In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates a young girl, Connie, is portrayed as a very independent, slightly rebellious, mature, confident female who has a bit of experience with boys. Connie goes out with her friends one night to see a movie and flirt with different boys. She wonders off in the dark a little too far, crossing a mysterious character that marks Connie as his. He shows up at her house one day, surprising her and scaring her. The mysterious character introduces himself as Arnold Friend. He continues speaking, but does not need Connie to reveal any information about herself because he already knows everything. Unlike usual, Connie is a little unsure of flirting with the mystery man. However, …show more content…
she does not try to make him leave until it is too late for her. By flirting with the wrong guy, Arnold Friend, Connie endangers herself and plays a part in her unfortunate fate of being raped while she is home alone. Paragraph 1 The rebellious, confident and independent nature given to Connie by the author has played a role in her fate. Her sister, June, is very plain which their mother appreciates because she herself is also very plain. Connie, however, enjoys catching people’s attention. Her family struggles to relate to her self-image and is not appreciative of it either. Their mother would say “Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you’re so pretty?” (1). All though her mother does not talk fondly of her, she is content with the way she is talked about when mentioned. Connie is always going out and venturing off with boys at night while being with her friends. She enjoys getting away from her family in the evening to be with friends, which is allowed because June also enjoys going out with friends. This is how Arnold first sees Connie, giving her his sign and saying “Gonna get you, baby...” (1). She confidently walks away which helps spark an interest in Arnold. Connie’s independence from her family is the main reason behind her now being alone with Arnold. She is endangering herself by staying home from the barbecue that her family is going to. By being home alone Arnold is easily able to come visit Connie and this puts him at an advantage. Soon she realizes he is not just another boy to lead on and leave, but that he is in fact a man who is very dangerous to her. Paragraph 2 Connie, being only fifteen, enjoys the thrill of flirting with boys just enough to let them down. She also is aware that she pretty and can attract most guys. With her “long dark blonde hair that drew anyone’s eye to it…” and her enjoyment of manipulating boys she often feels untouchable (1). While walking through the parking lot with Eddie, Connie sees Arnold and thinks that he is another boy she can flirt with as he is obviously attracted to her. She sucks in her breath and draws back her shoulders trying to improve her figure from a distance as Arnold marks her with his sign of an X. Connie thinks nothing of this symbolic mark and continues enjoying her evening. When he first arrives at the house Connie’s heart begins pounding and her fingers snatch at her hair, checking it, whispering “Christ. Christ,” wondering how bad she looks (2). She hangs out the screen door to find out who has arrived unannounced. She looks in to the car and recognizes the driver, a guy with shaggy black hair who she had seen the night before. Connie is attracted to the way he dresses, tight faded jeans stuffed in to black, scuffed boots and a white pull over shirt slightly soiled, the same as guys around her age dress. She is standing with her bare toes curling down off the step in a hasty manner, showing Arnold that she wants to give in to him (2). The way she talks to him is also an indication that Connie thinks she can manipulate him. She pretends to not be interested in the conversation which makes Arnold try harder. This strategy works well for Connie until she realizes she is no longer flirting with a boy, but danger. Paragraph 3 Connie is a very young, independent female who wants to be seen as mature by her family and her peers.
She makes sure to be very different from her sister and parents. Her immaturity in the beginning while she is out with her friends causes her to fail in seeing the danger of Arnold Friend. Connie is interested in all the mystery that Arnold brings when he first arrives at her home. Connie asks questions about the markings on Arnold's car, she also asks about how he knows the people she is friends with. At first she wants to impress him, to seem older and mature like he is so that he will continue wanting her. Now that she is listening to Arnold talk more she is realizing that she is not as mature as she thought. She believes that love and the way that he is speaking to her is crazy (6). However, at Arnolds age love is not a crazy thought; the only crazy part is to love a fifteen year old. Connie is testing her boundaries and by continuing to talk to Arnold, but she is now realizing that she does not want to be as mature as she pretended to be at first. Arnold is old enough to know how to manipulate Connie in to coming out through the door with him in the end. She believes that she is still doing the mature thing by leaving with him, so that her family is safe, but in reality her immaturity is what got her in to this dangerous
position. Conclusion Connie played a role in her fate of being raped by Arnold Friend while her family was away at a barbecue. She is flirtatious and gave in to what Arnold is wanting from when he first marked her with his sign of an X. She does not deserve Arnold raping her. However, she did play a part in this happening.
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
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.
In the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oats, the writer includes a very interesting character. One of the main characters, Arnold Friend, is a dynamic character due to the sudden changes of this physical appearance and personality. At first he seems charming and a little on the sweet side, but then his dark side starts to show as the story progresses. He first appears when Connie abandons her friend to go with a boy named Eddie. Arnold is seen in his gold convertible Jalopy, which is the first sign that he wants to be alluring. His first words in the story are "Gonna get you, baby" this foreshadows his intentions when it comes to 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
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.
I think in some strange way Arnold becomes to Connie the way to escape into her fantasy. When she learns his true intentions she is scared to death at first but eventually that fear gives way to "an emptiness." Connie thinks, "I'm not going to see my mother again... I'm not going to sleep in my bed again.
The overuse of biblical allusions throughout the story helps to expose the naive nature of Connie that reveals her as a victim of evil which shows that lust often transgresses on an individual’s identity. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates expressed the subjective ideas by symbolizing Arnold Friend as a devil that tempts a clueless teenage girl Connie, who wanted to experience love.
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.
In the short story, Connie is a young, naïve, sassy, little girl who hates her mom and sister. According to Oates, “Connie wished her mother was dead” (324). Connie enjoys going out with her friends and going to a drive-in restaurant where the older kids hang out. Connie is innocent, but thinks about love and sex. She is desperate to appeal to boys and succeeds at it when a boy with shaggy black hair says to her, “Gonna get you, baby” (325). Her encounter with this boy will change her life forever, because he is the antagonist that influences Connie’s loss of innocence. On a Sunday afternoon, the boy, Arnold Friend, visits Connie and asks her to come for a ride, which she declines. But, Arnold Friend won’t take “no” for an answer and threatens to go in the house. For example when Connie says she will call the cops, Arnold says “Soon as you touch the phone I don’t need to keep my promise and come inside”
She immediately trusts him because they simply like the same radio station. The young girl has proven throughout the story that she is curious about sex. The reader also learns that she loves attention and Connie initially finds the attention that she is receiving by Friend to be rather flattering and the fact that she thinks he’s an older boy intrigues even more. Her fate though, seems to fit the extremist world in which she inhabits. A habitat where women are viewed by men as objects of beauty for their consumption. Connie later realizes that something is odd about Arnold. She notices that the slogans on his car are outdated. She notices his painted face, his wig, and his boots. Susan Nyikos was another writer that wrote an analysis on Where are you going, where have you been. She suggested that the reason Connie realized this was because he was only a figment of her imagination and that she had never awaken from her nap. Nyikos also noted that another critic stated that Arnold Friend was the devil and that’s what explained the hooves hidden by the boots. What Susan mainly argued was that “Like many of Oates's stories, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is based on real events—the story of a "tabloid psychopath known as 'The Pied Piper of Tucson'" whose specialty was the seduction and occasional murder of teen-aged girls,"
A mysterious car pulled into Connie’s driveway and the driver proceeds to get out of his vehicle, showing that he belonged there, not recognizing the car Connie opens the door to her house and leans out it. “She went into the kitchen and approached the door slowly, then hung out the screen door,” (2). Without even knowing who or why this person has come to her house, Connie opens her door and leans out to possible talk to the driver, who would turn out to be Arnold Friend and wants to take her on a “date”. Connie’s ignorance towards Arnold and his arrival almost immediately puts her in a vulnerable state without her even realizing it, this vulnerability would be the first event to foreshadow Connie’s inevitable kidnapping. After greeting and talking to Arnold for a little, he proceeds to ask Connie if she wants to go for a ride in his car. Instead of turning down the offer since she barely, if at all, knew Arnold, Connie somewhat debates it. “Connie smirked and let her hair fall loose over her shoulder,” (3). Though she lacks any information about Arnold, Connie kind of debates taking up his offer to go for a ride, further letting her ignorance towards the entire situation usher her into an even more vulnerable
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
Connie’s clothes and infatuation with her own beauty symbolize her lack of maturity or knowing her true self, which in the end enables her to be manipulated by Arnold Friend. Connie was enamored with her own beauty; in the beginning of the story Oates states that Connie “knew
Rubin attempts to convey the idea that Connie falls asleep in the sun and has a daydream in which her “…intense desire for total sexual experience runs headlong into her innate fear…” (58); and aspects of the story do seem dream like - for instance the way in which the boys in Connie’s daydreams “…dissolved into a single face…” (210), but the supposition that the entire episode is a dream does not ring true. There are many instances in which Connie perceives the frightening truth quite clearly; she is able to identify the many separate elements of Friend’s persona - “… that slippery friendly smile of his… [and] the singsong way he talked…” (214). But because of the lack of attachment with her own family, and her limited experience in relating deeply to others, “…all of these things did not come together” (214) and Connie is unable to recognize the real danger that Arnold Friend poses until it is too late.