Joyce Carol Oates has captured an evolving nation in her countless works written in the past 50 years. Oates intricately illustrates the struggle of a second self, showing through her plays, novels, poems, and short stories the consequences of duality. Her protagonists often represent the nation as a whole and reveal the challenge to find a sense of self in a rapidly changing society. These characters have a wall that they struggle to overcome, which provides them with a limited perception and creates obstacles such as isolation and a loss of identity. The human experience is seen as a complex phenomenon from her perspective, using violent themes and events to illustrate how the ‘perfect’ world is not as innocent as most would think. Oates’s protagonists struggle with a dual identity: one that conforms to the world around them and one that directly reflects how they see themselves. The works of Joyce Carol Oates can be seen from multiple perspectives; many …show more content…
An antagonist like Arnold has surpassed the typical traits of a killer or a psychopath, or some combination of both; he lives in a disguise that distorts his appearance and behavior. He becomes a Satan-like figure, arriving in his gold car and honking "as if this were a signal Connie knew" (Oates, “Where” 142) like a demonic second coming. Arnold, a physical manifestation of evil, sees the weaknesses in the flirtatious, carefree identity Connie presents to him. Brenda Daly suggests that the shiny exterior of the van summarizes the identity of Arnold, stating that the exciting, intriguing person he seems to be is nothing more than a false identity (34). By using Arnold to represent the devil, Oates is quietly commenting on the duality of everyday life, saying that the world is full of people like Arnold who are pretending to be something they are