Arnold Friend Symbolism

Living “just an ordinary girl’s” life was no longer the lifestyle for a girl named Connie. Once a man told her that she was gonna be his, her life turned. Connie was no longer able to forget about reality instead she was forced into adulthood by a man named Arnold Friend. Connie is the main character in the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates. The story is mainly about how Arnold Friend, a sort of stalker of Connie’s, comes to her house. He demands her to come with him, but she declines until he actually forces her to get into his car. In this story, Joyce Carol writes about a very harsh and rough topic to talk about. However, Joyce Carol Oates mainly uses symbolism in “Where Are You Going, Where

Arnold Friend is a character full of mystic, and he is very diabolical. Oates even describes that “He was standing in a strange way, leaning back against the car as if he were balancing himself” (Oates 125). Arnold can be depicted as maybe having magical powers since it is as if he is balancing himself while standing in a strange way. Along with how Arnold stands, Joyce Carol Oates also hints out important symbols on Arnold’s car. “The story even implies that Arnold has killed, or at least raped, before. "[The numbers 33, 19, 17" painted on the car may be "a secret code" (825), as the miscreant himself boasts, but they are not demonic numerology. The numbers most likely are the ages of Arnold Friend's previous victims, suggested to Oates by the ages—seventeen, fifteen, and thirteen—of the girls killed by Charles Schmid” (Coulthard 2). The critic believes that there is an allusion to a murderer by the name of Charles Schmid in the story. When Arnold has the three numbers written on the car, the critic believes that those may be associated with the murder of three girls killed by Charles. In this example, Arnold may not be depicted as the devil as clearly as in other examples, but it definitely shows that he is related to death and mischief like the