Arnold Friend Character Analysis

In “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates Connie, the main character, lives a life that leads to her despair. Joyce Carol Oates also makes it a point to comment multiple times on Connie’s beauty and how she is always dressed up. It does not matter if Connie is at home alone, or after she has snuck out of the house to a diner trying to get older boys, she always looks her best. Her “prince,” Arnold Friend, comes to her house to sweep her off her feet and does not give her the option to say no. Through his manipulative attitude and stalking, Arnold Friend knows Connie very well to where he shares characteristics with a famous American Serial Killer known as Charles Schmid also known as “The Pied Piper of Tucson.” This

Feminist Joyce Carol Oates is well-known. With the help of her opinions, she develops a confident female figure who is also self-aware. Despite being self-assured in her appearance, Connie works hard to convey her maturity through her choice of attire, makeup, and seductive demeanor. Joyce Carol Oates employs feminism in the narrative to illustrate how women are perceived in society. Connie is a youthful, self-assured teen who is constantly self-conscious about her appearance because most guys prefer to date women who are attractive, wear lovely clothes, and apply makeup. In society, women are expected to appear their best at all times.“The fact that one of Connie's main concerns in life is picking up guys may imply that too many women make finding a man their primary goal in life” (Wilber). This is true because females spend most of their time trying to look pretty for a male's approval in hopes of finding someone to settle down with and build a life. But, when Connie goes out she is not going out to get to know the guys better, she is just going out to see and talk to cute boys. This symbolizes women’s sexual desires to men and how they start a relationship based on features. In the story, it talks about how all the faces

He is “The Pied Piper of Tucson” who is known for being a manipulative serial killer who lures his victims away to rape and kill them. A few similarities between the two starts with their appearance. Charles Schmid is a short man who stands at about 5’2 and “Schmid stuffed rags and tin cans into his black leather boots to appear a few inches taller” (Quirk 414). It is not specified what is stuffed in Arnold Friends boots, but as Connie was taking in his appearance, she noticed that his feet did not seem to be all the way in his shoe. Another similarity that they share is their age range. Charles Schmid was just 23 years old when he murdered his first victim.When Connie first meets Arnold's Friend in the book, she notices that he seems a little older than he claims to be. Connie believes that while he claims to be eighteen, he appears to be approximately thirty. He might be, or he might be exactly the same age as Schmid, but can a teenager truly tell someone's age just by looking at them? Even while some claim that Arnold Friend is nothing more than a representation of Satan, it is difficult to dispute that this character served as the model for her antagonist when comparing the two characters' attributes. Oates even goes so far as to give Arnold's acquaintance a fake ole to draw a contrast. Writing her story in only realist terms, Joyce Carol Oates. Although Connie and Arnold