Arnold Friend Character Analysis

“I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love” (Marilyn Monroe). Joyce Carol Oates is the author of the realistic allegory story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. The story is about a young girl named Connie, who likes seeking attention from men, as a distraction from her problems at home. She meets a man named Arnold Friend, he goes after Connie, claiming he has to take her on a ride, but it is obvious he wants to do other things. Because of this character’s actions, it is determined that he is a representation of the devil. Through plot, characterization, and dialogue, Oates successfully portrays Arnold Friend as a symbolic Satan. Through plot,

Right when Arnold comes up to Connie’s driveway, it is unknown what real feelings he causes on Connie. When she sees his car coming “Her heart began to pound and her fingers snatched at her hair [...] ‘Christ, Christ’ wondering how bad she looked” (Oates 2). Connie was worried about how she looked, so it is possible that she was excited to see a car coming up her driveway. She is all about getting attention so she could be excited for that. Just as Arnold makes Connie feel excited, Rubin points out that he also makes her feel scared. “Connie fears she will be destroyed by Arnold, and the critics (like wegs) have concentrated on the immediate level of physical death” (Rubin 1). Connie might be scared by the fact that an unknown man has been following her. Arnold is a man that manipulates Connie to believe he is as old as her, but she can see he is lying. Besides the way Arnold makes Connie feel, his looks are mentioned as a successful way of portraying him as a representation of satan. As Easterly has explained, “Thus one can hypothesize that Friend wears a wig to hide his pointed ears and horns. His feet do not go all the way down into his boots because they are really hooves” (Easterly 2). As it is explained by Easterly, Arnold’s looks makes easier to compare him with the devil. Arnold lies about his age, so his face would be a mask to hide away his real identity. Many say the devil

By the way Arnold talks and treats Connie, it is seen that he is manipulative. He manipulates Connie into sin when he says; “I’ll tell you how it is, I’m always nice at first, the first time. I’ll hold you so tight you won’t think you have to try to get away or pretend because you’ll know you can’t” (Oates 6). Sin is something that feels good to do at first, but someone who thinks about it, regrets it later on. Arnold says he will hold on to Connie so she will stay with him. The devil holds onto sinners to keep them in sin. Arnold also demonstrates how he is portrayed as a symbolic satan when he waits for Connie from the outside of the house. Arnold insists that he is not going to go inside the house, as he tells Connie, “I ain’t made plans for coming in that house where I don’t becoming but just for you to come out to me, the way you should. Don’t you know who I am?” (Oates 7). It is weird that someone that is coming to take a young and beautiful girl away, says they will not go in the house, but wait for her to come out. The way Arnold insists that he is not going to go inside the house, can be interpreted as hint that he really is an evil spirited character. Most likely, the devil himself. Just as Wegs explains, how evil spirits cannot come in a sacred place if it is not invited in, “Although Arnold has come to take Connie away, in his traditional role as evil spirit, he may not cross a