Often times we look to hide our past as if it never existed. “Leave the past behind you,” they say. “Forgive and forget.” We spend years learning to bury our traumas and once they’re completely forgotten, the “uncanny” arises shining light on our darkest ordeals. In “The Uncanny” by Sigmund Freud, he defines the uncanny as being familiar and unfamiliar, familiar in the sense that we are well acquainted with a similar position until we become successful in repressing it. A figure then incites fear in us by bringing the situation to light, which classifies the figure as uncanny. In Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” the egotistical character Connie goes through her stages of repression forgetting her past of sexual abuse, until the mysterious Arnold Friend appears and sheds light on her darkest fear. Through the ideas of Freud we can read Arnold Friend as an “uncanny” character who is symbolic of the sexual abuse that Connie represses. Friend expresses his sexual desires towards Connie as well as his harmful intentions which all seem so …show more content…
She states, “She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited”(1420). Although she knows that she will not be safe once she opens the door, Connie still leaves with this man who until that day she knew nothing about. Why? This proves that because Connie has let her anxiety and trauma get the best of her she gave into it all, not being able to take the pressure of feeling overwhelmed. Thus, having Friend who has familiar and unfamiliar aspects to him and bring up repressed moments conquer Connie in her fight to leave this in her “unconscious” state of