When dreaming it can be confusing and terrifying distinguishing if you are in reality or unreality. In ,Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Connie crosses into a dream like state that can be proven by the bewildering dialogue, characterization and plot.
As Connie talks to Arnold friend she recognizes the voice of the man from the radio man through Arnold Friend. “Connie is the framer, the story creator” (Tierce and Crafton 220). Dreams are controlled by the person dreaming the dream. Joyce Carol Oates makes it clear that Connie is a fun loving teen who loves to hang out with friends and listen to the radio, so it’s not hard to recognize the voice of the radio man once Arnold Friend starts talking to her. There are
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two places where connie could have fell asleep. One being when she was sunbathing in the backyard and the other when she went inside after sunbathing, at both of these times Connie was listening to the radio. As Connie fell asleep the radio was still playing, as the creator of her dream, Connie allowed reality to inhabit her dream, this reality made its appearance through Arnold Friend. Arnold Friend is the connection from the dream world to reality for Connie. “ I don’t mind a nice shy girl […] those words were spoken with a slight rhythmic lilt, and Connie somehow recognized them- the echo of a song” ( Oates 7). Connie continues to notice familiar remarks said by Arnold Friend. Arnold is Connie’s door into reality, he lets her detect the real world through him. His sly remarks allow Connie to perceive what is beyond the dream and into the real world. Arnold Friend knows too much about Connie. “‘I know your name and all about you, lots of things,’ Arnold Friend said.” (Oates 4). Arnold demonstrates how much he knows about Connie throughout the story. Little details do not go unnoticed by Arnold friend, he knows that Connie was washing her hair before he arrived and exactly where her family went to. Only one person knew all that and it was Connie herself. Throughout Connie's meet with Arnold Friend she recognizes unusual things about their conversation that makes the reader question if Connie is asleep or awake. Arnold Friend is the perfect image of Connie’s dream guy. “Connie liked the way he was dressed : tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, [...] hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders.” (Oates 4). Right from the start Connie has interest in Arnold friend, he is the man she has always wanted, a fantasy. But how can Connie’s idea man walk up to her out of nowhere? The idea is that Arnold Friend is not really there. Connie has conjured a fantasy about her dream man out of lust. At the end of the movie when Connie and her sister June are dancing together there are posters with a man on them that highly resemble Arnold Friend, which could also mean Connie could have conjured Arnold Friends image from the poster (Smooth Talk). “Connie couldn’t do a thing her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams.” (Oates 1). Joyce Carol Oates describes Connie to be infatuated with boys and always be daydreaming of them. Connie turns to daydreaming to achieve her ideal boy. Arnold Friend is a figment of Connie’s imagination. “Arnold is a fantastic figure [...] he is the imagination, he is a dream” (Coulthard 507). Arnold Friend’s image is attractive to Connie. He has all the looks and “age”. He’s perfect looking to Connie. What Coulthard states makes the reader think twice about Arnold Friend's existence and if Connie has made him up. Connie’s mind manifested Arnold Friend to fulfill her desires. Connies daydreaming allows her to relive her experiences that she has had in the past with boys. Connie creates Arnold Friend from her experience at the dinner with the man who puts the sign up.
“He wagged a finger and laughed and said gonna get you, baby.” (Oates 1). The night before Sunday Connie experiences a strange encounter with a man at the diner. The confusion and fear she obtains from the encounter causes her to think of the worse possible scenario. Connie’s dream is so vivid that it makes her think it’s real life. “Connie’s inability to dial the phone, and Arnold's promise to not come into the house are all tinged with the sense of unreality.” (Tierce and Crafton 222). Tierce and Crafton state how Connie's emotions at the time made her perceive everything as if she was in real life. Connie’s out of body experience was of her waking from her dream. “Connie exist in a dream-like state, but never in a dream.” (Coulthard 507). Connie’s dream was a mixture of reality and unreality. She disliked her home life and found a way to escape it through indulging in boys. As Connie has her encounter with Arnold Friend she slowly realizes reality finding it way back to her, eventually waking her back up. The main character, Connie, has a strange encounter with a man at the diner which causes her to have a vivid dream where she creates Arnold
Friend. In ,Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Connie crosses into a dream like state that can be proven by the bewildering dialogue, characterization and plot. Connie enters a dream where she has a collision with the life she lives at home and the life she lives away from home. Many teens have this emotional conflict that Connie has, not being able to act the way they want to in front of their parents or not acting the way they want to in public due to judgement by others.
At the end of the movie, a stranger named Arnold Friend encountered Connie at her home while she was home alone. Arnold was a vicious, but alluring character. The way he dressed was as if he tried to imitate a young teenage boy. First, his intentions for Connie were kind of blurry. Connie, being as
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.
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates wants to show a more intellectual and symbolic meaning in this short story. Oates has many symbolic archetypes throughout the short story along with an allegory. Oates uses these elements in her story by the selection of detail and word choice used. Oates does this because she wants to teach her audience a moral lesson.
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
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.
Dreams are extremely realistic imagery or memories depicted by the brain to seem like reality while you sleep, or in some cases, while you are awake. In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the author uses Connie’s experiences, foreshadowing, and Arnold Friend’s character to reveal that the short story could all be a simple trashy daydream.
Joyce Carol Oates intrigues readers in her fictional piece “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by examining the life of a fifteen year old girl. She is beautiful, and her name is Connie. Oates lets the reader know that “everything about her [Connie] had two sides to it, one for home, and one for anywhere but home (27). When Connie goes out, she acts and dresses more mature than she probably should. However, when she is at home, she spends the majority of her time absorbed with daydreams “about the boys she met”(28). This daydreaming behavior is observable to the reader throughout the story. From theories about dreams, theories about subconscious thought, and the clues that Oates provides, the reader is lead to believe that Connie’s experience with Arnold Friend is a nightmare used to awaken her to the consequences that her behavior could result in.
Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.
Have you ever been so focused on achieving your dreams that you become unaware of your current situation? When we focus on the goals ahead of us, we fail to see the obstacles and dangers that are in front of us. In order to achieve our goals we involuntarily put ourselves in an unwanted situation. Connie, herself, struggles to achieve her goal of being a desirable girl that turns heads when she walks into the room. She becomes so set on being this girl that she doesn’t realize the danger of the situation. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates utilizes metaphors, diction, and imagery to show how Connie is in a constant tug between her reality and her dreams, and how this confines her freedoms in a world that is surrounded with malevolence.
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
“Often fear of one evil leads us into a worse”(Despreaux). Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux is saying that fear consumes oneself and often times results in a worse fate. William Golding shares a similar viewpoint in his novel Lord of the Flies. A group of boys devastatingly land on a deserted island. Ralph and his friend Piggy form a group. Slowly, they become increasingly fearful. Then a boy named Jack rebels and forms his own tribe with a few boys such as Roger and Bill. Many things such as their environment, personalities and their own minds contribute to their change. Eventually, many of the boys revert to their inherently evil nature and become savage and only two boys remain civilized. The boys deal with many trials, including each other, and true colors show. In the end they are being rescued, but too much is lost. Their innocence is forever lost along with the lives Simon, a peaceful boy, and an intelligent boy, Piggy. Throughout the novel, Golding uses symbolism and characterization to show that savagery and evil are a direct effect of fear.
In many of Joyce Carol Oates short stories, she expresses her emotions from dealing with a tragic childhood, and trying to combine the natural world to what it really means. She wanted her stories to feel real by writing about society and people today, that others could connect with.
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.
I agree with Larry Rubin, in my opinion Connie has fallen asleep outside in the sun. I believe Connie is dreaming of Arnold Friend and Ellie Oscar. “She shook her head as if to get awake. (196)” She had gone into a quick daze or daydreaming and then fell asleep. “When she opened her eyes she hardly knew where she was. (196)” Connie had seen Arnold the day before at the restaurant while sneaking over to where the older people were hanging out. That memory invited him to come into her dream as an older gentleman. It has happened to me before when I see people or things they pop up into my dreams somehow. I agree with Larry Rubin the fact that the music being broadcast on Arnolds radio as being the same as that emanating from her own in the house