Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Arnold Friend Comparison

In Joyce Carol Oates fictional short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the majority of the story lies beneath the surface. More specifically than just the story, you realize that there is more to the character Arnold Friend than what may appear. The author has always remained silent and ambiguous about the real meaning of Arnold Friend’s true nature and she leaves room for the readers to make their own interpretation of him. Readers can analyze Arnold Friend and see him as the devil, he could just be the personification of popular music imagined by Connie in a dream, but Arnold Friend could also be the result of drug use. While “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” may seem like your average “coming of age” story at

In the story Connie loves music and it is the one thing she can “depend upon” (p. 36). Joyce Carol Oates starts the story by dedicating it to Bob Dylan and throughout the story there are many similarities shared between him and Arnold; they even shares physical similarities. In an article by Mike Tierce and Michael Crafton, they point out that both Arnold Friend and Bob Dylan have “shaggy, shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig” (p. 40), “long hawk like nose” (p. 42), and he is “only an inch or two taller than Connie” (p. 42). They even compare Arnold Friend’s “fast, bright monotone voice” (p. 40) to Bob Dylan’s. It is quite possible for Arnold Friend to actually just be a representation of Bob Dylan and have nothing to do with being the devil. 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

Throughout the story it appears that Arnold Friend that maybe it is just a dream, but Connie describes him as being just a blur… that… had come from nowhere… and belonged nowhere” (p. 46) and at one point in the story what Arnold Friend was saying made no sense and as if he was having a different conversation. If Connie was on drugs it would make sense for things not to make sense. The quote on Arnold Friend’s car that says “man the flying saucers” was never specified, so the reader is left to guess its true meaning. According to The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English the phrase flying saucers means “a morning glory seed, thought to have psychoactive properties.” Perhaps Connie was able to invent her shadow self, Arnold Friend, with the help of morning glory seed. In the story, Connie looked at the phrase “man the flying saucers and she felt like “words meant something to her that she did not yet know” (p.) which if she was on drugs she might not be aware of the fact that what she is seeing is not real, but eventually when she is sober she will understand.
The ambiguity of Arnold Friend leaves many unanswered questions for readers. Unless Joyce Carol Oates decides to reveal the real Arnold Friend, readers may never know if he was in fact the devil or just a figment of Connie’s