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The Devil in Disguise In her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.” Joyce Carol Oates stages a life of a young teenager Connie who is your ordinary teenager who hates their family and dresses and acts altered which ends up being a disaster for her when she comes in contact with what looks to be a teenage boy but turns out to be something way different. “But all these things did not come together”. As Connie watches and listens to Arnold Friend. She can tell there's something inaccurate about Arnold. He wears the clothes and listens to the same music that boys listen too. Still it doesn’t feel right! Once Connie distinguishes Arnold’s physical age she is triggered to panic mode which changes Arnold’s sweet talk to threats. In the garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit they are persuaded by the serpent (Devil) to eat the fruit. Like the Devil who disguises himself to something less threatening which is exactly what Arnold proves he is a little demonic while performing this act. Perhaps the most satanic event of the story is where Arnold says “Aunt Tillie’s. Right now they’re uh—they’re drinking. Sitting around," he said vaguely, squinting as if he were staring all the way to town and over to Aunt Tillie’s back yard. This presents something like supernatural. Saying this with vast detail makes the …show more content…
Connie gives up as she observes herself push the door open and go out to Arnold putting up no fight. This is where you can see a girl cross the threshold from being a young innocence little girl who is forced to develop into a woman just without being actually touched. This is another illustration of how Arnold is showing his demonic character. Taking control of Connie outwardly being touched. When Connie is turning herself over to Arnold to make as sacrifice for her family. Just as Jesus had to give himself for another. Also as Jesus who had was pure, same with Connie to a certain
...eft the house. The room is filled with "hard, fast, shrieking songs she [sings] along with" and her heart begins beating quickly. Arnold suddenly pulls in to the driveway, his radio tuned to the same radio station. The music behind Arnold is "perpetual" and symbolizes the danger that Connie has brought upon herself. The reader is put off by Connie's wanton and careless romp at the beginning of the story and, subconsciously, the reintroduction of fast music makes him uneasy again.
She uses her attractiveness to flirt with boys at the local restaurant behind their backs as a form of rebellion. She feels as though her family does not appreciate her; her father does not pay any attention to her and her mother constantly compares her to her sister, criticizing her every move and asking why she cares so much about her appearance. On one of her outings, she sees a boy who she vainly chooses to ignore. Later he shows up at her house posing as her friend, calling himself Arnold Friend, and talking to her as though he is another boy she flirts with down at the diner and pretending to be her age. She subtly flirts with him at first, only realizing the danger when it is too late.
That’s right. Come over here to me… Now come out through the kitchen to me, honey, and let’s see a smile, try it, you’re a brave, sweet little girl’”(Oates 7). “She put her hand against the screen. She watch herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewherein the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited”(7). What had gotten into Connie, why would she go out with Arnold knowing that all he is going to do is hurt her. Readers may think she is a state of shock and the only thing she can do to protect her family is by going with Arnold.
"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
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.
The culture Connie lives in and the people guiding her in life have failed to teach her the evils of society that lead to temptation and seduction. In the Bible, Eve was seduced by Evil to eat a forbidden fruit, and as a result, they were banished from paradise. When Connie was seduced by Arnold Friend in the story, it led to her
Arnold Friend takes advantage of Connie’s teenage innocence for something of a much more sinister purpose. Connie thought she had it all figured out until Arnold Friend came into her life and up her driveway on one summer, Sunday afternoon and made her realize how big and scary the world can be. Arnold embodies everything that Connie has dreamed about in a boy, but is in the most malevolent form of Connie’s dream boy. She always wanted to get away from her family because she has always felt as if she didn’t belong and Arnold can make this possible just in the most predatory way. She always thought sex would be sweet (and consensual) and that she would be in charge of how it progressed, Arnold strips her of the authority she’s held in any other encounter with a boy. The moral of the story is always be careful what you wish
The short story, “ Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, an award-winning author, is known for unmasking the evil within everything and presenting it to the world through a fictional story. In what is thought to be her most terrifying yet highly acclaimed short story, Oates references many fairy tales that help carve the short story into a realistic allegory. She models the short story after the real-life murder of a teenage girl by the American serial killer Charles Schmid also known as the “Pied Piper of Tuscon .” Knowing this information allows a greater sense of reality opposed to fiction because the events throughout the story are fairly similar to the tragic horror that took place on May 31, 1964. The story deals with the temptations and the coming of age of a teenage girl while challenging the perception of America during the 60’s. Oates references several fairy tales throughout the story to help guide the reader and give a sense of an allusion. There were three fairy tales that stood out the most in the story: Cinderella, the Beauty and the Beast, and Little Red Riding Hood.
Arnold Friend’s layers of deception. Connie’s blindness is the pretext of her loss of innocence
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
”Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” is a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates, which explores the life of a teenage girl named Connie. One of the issues this story divulges is the various stresses of adolescence. Connie, like so many others, is pressured to conform according to different social pressures, which displays the lack of respect female adolescents face. The music culture, young men, and family infringe upon young female minds to persuade them to look or act in certain ways, showing a disrespect for these girls. While some perhaps intend their influence for good, when put into practice, the outcome often has a negative effect. Moreover, this can lead young women to confusion and a lack of self-respect, which proves
When approached by Arnold Friend at first, she was skeptical but was still charmed by him. As she began to feel uneasy, Connie could have used her intuition to realize that he was trouble. Once she had been engaged by Arnold, her life was over. The influences on Connie and her lack of instilled reasoning led to her down fall. Her family’s fragmented nature was echoed in her actions; consequently, she was unable to communicate with her parents, and she was never was able to learn anything of significance. She felt abandoned and rejected, because no one took the initiative to teach her how to make good decisions. Connie was unable to mature until she was faced with death and self sacrifice. In the end, her situation made it difficult for her to think and reason beyond the position she was in. By not being able apply insight, she fell into Arnold Friends lure. Misguidance by the parents strongly contributed to Connie’s
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
Fear is all Connie can feel as her dream world is crashing around her and the music is gone. She becomes sentient and realizes her situation with a sense of maturity that scares her “she cried out for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it was something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness” (Oates) The moment Arnolds age is hinted at her fantasy dissipates and despite her attempts to
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.