Where Are You Going Where You Been Arnold Friend Character Analysis

Joyce Carol Oates was born on June 16th, 1938, in Lockport, New York and later published “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” in 1974. She was raised on her grandparents’ farm in Erie County, New York. At the young age of 15, Joyce Carol Oates submitted her first novel. Her father Frederic James Oates was a tool and die designer and a homemaker. She went to college at Syracuse University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1960. The following year, she attended the University of Wisconsin, earned her master’s degree, and married Raymond Smith, a former English professor. Joyce Carol Oates and her husband lived in Detroit, Michigan where she published her first literary works and where she taught at the University of Detroit. (“Joyce Carol Oates.”). Throughout “Where Are You Going, Where …show more content…
Arnold Friend’s outgoing passion to take advantage of Connie, Connie’s reluctance to join him, and their gathering at the restaurant all show various forms of temptation by each characters’ actions. Arnold Friend has a strange obsession for a girl, Connie, whom he met at a local hamburger joint. He ends up going to her house to try and convince her to get in his car with him. Connie is faced with a daunting challenge when a man comes up to her door at her family’s residence. The man who comes up to her house, is Arnold Friend. Connie has an unclear recollection of him. She finally succumbs to all her moral values she has built up over the years to go with Arnold Friend. At the restaurant, Connie and her friends strive to act much older than they are. Ultimately this ends up getting Connie into a bad situation with Arnold Friend. Temptation in this story is exemplified in so many different ways. Joyce Carol Oates throughout the story provides numerous examples of temptation involving Arnold Friend, Connie, and events that happened at the