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Study into the mind of serial killers
Study into the mind of serial killers
Psychological serial killers essay
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The Psychological Profile of Arnold Friend Some literary critics might see the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Oates as a typical narrative of a man who employs pleasing, tempting, and attractive language followed by threats of physical violence to force a female teenager into following him. Is Arnold Friend meant to be a rapist or murderer? Since there are also some other suggestions about Arnold being either the devil, actually Bob Dylan, or just a misunderstood social misfit, I got intrigued in finding any evidence of that Arnold Friend fits the portrait of a psychopathic serial killer. I hoped that finding the answer to my question would help to avoid the disturbing fact of a good number of young women following …show more content…
the potential murderer and assisting him to commit a crime. Before I started locating materials on my topic, I needed to confirm my doubt if there is any visible suggestion in the story that Arnold necessarily intends to commit a crime of rape on Connie and, even, murder her. After rereading the story again, I noted the lines arguing a violent moment of a rape, “She cried out, she cried for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend were stabling her with again and again with no tenderness” (Oates 561). In addition, the ending scene of Connie coming out to Arnold indicates that there are worse things to be expected. I started my investigative experience with the most recommended Academic Research Complete at the SCF library databases by typing a full name of the story. Unfortunately, my first result brought me to several hints regarding Arnold’s appearance and nonhuman abilities that skillfully represent the devil’s traits. For example, Joan Easterly hypothesizes that Arnold may wear a wig in order “to hide his pointed ears and horns” or “his feet do not go all the way down into his boots because they are really hooves” (Easterly). Even Arnold’s superhuman knowledge about everything of Connie and her family, demonstrating a diabolical identity, plus the tendency of most critics to associate Arnold with the demon himself does not satisfy my expectation of a serial killer. In fact, Arnold does not have any supernatural abilities. He could simply have guessed, learned by asking questions, or observed around. Arnold even does not know that the old lady with the chickens, Connie’s neighbor, is deceased, which proves the opposite of devilish perception. I suspected that Oates used an opportunity to make her story look more artistic and dramatic. Since I am more realistic, I continued on to find someone who would support my idea. My next examination of the articles led me closer to a reasonable realism.
According to A.R. Coulthard, the author of the story scrupulously reproduced her details based on Charles Schmid who murdered Alleen Rowe in 1965 (Coulthard). Alleen was just one of other young teenagers that Charles and his buddy John raped and assassinated. There is no doubt that John represents Arnold’s frightening friend Ellie. What is more, there are several parallels between the story itself and Alleen’s murder. By way of illustration, Connie was fifteen years old, which is the same age as Alleen at the moment of her murder. Also, Connie has just washed her hair like Alleen did right before her aggressors appeared. Connie was at home alone unable to defend herself as well as the other girl. However, the most interesting demonstration is how Arnold’s description duplicates strange characteristics of Charles: “Like Friend, he was short (5’3”) and muscular, and he tried to appear younger and to disguise his lack of height by dying his hair black, wearing pancake makeup, and stuffing rags and even crumpled cans into his black leather boots” (Coulthard). Arnold even drives “a convertible jalopy painted gold” (Oates 552) and loves popular rock music just as real Charles does. All these little particulars from a true assassination lead to the belief of realistic …show more content…
story. My next research step guided me to the questions in the title of the story.
In Tom Quirk’s opinion, the reader begins to deal with a “little question where she is going nor where she has been (Quirk). Does Oates ironically address these concerns to American society itself? Is another Charles out there? Is Connie going to her fact of being killed? In addition to Connie’s house being faraway from neighbors, Arnold’s promising speaks are compelling enough to persuade her out of home. I believe that there is a message about aggressive hunters, unpleasantly rough realities, and our threatening blindness to
them. My following study of more details about psychopathic killers revealed that murderers, psychopaths, and criminals are very popular in the mass media, TV movies, jokes, and songs (Grixti). That results in them frequently attracting the attention of fiction writers. That point of view reassured my hypothesis that Oates differently reinterpreted and reimaged Charles Schmid in her narrative. The author skillfully raises the issue of an alarming increase in the prevalence of assassinations that involve only one killer (in our case, two) but claim an enormous number of victims. Finally, my further fact-finding directed me to the mental and emotional profile of psychopaths. In order to fulfill their own selfish desires and control others, psychopaths compel attractiveness, manipulation, threatening, and behavior involving physical force intended to hurt or kill someone (Hare). Social norms do not exist for them. They are deficient in moral sense. They are deliberately cruel or callous. They just take what they want without any emotion or pity. Such as Arnold, first “…spoke in a simple lilting voice, exactly as if he were reciting the words to a song” (Oates 556), and then he demanded, “You don’t want your people in any trouble, do you?” (Oates 561). In conclusion, Arnold Friend seems to be a very dangerous persona who comes to Connie’s house with violent intentions. First, he speaks very quietly and calmly, however, it does make him seem even more threatening. In my opinion, there is only one satanic ability that Arnold possesses – the power to manipulate threats with regard to destroying his victim’s human nature. However, any heartless murderer would also hold such quality. Furthermore, a questionable scene at the end of the story suggests that Arnold attacks Connie inside of her house. Eventually, he convinces Connie into giving in to him. In her story, Oates successfully demonstrates a powerful evidence that psychopathic serial killers do exist, and encloses into her literary world the immoral they do.
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
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.
In fact, the Misfit regardless of the grandmother’s request and persuasion, and let her saw and listened her family by killed in the woods one by one. That is very cruel for a grand woman that her son and grandson died before her. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” Arnold Friend tried to attract Connie for many ways: be cool, a sunglasses, faded jeans, and boots; Tall and strong, a tousled hair, and a rock star style; A graffiti car, a despised by his friend, a very fashionable radio. That is a dangerous boy for the normal people, but very charming to a fifteen rebellious girl; Arnold Friend is very smart because he knew what she likes. He used a very
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.
There are many notorious characters in literature, all with their own menacing qualities and depraved actions. None, however, have struck such a devastatingly creepy chord as Arnold Friend of Joyce Carol Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Seducer of young girls and embodiment of Lucifer, Arnold Friend is anything but a friend. Arnold Friend is presented through both actions and appearances, and these combine to diminish his likeability, while adding to his devilish persona. Although Arnold Friend's traits are never stated outright, they are presented through his speech and interaction with other characters, which ultimately creates a more impacting effect and lasting impression.
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.
...tomy between reality and dreams quite well throughout her piece. She provides the reader with two ways to experience the story: either as reality or as reality that turns into a nightmare. This dichotomy that Oates creates “allows the reader to escape this story, and allows this story to end” (Hurley 374). The end of the story shows Connie entering the new world of experience, and Oates wants the reader to sense her fear. Oates intricately provides the reader with clues that help see why Connie’s experience with Arnold is just a nightmare. She also allows the reader to see how this nightmare is meant to scare Connie into making the realization that her decisions have consequences. I hope that anyone reading this learns from Connie that not everything we do is good for us, and we have to think about the consequences of our actions, whether good or bad, before we act.
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?”
Arnold Friend’s layers of deception. Connie’s blindness is the pretext of her loss of innocence
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.