Arnold Friend Character Analysis

The Choice
Throughout our lives our character within ourselves changes. The way we talk, the way we dress and the way we think. In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, she talks about a fifteen year old girl named Connie who’s character has two sides, being childish, or adult. Joyce said, “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (337). Throughout the story Connie’s struggle with in her character is the reason why she has to make a big decision at the end.
In the beginning of the story Connie is described as this conceited self centered girl. Oates described Connie in the story that she had

The first time Connie meets Arnold Friend is at the restaurant. Her beauty attracts him, and he can see the type of character she has. Arnold says, “Gonna get you, baby.” Connie doesn’t think much of it, but little does she know that this is the beginning to her nightmare, or freedom. The next morning on a Sunday Connie doesn’t bother to go to church which could have prevented her from being in the situation with sin. Thinking she is too grown up to go to the cook out with her family, she decides to stay at home. While sunbathing, she falls into a dream and daze, thinking about the boy that she was with last night comparing it to song lyrics and film. Joyce said, “Connie had to shake her head as if to get awake” (341). She had adult thoughts and dreams that most fifteen year olds don’t have. She dreamed about boys so much that they took over her

A car pulls up with the same station playing; Connie fixes her hair, it says, “She whispers “Christ, Christ” wondering how bad she looked.” Again worrying about her beauty, she does not even knowing who it was. She stands by the front door on the inside; two guys that pull up were Arnold Friend and his friend, Elliot. They are strangers to Connie, but Arnold seems to know a lot about Connie. At first, she flirts with Arnold being flattered by his compliments; however, she was innocent to what he is really like. 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. Connie struggles if she should go. Maybe she wants to learn what adulthood really means and she can find out with Arnold. Connie finally gives in, Oates says, “So much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it”