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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Arnold Friend Character Analysis

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“Where are you Going, Where have you Been” by Joyce Carol Oates is a short story that tells of the horrors that are possible when a child is rebellious and secretive. The story’s action begins when the main character, Connie, secretly visits a restaurant when she said she was in the movies, here she sees a man and he waves at her. Later, the same man shows up to her house when her family isn’t home and is trying to convince her to ‘go for a ride’ with him, and the reader learns his name is Arnold Friend. Connie talks to him for a bit, and eventually is manipulated into going with him, and it is assumed that Arnold kills her. Arnold Friend is a creepy, demanding older man, and his true personality is highlighted by the way the author writes …show more content…

One major clue as to who Arnold really is, is that he was at the restaurant, a popular place for teenagers to hang out (Oates 1). This makes it seem like he was at the restaurant specifically to find a young girl to manipulate, which was most likely the case. He is also faking his whole demeanor when he is at Connie's house, which is proven by the author writing “He stood there so stiffly relaxed, pretending to be relaxed” (Oates 5). His actions are all insincere in the beginning, and this is revealed later when his demeanor begins to change. He starts to threaten Connie, demanding that he comes with her or he will hurt her family (Oates 8). As well as this, he threatens to come inside if she calls the police, promising “not to come in unless you touch that phone” (Oates 7). In saying this, he is being manipulative towards Connie, scaring her out of calling the police. These actions show the reader his true colors, that he is a strange, demanding, manipulative man. Oates’s story teaches an extremely important lesson to young girls. This story can teach people not to be so secretive, and also to be weary of anybody that you do not know well, no matter how friendly they seem at first. These lessons are taught mostly through the way antagonist of the story, Arnold Friend, is written by the author. Arnold is a creepy, manipulative, and demanding man, but he pretends as if he is not. The author used his name, speech, appearance, and actions to show that a person is not always what they appear to

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It is quite possible that Connie has just invented Arnold Friend based on her love of music, at one point in the story it seems like Connie is falling asleep while listening to XYZ Sunday Jamboree and all of the sudden Arnold Friend shows up coincidently listening to the same thing. Instead of saying Arnold Friend knows Connie’s name and many things about her because he is the devil, you could say that Arnold Friend knows all of that because he is described as

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Wickedness and malevolence is afoot in the stories “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates and “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor. The antagonists are both men, Arnold Friend and Manley Pointer, who take advantage of women. However, one of these men is more malicious than the other. This man is Arnold Friend from “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” because his intentions with the young woman, who is a minor, appear to be much more evil and daunting than that of Manley Pointer from “Good Country People”.

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Slowly as she begins to notice things about Friend that aren’t right, Connie starts to see more adult like. She starts to notice that he’s not a teenager, but a lot older, and that he is not a friend but far more evil. When Arnold says, “I’m your lover honey…you don’t know what this is, but you will” (Oates 348), Connie falls into shock and starts panics. She tries to break from him, but his slick talk prevents her from doing so. Forcing Connie to come out, Connie is fenced in Arnolds trap.

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The story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, is a one where the idea of how girl who struggles with wanting to be a mature woman, faces her demon full form. The protagonist of the story is Connie, a 15-year-old rebel girl, obsessed with her look; and through fault of her own, meets the antithesis of herself, the antagonist of the story, Arnold Friend. Connie seeks to be a mature adult and desires an emancipation from her family. Seeing herself as mature woman through the desires of her attraction by other boys and men, as well as her mother. Its this same desire which acts as the main fault for her character.

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The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by the author Joyce Carol Oates in 1966. Oates describes her idea for the story after briefly reading an article about the real-life murderer, Charles Schmid, who lured and murdered three teenage girls (Kirszner & Mandell 523). She uses this idea to create the character, Arnold Friend, and his victim, Connie. Connie is a typical teenage girl portrayed as naïve and self-centered. The short story appears realistic, given that the conflict in the story is based off of real events.

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She sees the boys who give her attention as subjugations who “dissolve into a single face that was not even a face but an idea” (Oates 675). But soon enough her dreams and music materialize into the shape of Arnold Friend. Arnold Friend is described as a muscular, older, and mysterious character. He seems to be a work of her imagination as he is ultimately an idea she created that would fit into her perfect fantasy world. Connie is defenseless to Arnold Friend’s manipulations mainly because she has no visible identity of her own.

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This clairvoyance also points to the fact that he may be a demonic creature. Connie never actually tells Arnold her name but he somehow already knows it. The last detail that points to Arnold being a demonic being is his mind control over Connie. For some reason she is unable to dial for the police.

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