sole reason for living, is the reason she is faced with such a terrible situation possibly ending her life.
The Eternal Present in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Michele D. Theriot, Journal of Short Story in English, 48, (Spring 2007): 59-70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 November 2013.
Ignorance and vanity can be good, in small amounts, but too much can lead to very unwelcome consequences. Connie, a teenage girl who can’t get enough of herself, learned this the hard way when a strange man by the name of Arnold Friend arrives at her house with the intent of taking her on a ‘date’. Instead of calling the police or locking herself in, like common sense would imagine, Connie uneasily greets Arnold from her door when he gets out of his car, instantly letting her vanity and ignorance get the best of her. Joyce Carol Oates shocks the reader with the twist ending in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” in which after hearing Arnold’s threat towards her family, Connie hands herself over to Arnold allowing him
Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” clearly illustrates the loss of innocence adolescents experience as they seek maturity, represented by Connie's dangerous encounter with Arnold Friend. Connie symbolizes the many teens that seek independence from their family in pursuit of maturity. Connie’s great desire to grow up is apparent from the beginning of the story, as she experiments with her sexuality. However, it is clear that Connie is not interested in pursuing a relationship, but relishes the maturity she feels after being with the opposite sex. After following a boy to his car, she was “gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place” (2). This suggests that Connie's exploits
In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of the symbolism of Connie’s clothes, her fascination with her beauty, Arnold Friend’s car and Arnold Friend himself help to understand the story’s theme of evil and manipulation. The story, peppered with underlying tones of evil, finds Oates writing about 15-year-old Connie, the protagonist of the story, a pretty girl who is a little too into her own attractiveness, which eventually gets her into trouble with a man named Arnold Friend. The story is liberally doused with symbolism, from the way Connie dresses to the shoes on Arnold Friend’s feet. In “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” the reader can pick up on some of the symbols very easily, while others need deeper thought. The subtle hints of symbolism throughout the story create a riveting tale that draws the reader in. Connie finally succumbs to Arnold Friend at the end of the story, it then becomes obvious that he represents the devil and the symbolism of her clothing and Arnold’s car all tie together to create a better understanding of the story.