Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” follows a fifteen year old Connie, who acts like any rebellious teen her age. She is self centered and loves thinking about boys. One in particular is Arnold Friend, who catches Connie’s attention from the moment he drives by the restaurant. It was only a short encounter, but his gold convertible would stay in her mind. At first he seems like a normal boy just passing by in his convertible, but as the story progresses he shows his true self. He is not what and who he says he is. From the beginning Arnold seems to be a very scheming and assertive person. While this story is following Connie the person the reader should be paying attention to is Arnold Friend, a manipulative, controlling, …show more content…
and deceiving person from beginning to end. Although this story is fiction, there are others who believe this story is based on the rape and murder of Alleen Rowe which took place in 1965, just a year before Oates’s story was published (Coulthard 505).
Arnold seems to be a representation of Charles Schmid, Alleen’s murderer. There are various similarities in both the story and the murder. In both cases, there are two assailants involved. Arnold had his friend Ellie and Charles Schmid had John Saunders (Coulthard 506). Even though rape was not mentioned in the story, it was implied when Connie asks what Arnold was going to do to her (Oates 332).When Arnold arrives to Connie’s house she is alone, just as Alleen was. The way Arnold is described, with his dyed black hair, stuffed boots, and muscular build, are all characteristics of Charles (Coulthard 506) Even the famous gold convertible was included in Oates’s …show more content…
story. Days after Connie first saw Arnold, he shows up at the driveway of Connie’s house accompanied by his mysterious friend Ellie. From a distance, Connie hears the sound of tires driving up to her house. Connie is all alone in her ranch house and walks straight to the door to see who it is. After a while she recognized the gold car and its driver, Arnold. Connie tries not to show interest in him, but simply cannot turn her back on him. Arnold tries to smooth talk her by saying “You’re Cute” and complimenting Bobby King who she was just listening to on the radio (Oates 325). He insists Connie go on a drive with them, but she is reluctant and he is persistent. He is not going to give up any time soon. Connie had not spoken to Arnold before and she is startled when he calls her by her name. She is trying to make him think twice about her name by saying “Maybe and maybe not” (Oates 326). How could he know? Arnold says to Connie, “I know your name and all about you, lots of things,” and this makes Connie feel unsettled (Oates 327). Yet, he still manages to keep the conversation going and still gave Connie a reason to talk to him. Arnold assured her that they were friends. From this moment Arnold tries to get into Connie’s head and assure her that she is safe with him. His words are beginning to become more manipulative. Connie suddenly asks, “Hey, how old are you,” and he replies “… maybe a coupla years older” (Oates 328). After that moment she starts to see all the details she did not see before on him, like his lashes which looked painted. He tries to deny that he is way older, but Connie knows the truth. He is still not giving up. Later, she notices Ellie is much older as well. She tries to make them leave but Arnold replies “we ain’t leaving until you come with us” (Oates 329). This is starting to scare Connie and she brings up her father, but he knows her father is at the barbecue. He is trying to get in her head and make her think that he is all knowing, but the only people who are all knowing are god and the devil. Arnold seems to be looking into the distance and picturing Connie’s family at the barbecue. Arnold begins to be more relentless in the way he speaks to Connie. He is fed up with her and gives her clear instructions to step out of the doorway and walk to his car. Arnold starts referring to himself as her “lover” and calling Connie “honey” (Oates 330). Connie steps away from the door and yells at Arnold by saying, “Shut up! You’re crazy!” (Oates 330). The situation starts getting even more intense when Connie threatens to call the police. Arnold threatens Connie back and says to her that he will not go inside and hurt her unless she touches that phone. Arnold’s actions show that he is a predator. He is trying to make Connie feel safe when she clearly is not. When Connie asks what Arnold was going to do to her he replies “Just two things … But I promise it won’t last long and you’ll like me,” shows that he has always had evil intentions (Oates 332). Once Connie is too afraid of what Arnold might do to her, she reaches for the phone. Arnold had not gotten inside the house yet, but she felt as if he was stabbing her in the back. He is now inside her head making her feel pain that is not really there. When she fell back, she heard Arnold’s voice say, “That’s a good girl. Put the phone down” (Oates 333). Connie felt the nothingness surround her as if all hope was lost. She was a walking puppet, Arnold’s puppet, and she got into his car. Even after this, Arnold kept assuring her that everything would be alright. He believes that he has done nothing wrong. He never touches her, but she still feels the pain, even if it is just in her mind. The reader can see that Arnold is a flat character, but he also has many defining aspects that some readers believe is supernatural. Throughout the story, we get hints that Arnold is not normal human being. How is he able to get into her head so easily and feel pain that is not even there? Perhaps he is only part of Connie’s imagination. Since Oates added the dedication to Bob Dylan, many speculate that Arnold could also be the famous artist. Music plays a very important part in this story. It is being played loudly throughout Connie’s house and even on Ellie’s radio. Arnold’s way of speaking revolves around the music. Seeing as this story is dedicated to Bob Dylan, many would think that Arnold is a reflection of him and his music. Crafton and Tierce write that “Bob Dylan’s followers perceived him to be a messiah,” which connects with him being Connie’s savior (220). Connie’s descriptions of Arnold also fit those of Mr. Dylan’s, from his teeth to his height. Some of Dylan’s lyrics seem to influence the storyline in Oates’s story. “Mister Tambourine Man” is a great contributor to the details Oates adds in her story (Crafton and Tierce 224). The details include the writing on Arnold’s car and getting Connie to let go of her past, which is her family and friends. When Arnold called Connie his “sweet little blue-eyed girl,” it startles her because her eyes were brown (Oates 334). This is because Oates used it as a reference to Dylan’s song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (Crafton and Tierce 223). The song is about how much Connie needs to leave and start over with Arnold. The moments before Arnold arrived seemed to be perfect for Connie. She had just finished drying her hair and she was now lying down “with her eyes closed…, dreaming and dazed” (Oates 324). The nature of the situation makes everything seem dream like. Her surroundings started to change. Seeing that she was falling asleep, the whole encounter might have been in her head. Oates also states that Connie’s head was filled with “trashy daydreams” and this encounter with Arnold could be one of them (321). This “dream” could have been more of a nightmare for Connie. From the beginning of the story, Oates shows how much time Connie spends thinking about boys. All the boys Connie thought about “fell back and dissolved into a single face … mixed up with the … music,” which could have been how the idea of Arnold came to Connie (Oates 323). This would give a better understanding of how he was compared to Bob Dylan. Rubin Larry writes that Arnold could be a figure that represents Connie’s “intense desire for [a] total sexual experience,” but it is driven by fear (58). Arnold starts to show Connie what she wants when he starts hitting on her. She enjoys the attention. Nearing the end where Connie is pushing the door open, she watches herself open the door “as if she were safe back somewhere in the other doorway, watching … moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited” (Oates 334). This sentence makes it feel like a dream and Connie finally leaves with Arnold. The aura of the supernatural starts right before Arnold arrives and there are flies around Connie.
Flies are usually related to supernatural incidents were evil is near. At first Arnold seems to be of Connie’s age, but as time progresses, Connie starts to see who he really is. She starts to notice all the things about Arnold that she had not before, for example, his “shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig” and the painted eyelashes (Oates 325). When he got out of his car, she noticed his crooked boot. Tierce and Crafton take a look into the supernatural side of Arnold friend and state that Arnold’s feet resemble the “devils cloven hoofs” (219). Being the devil could give Arnold the power to see and know everything that is going on with Connie’s family. Arnold also had a hard time saying “Christ.” Along with being the devil, Arnold could also be seen as her savor (Crafton and Tierce 220). He comes at a time where Connie is in need of a person to understand what she wants and make her feel better. The situation with her family makes her feel left out and leads to her resenting them. Arnold’s “X” sign is also associated with Christ. Connie sees the “X” hover in the air for a while even after Arnold was done making it (Crafton and Tierce 220). At the end when Connie decides to go with Arnold, she sees the land expand as if she was finally free and going to
paradise. Arnold’s motives have been the same from the beginning. Getting Connie to leave with him was his priority. The character of Arnold gives you a glimpse into the mind of a predator and also the mind of a frustrated fifteen year old. Oates keeps Arnold’s characteristics the same throughout the story and never hides his personality. Arnold only hides his age from Connie, but since he was introduced, he was only out to get Connie with his smooth words and persistency. Arnold knew how to get Connie’s attention, perhaps because he was always only a part of her imagination or a supernatural being.
Where Are You Going, Where have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates is a tale of a naive young lass taking her first steps into the illusion of the teenage dream. For the regular viewer of the film Smooth Talk, one would not pick up on the elaborate history behind the movie. Dating back to the 1960’s, the written story sheds very little light on the true sadistic nature of the means and intentions of Arnold Friend. Going back even further, the written tale is based on Life Magazine's article “The Pied Piper of Tucson” the true story of a middle aged man who preys on adolescent girls, getting away with devious sexual acts and sometimes murdering said adolescents. Without this previous knowledge, both the story and the movie seem for the most part innocent, with only a tad of creepiness generated
A spider, a zombie, a serial killer, all of these things would scare most but why do people pay good money to be scared by all these things? Because people like to be scared. Ever since people could speak to one another, they have been telling these stories. whether it be around a dim lit campfire, in the form of a book, or even on the big screen. these stories stand out through time because of their graphic word choice, unique characters, and suspense. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” and Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” both possess these elements of word choice and suspense along with psychotic like characters such as Arnold Friend (WAYG) and the narrator (The Black Cat). Poe's character the
A good murder is hard to be. Each story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates presents characters in a dangerous situation. I will make a comparison examines important similarities and dissimilarities for these two different murders.
In Joyce Carol Oates’, “ Where are You going Where have you been,” it was a sunday morning when Arnold continues another one of his daily routines. The main girl, Connie, is a self-centered and shy girl, whose mother is always puts her in the background and makes her feel excluded. For instance, her mother says rude comments like “you think your so pretty” and “you don't see your sister using that junk” (1). Then a guy came into her life. “Where are You Going Where Have You been illustrates a man who uses charms and good looks to get young or middle aged women to satisfy himself, but with this one girl he has some trouble along the way.
"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
My definition of evil is in its most general context, is taken as the absence of that which is ascribed as being good. Often, evil is used to denote profound immorality. In this situation I would have to say Arnold’s friend most exemplifies evil. Arnold Friend could be an allegorical devil figure, the protagonist who lures Connie into riding off with him in his car, or, in the contrary, far more a grotesque portrait of a psychopathic killer masquerading as a teenager. However, he has all the traditional, sinister traits of that arch deceiver and source of grotesque terror, the devil, with his painted eyelashes, shaggy hair, and stuffed boots. In the story, Oates does make Arnold out to be a psychopathic stalker, but never objectively states the diabolical nature to his character.
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' "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 external conflict in Oate’s story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, is when Connie meets this mysterious stranger named Arnold Friend. Connie first comes across Arnold when she is hanging out with a boy named Eddie. The second time she glances at him he says, “Gonna get you, baby” (p. 7). She ignores him and continues enjoying her date with Eddie. Soon enough, when Connie’s family left for a barbeque and she stayed home alone, she heard a car pull up on the drive way. Arnold then initiates conversation with Connie and asks her if she wants to go for a ride with him. She rejects his offer because she has no idea who this “Arnold Friend” is, yet he keeps insisting, “Don’tcha wanna see what’s on the car? Don’tcha wanna go for a ride?”
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.
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” tells the tale of a fifteen year old girl named Connie living in the early 1960’s who is stalked and ultimately abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. The short story is based on a true event, but has been analyzed by many literary scholars and allegedly possesses numerous underlying themes. Two of the most popular interpretations of the story are that the entire scenario is only dreamt by Connie (Rubin, 58) and that the abductor is really the devil in disguise (Easterly, 537). But the truth is that sometimes people really can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Connie, a victim of terrifying circumstance will be forever changed by her interactions with Friend.
Children learn about the devil as a terrifying creature with red horns and goat legs. If we imagine the devil like this, then we can see these characteristics in the story. One item mentioned in the previous paragraph was the wig Arnold was wearing, which he is using to cover his horns. Also, Arnold continues to lose his balance because he cannot stand correctly. The narrator said, “He had to bend and adjust his boots. Evidently, his feet did not go all the way down; the boots must have been stuffed with something so that he would appear taller” (329). In this statement, we see that Arnold does not have human feet because his feet do not go in the boots completely. Later in the story, the narrator describes his feet “pointed out to the left bent at the ankle” (329). This perfectly describes goat legs, which also explains why Arnold is pretending to be human. If he can make Connie not suspicious about his true identity, then he could gain her
This is evidence signifying that Friend is the devil because he had a hard time saying “Christ”- the opposite of Satan. Likewise, in the story “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne illustrates the actions and supernatural powers to provide evidence that the old man is the devil. For example, when the man and Goodman Brown are walking along the woods the devil picks up a branch from a maple tree to use as a walking stick. It is interpreted that when the man began to strip the branch of small twigs, “The moment his fingers touched them, they became strangely withered and dried up as with a week’s sunshine”(Hawthorne 4). If this man was presumed human, he would not have this extremely inhuman capability proving mare he is the devil. Similarly, the devilish character in “The Man in the Black Suit” has an alike capability. When main character Gary goes back into the woods with his father to retrieve his bamboo fishing rod, his father notices strange patches of grass where little to his knowledge, a devilish creature once stood. As his father kneels down to examine the unique grass it was described as “...brown and curled up on itself, as if a blast of heat had charred it” (King