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Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Arnold Friend Essay

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According to McCabe and Wauchope “The most common type of relationship was that of a stranger, with 55/130 or 42% of rapist selecting a stranger as their victim” (239). While some psychopathic serial rapists may pick someone close to them or someone they know, that is not the case with Arnold Friend. In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates uses Arnold Friend’s stalker tendencies, use of Connie’s weaknesses, and deceiving looks to allow us to view Friend as a psychopathic serial rapist who has committed similar prior crimes. Throughout the story, Connie wants to grow up so quickly and have the attention that she thinks she wants but in reality it is nothing she could ever imagine and by doing this Oates shows …show more content…

When Arnold Friend threatens to hurt her family if she does not come with him, it made Connie go with Friend (Oates 136). Lynn Z Bloom discusses how her and her own class were discussing “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” when she started to discuss her own horrific encounter with a person like Friend. Bloom said that although she started screaming she stopped because, “then I thought, still screaming, ‘I don’t want my children to hear this.’” (825). Although the attacker may have not known about her motherly instincts of protecting her children from all evil in the world, it can be agreed that we put our family above ourselves just like Connie did. By going with Arnold Friend, Connie possibly saved her family from what most likely would have been their deaths. Friend is a psychopath that wanted nothing more than Connie and would probably do anything he had to too insure that he got her. Arnold Friend has gone through many drastic measures to lure Connie into his trap, at this point, nothing should be a …show more content…

Like Charles Schmid, Friend creeps at teenage hangouts in hopes of seeing a girl that catches his eye. Schmid and Friend have many things in common, so it is very likely that Joyce Carol Oates based Friend off of Schmid. Perhaps Oates had a reason for basing Friend off of Schmid, whether she meant to or not; perhaps she was trying to show how this is not just a story, that this could very possibly happen in real-life, because it in fact

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The Role of Friendship and Its Effecting Nature Sherman Alexie’s Short Story “This Is What It Means to Say, Phoenix, Arizona” and the movie made about the short story, Smoke Signals, bring an insight to what life was like living on Indian reservation and what Indians like Thomas Builds the Fire and Victor had to go through. How does the role of friendship in the short story “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona?” and in the movie Smoke Signals work and how does it develop the way the story and movie go. The role of friendship in the short story comes into play when Thomas talks about ‘how he can lend Victor the money he needs but he must take Thomas with him and Victor says, “I can’t take your money I haven’t hardly talked to you in years and we’re not really friends Thomas says I didn’t say we were friends I said you just have to take me with you Victor says let me think about it” (875).

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1412 Words | 6 Pages

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. "

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815 Words | 4 Pages

In this context, Connie can be seen as the ego, which must decipher right from wrong. Friend is shady and eventually we discover him to be dangerous –as our Ids can be. Friend overpowers Connie, just as our Ids can overpower our egos to do certain things, and impact our decisions. Oates illuminates this concept in her story when she illustrates: “Arnold Friend was saying from the door, "That's a good girl. Put the phone back."

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1190 Words | 5 Pages

It is quite possible that Connie has just invented Arnold Friend based on her love of music, at one point in the story it seems like Connie is falling asleep while listening to XYZ Sunday Jamboree and all of the sudden Arnold Friend shows up coincidently listening to the same thing. Instead of saying Arnold Friend knows Connie’s name and many things about her because he is the devil, you could say that Arnold Friend knows all of that because he is described as

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909 Words | 4 Pages

You don’t know what that is but you will” (Oates 6). Friend saw Connie as his sexual object. Connie in her adult persona enjoyed that feeling of being stared at and wanted by a man. On the other hand, teenage Connie still trapped in her body somewhere speculated that Arnold Friend was no teenage boy and he was dangerous with no good

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995 Words | 4 Pages

This change is more than obvious when Arnold confronts her with a decision to save her family’s lives and sacrifice her own and Connie chooses to save the family that she despises. For Connie to save these people that she calls her family and sacrifice her own life that she normally sees as superior to others’ is of utmost importance in perceiving that Connie has undergone a momentous change as a person. Connie goes from wishing her mother dead at the start of the story to exchanging her own life for her’s. Although Connie is perceived as a pretentious brat at the beginning of the story, she undergoes a change in personality, and acts in spite of all her previous beliefs

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913 Words | 4 Pages

The love and romance in the songs she listens to and images of pop culture that go through her head are much more different from the reality of adult sexuality. Although Connie does experiment with her sexual side, such as when she goes into the alley with Eddie, she is fearful of really becoming an adult. Arnold Friend takes her by force into adulthood, but this influential act represents a shift within Connie: the deserting of a childlike fantasy for the realities of being a developed woman. Connie is beginning to realize that she has been vulnerable and weak minded and she does not have anywhere to turn. Oates writes, (“She cried out, she cried for her mother, she felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness.”)

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672 Words | 3 Pages

“ A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself” (Friendship). Friends love each other and have the patience to love the person you are; following are two great example stories of this kind of friendship. Huckleberry Finn is a story of an orphan that wishes to be free from society; while a slave runs away and they both join together to achieve their dream of freedom. Of Mice and Men is based on two men that are trying to find work and survive; sadly many mistakes are made by one that causes many problems. We will compare and analysis who had the stronger relationships between Huck and Jim, and that of George and Lennie.

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1181 Words | 5 Pages

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written by the author Joyce Carol Oates in 1966. Oates describes her idea for the story after briefly reading an article about the real-life murderer, Charles Schmid, who lured and murdered three teenage girls (Kirszner & Mandell 523). She uses this idea to create the character, Arnold Friend, and his victim, Connie. Connie is a typical teenage girl portrayed as naïve and self-centered. The short story appears realistic, given that the conflict in the story is based off of real events.

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694 Words | 3 Pages

He knew her name even though she had only quickly glimpsed at him the night prior with no communication from her at all. He knows where her parents are, what they are doing, how long they will be, how they look he even knows who her best friends are. Essentially Arnold Friend is the very essence of nightmare to Connie he is everything she is afraid of. He pressures her in to a situation out of her control. He takes away her pride of rejecting people and forces her to choose her family being hurt of facing her demons and going with him.

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817 Words | 4 Pages

This clairvoyance also points to the fact that he may be a demonic creature. Connie never actually tells Arnold her name but he somehow already knows it. The last detail that points to Arnold being a demonic being is his mind control over Connie. For some reason she is unable to dial for the police.

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828 Words | 4 Pages

“Where are you going, where have you been”, discovers vivid threatening imagery when Arnold tells Connie, “Gonna get you baby” (Oates 455). The readers begin to gain knowledge and concern of what's about to come next. The imagery escalates when Arnold is at her house manipulating her. He compliments her blue eyes even though they’re brown and when she explains how she “ push the door slowly open as if she were safe back somewhere in the other doorway” (Oates 466). Oates language portrays her purpose explaining what happens to Connie when her sexuality (Rite of passage), leads to death or violence.

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984 Words | 4 Pages

Connie’s first encounter with Friend was at a diner when he stated to Connie, “Gonna get you, baby”(pg.1142). Because Connie was use to this type of attention, she did not view it as strange that an older man was calling her in such away. However, if Connie had seen Friend as dangerous instead of just another man, her kidnapping might have been prevented. Later in the story when Friend showed up as Connie’s house, she walked outside and talked to him instead of questioning how he knew where she lived or calling the police. Oates described Connie's interaction with Friend by stating,“Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed: tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pullover shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard muscles of his arms and shoulders”(pg.1145).

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858 Words | 4 Pages

Friendship Friendship is a hard thing to find, but what can be even more difficult is finding someone who you can share a genuine friendship unconditionally. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is very heartbreaking and grievous novel that has many devastating aspects. Throughout the story, Lennie and George portray the many accurate qualities of true friendship. I have had one friendship in my life that I can more than confidently say was authentic. This friend shows her loyalty, honesty, and selflessness constantly, similar to George and Lennie.

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657 Words | 3 Pages

Overall, it is clear that Connie has three major psychological issues that caused her to make the decision to leave with Arnold Friend: insecurity, low self-esteem, and fear of relationships. While readers may not know where Arnold is taking Connie, they can infer the psychological problems from where she has been that led her to make the decision that she

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