Arnold Friend Isolation

Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” leaves readers wondering what exactly happens to Connie, the main character, at the end of the story. Connie is a typical teenaged girl who would rather listen to music and flirt with boys than allocate any of her precious time to her family. While Connie is home alone on a warm summer day, a man in a convertible jalopy arrives at her house. She recognizes the man from the night before and he encourages Connie to go for a ride with him. As Connie’s hesitation grows, the man’s tone becomes more threatening, leaving Connie in a panicked state. Indistinct detail used by Oates leaves the ending of the story open to interpretation. The attack on Connie and the events leading

up to the attack, as well as the poetic language used to suggest that Connie is dead, indicates that Arnold Friend kills Connie at the end of the story.
Language used by Oates strongly suggests that Arnold Friend’s threatening behavior leads to a deadly attack on Connie.

Arnold threatens Connie, as well as her family on numerous occasions throughout the story. These threats indicate that something terrible will happen to Connie, hinting that Arnold will kill Connie, if she refuses to obey his demands. To keep Connie from calling for help, Arnold says, “Soon as you touch the phone I don’t need to keep my promise and can come inside. You won’t want that” (Oates). Arnold continues to threaten Connie by saying, “If you don’t come out we’re gonna wait till your people come home and then they’re all going to get it” (Oates). Along with verbal threats, the language used to describe Connie being attacked suggests that she dies in the story. Connie is described as being violently attacked by Arnold Friend. The irregular and panicked breathing of Connie represents Arnold repeatedly stabbing her while she attempts to call for help. Despite Connie’s poor relationship with her mother, she still cries out for her, proving that Connie is in a great deal of danger. It is described that Connie, “Began to scream into the phone… She cried for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness” (Oates). Another indication that alludes to Connie’s death is when Connie begins to accept her fate shortly after being attacked. Connie comes to a realization that she may not see her family again. She understands that she is dying and accepts the fact that she will never sleep in her own bed again. Connie’s wet blouse corresponds to the stabbing; representing the blood that has began to seep through her clothing. Oates shares, “She thought, I’m not going to see my mother again. She thought, I’m not going to sleep in my bed again. Her bright green blouse was all wet.” In addition to the attack on Connie and

the events leading up to the attack, the use of enigmatic writing towards the end of the story suggests that Connie is dead.
Poetic language used by Oates indicates that Arnold Friend kills Connie. Connie’s life is described to be slowly fading away. The pinpoint of light that Connie sees represents her life beginning to come to an end. Her once panicked state has now vanished. Oates shares, “She was hollow with what had been fear but what was now just an emptiness… Deep inside her brain was something like a pinpoint of light that kept going and would not let her relax.” Furthermore, it appears that Connie experiences dissociation from her own body in the story. Connie sees herself walk outside into the sunlight, leaving her body at the doorway. As she pushes open the door, she is leaving the living world and moving into the afterlife. Oates describes, “She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight.” In addition to this, Oates depicts Connie entering the afterlife. The sunlight land that Connie sees is symbolic of her transition into the afterlife. The land is foreign to her, yet she somehow knows that she is headed towards it. Connie has finally made peace with her passing. Oates illustrates Connie’s experience by saying; “The vast sunlight reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him - so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it.”
Both the language used to describe the attack on Connie, as well as the poetic language suggesting that Connie has passed, supports the claim that Arnold Friend kills Connie at the end of the story. The ambiguous ending of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” has the capability of leaving reader puzzled, ultimately highlighting the success of Joyce Carol Oates.