The text I composed my questions and theories from is “Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?” Initially, this short story captured my interest through its strikingly, realistic scenarios stemming from the protagonist Connie’s attitude towards her mother and sister along with the secret dates with boys at the diner. This text struck me as an ideal choice because of the ambiguous antagonist, Arnold Friend, this character presents several theories of different meanings explaining what the hidden interpretations the author intended. The questions I will answer are what the potential meanings the Arnold Friend character such as: the similarities and potential referencing to the serial killer Charles Schmidt, the possible symbolism as Arnold friend as the Devil and the comparison of…
In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie is out with her friends one night at the dine-in. As she was walking to the car with one of her friends, another guy smiles and waves his finger towards her while passing in his car. She does not think anything of it until later on one Sunday evening when her parents leave the house. Arnold Friend, the guy from the dine-in shows up at Connies home and asks her to go on a joy ride with him but she repeatedly refuses to go. He threatens to harm her family when she tells him no and goes to call the police but ends up hanging up the phone after Arnold threatens to come inside.…
Arnold Friend is the reality of the music, both attaining a disguise of youth and unique appeal. He expresses wanting to make love just like the songs’ seductive lyrics foreshadow. His car is gold and blinding like desired musical records with blurred lyrics. Throughout the story, Arnold Friend seems to show up with the occurrence of the music. Taken aback by the provocative gestures Connie discovers Arnold’s age and true motives.…
Arnold Friend is initially described by “...the singsong way he talked…” (325) which characterizes him as a benevolent individual. As Connie learns more about Arnold, she realizes the deception behind Arnold and how he is the opposite of what she expected him to be. Arnold is depicted throughout the story as a devil. Oates describes him with many devil-like characteristics:…
He knows she dislikes her parents, so when she threatens to call them back Arnold reassures her they do not care and are drunk currently. Arnold even arouses her sexual curiosities by wearing shades and not permitting his gaze to be directly be traced to where he stares on her, but his angle does insinuate to her he is erotically gazing. Arnold 's disguise as a normal man does begin to fall apart as she questions what she believes and desires until his visage is all but a faulty mask as she has begun to panic. His handsome 18 year old image is mere make-up and does not cover his neck, his legs are twisting into bizarre angles at the feet, like the devil 's cloven hooves (Urbanski n.pag.), and the most present indicator he is not of this world is his calm coercive voice to her. Weather he is Satan, or merely temptation incarnate is not clear, but those are good…
Arnold Friend, in Oates story first makes an appearance when Connie meets him in the parking lot and says he’s going to get her. An unusual statement like that foreshadowed what was going to happen later in the story. When Connie started to notice that Arnold isn’t who he says he is given the hints about, his age, how he knows where her parents are, how “evidently his feet did not go all the way down…”, and especially his sweet yet dangerous tone, Connie starts to panic because she realizes she’s trapped inside and has nowhere to go. Knowing that someone like Arnold was coming for her, she released all her fear in a “violent” way which she cried out for her mother and made a decision to give in to Arnold. Similarly in Bob Dylan’s song, he mostly mentions the character’s unbalanced mental state and her decision to end her life.…
While they are the same person, they are also different in their respective ways. Similarly, we begin to see how Alexie views marginalization, and the unity that is satisfied or not by belonging to a tribe. Arnold reveals himself to be a loner and a nomad within the first few pages of the story. While he is many things that contradict the depression that may be inflicted on such an individual in his position, he is also a walking contradiction in himself, as he is a boy from many different tribes, and also a loner. He decides on his own he is not simply an Indian, and not only white.…
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” written by Joyce Carol Oates is an unsettling and incredibly formidable story of a young woman’s loss of innocence during a time of social change, unrest and turbulence.…
Throughout the stories Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? And A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The theme of fear is present throughout these stories. The ideology of fear are shown in these two stories and they connect to how fear is used to control people. Fear is seen today and was seen in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Both Joyce Carol Oates and Flannery O’Connor emphasized this throughout their stories.…
She is very suspicious of him as soon as he pulls up to the house. Arnold 's appearance is that of a slightly muscular middle-aged man who looks like he’s wearing a wig and walks like he has hooves. Connie is slightly intrigued, yet fearful of him, so she stays behind the screen door and tries to make it obvious that she wants nothing to do with him. She is hoping to discourage him, so that he would leave, but Arnold isn’t about to give up easily. He continues to harass Connie and eventually she realizes that she is dealing with a Psychopath.…
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is an eerie short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story, published in the fall 1966 edition of Epoch Magazine generated a big buzz (Ptalzgraf 221). Oates dedicated the story to Bob Dylan because she was inspired to write it after listening to his song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”(“Where”Shmoop). She was also inspired by the gruesome serial killer Charles Schmid. Joyce Carol Oates most famous short story is “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been.”…
“Where Is Here?” is a short story by Joyce Carol Oates, which is about a stranger who visits the house of a family, and causes strange things to happen. The diction in this story is also a good example of how to use dialogue and word choice to create a mysterious atmosphere. The stranger says many weird things that make the reader wonder throughout the story, and a good example of this is when the mother asks if his mom is still alive, to which he accidentally responds with, “We’ve all been dead-they’ve all been dead-a long time.” The stranger’s slip of the tongue provides a little insight into what he really is and makes the reader start questioning things. How he also uses the word “dead”, instead of something such as “deceased” or “gone”,…
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been “With great power comes great responsibility”, this very old saying famously appears in the Marvel comic series Spider Man. Uncle Ben uses these wise words to warn Peter Parker that with any sort of power, there is also a negative side that comes with it. We can observe this in, Where you going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates. In this story the main character Connie realizes that she has this great power to attract boys, she is very much obsessed with this new power and sees the positive side of her new power, however she doesn’t quite realize the negative side of her power. This is due partly to her age, and to a great degree of being unfortunate to encounter a serial killer like Arnold Friend.…
In the short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, Connie and Arnold Friend are both something close to a rebel and a criminal. Both have made a conscious choice to veer from the societal standard and the expectations of those around them. In an alternate telling, this could have brought them closer together and they could have had a positive relationship, in finding a companion in someone who shares the labelling of being different. However, this is not the case due to the sensation of discomfort brought forth by Friend. Many theories of deviance at play in these two individuals.…
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: An Analysis There are two themes that are central to “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates: the theme of independence and the theme of reality vs. fantasy, both of which are relevant in today’s society. Both of these themes are prominent in the interactions between Connie, a precocious fifteen-year-old girl and an ageless “Old Friend”, Arnold Friend, who can be seen as evil, or, the devil. The symbol of music is used as a dissociation from reality.…