Imagine being in a situation where you are constricted, with no means of getting out. Would you want to escape into a world of fantasy and leave the dreadfulness of reality? “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates is a story that explores this idea through the beautiful teenage girl Connie. Arnold Friend, an older man, wishes to take her out on a “date”, but things quickly become out of hand. As Gillis states in “Connie’s Tambourine Man: A New Reading of Arnold Friend”, Arnold presumably “leads his victim… to a quick and violent sexual assault” (Tierce and Crafton 219). Again in “Connie’s Tambourine Man”, it is stated that “Arnold must symbolize Satan and Connie must be raped and murdered” (Tierce and Crafton 219). …show more content…
She intensely daydreams about boys throughout the story as she gets with various guys, and towards the end of the story she has sexual desires that she wishes to explore. As Connie says to herself right before Arnold shows up to the house, “all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July” (Oates n.p.). Because Connie fantasizes about boys, she feels At home, even in a non-sexual way, she is surrounded by women as her father is tired after work. When Connie is out with boys, though, she is able to socialize and be appreciated by the boys for her beauty. This makes Connie feel excited because it is attention that she does not receive at home. Connie is ready to take things beyond just the romantic level with boys, and this desire is transformed into the being that is Arnold Friend. Connie states in her description of Arnold that “she liked the way he was dressed… a belt that pulled in his waist and showed how lean he was, and a white pull-over shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders” (Oates n.p.). By Connie stating this, she reveals that she does find Arnold physically attractive, perhaps even on a sexual level. Arnold represents her interest in boys and he allows her to enter into the world of fantasy. When he breaks into the house, however, Connie’s own fantasies begin to betray her because this is what she pictures it to be like if she were forced into a sexual situation. Connie is unable to contact authorities about Arnold’s presence because, unfortunately, “something roared in her ear, a tiny roaring, and she was so sick with fear that she could do nothing but listen to it” (Oates n.p.). Connie’s mindset at this point in time is delusional and she no longer has any sense of reality.
In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie (protagonist) is a fifteen-year-old teenager who physically attempts to behave like an adult by tampering with her appearance and participating in activities habitual to adults (going to restaurants and theaters with boys). As an adolescent, she’s morally ambiguous and thus safely explores adulthood. Arnold Friend, an ingenuine and strange character, pulls Connie away from her infantile fantasies to the grave reality of being an adult woman. The author uses the motif of a bilateral persona evident in Connie’s and Arnold Friend’s characters to illustrate the theme that entails the abrupt transition that Connie’s rebellious and childish spirit is forced
Both are indications of characteristics of the devil himself in Arnold
AF has come to take her to Hell. When she takes a ride with AF she is really riding to Hell with the Devil. AF tries to persuade Connie further because he, “knows [Connie’s] name and all about you, lots of things” (par. 58). AF continues to prove that he is the Devil by knowing everything about Connie without ever talking to her. He continues to prove that he is knows
Supposing that this claim is coherent, it ignores Arnold’s true motive for asking Connie to come. He tells her, “‘I want you … Seen you that night [at the drive-in] and thought, that’s the one, yes sir. I never needed to look anymore’” (Oates n.p.). Through this statement, Oates not only explains Arnold’s claim
AF talking about Connie’s family is a clear indication that AF is showing that he has the ability to see and interpret what is happening in other places where he is not present. By this point in the story, Connie is too scared to get any closer to AF. She is so scared that she rushes to the door to lock it. AF finds this to be a silly mistake of Connie because “it’s just a screen door [and] anybody can break through a screen door and glass and wood and iron or anything else if [they] need to, anybody at all” (par. 117). Although breaking through a screen door and
Through Connie, Oates describes Arnold’s attire, “She recognized most things about him, the tight jeans that showed his thighs and buttocks and the greasy leather boots and the tight shirt…” (Oates 164). Connie realizes that he is not truly a teenager and that this could possible end bad. After realizing Arnold Friend is not a kid, Connie becomes ill: “Connie felt a wave of dizziness rise in her at this sight and she stared at him as if waiting for something to change the shock of the moment….” (Oates 165)
One can assume that the so-called “trashy daydreams” are about boys, which brings up the next topic. From what the story has told us, we know that Connie has no trouble at all in finding sleazy young men. Connie, it seems, manages to conjure something up inside them. I believe that Connie is desperate for human contact and
The Search for Validation In the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Oates, Connie, the main character, is an adolescence teen who rebels against her family and finds herself in a dangerous situation. Although Connie is young, beautiful, and a little naïve, her home life consist of a combative mother who is hypercritical and intensely jealous and a father who does not actively engage in her life. One summer afternoon, while her family attends a barbeque, Connie is left home alone when a car approaches her drive-way. Inside the car is a man she had seen the night before while out with friends.
Arnold is belittling Connie by telling her she has no purpose
Joyce enjoys writing about the dangers of the world, such as, rape, and murder. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is about an insecure girl named Connie who ends up getting raped, and murdered by a “devil in disguise,” Arnold Friend. Oates uses many forms of symbolism in this short story, all associating with darkness, childhood, and religion. Joyce also uses characterization
Connie uses her attitude and appearance to attract boys. But she is not aware of the reality of the society in which she lives. Connie is living in a fantasy world, but when she gets trapped by Arnold Friend she is put into a scary reality. There
He mysteriously knows where Connie lives and invites himself to drive over to her house. Arnold assumes Connie’s friendship by convincing her that he knows everything and everybody, “I know your name and all about you” (Oates 201) when she never told him her name in the first place. He knew her friends, their names as well as what she did the night before. He also knew exactly where Connie’s family was, at a BBQ at Connie’s aunt Tille’s.
In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.
Reluctantly, her parents allow her to stay home alone. A few hours later, a familiar gold jalopy pulls up to her house. The driver announces to Connie that his name is Arnold Friend. His unusual physical appearance, his tone of voice, and what he may symbolize frighten the Connie.
Oates’s biography explained her fiction writing as a mixture violence and sexual obsession. The writing style definitely fits the plot point of this story with both of her literary ingredients being present in not only Arnold Friend but in Connie as well. The Protagonist Connie is presented in a very self-centered way. She is obsessed with her looks and often fantasizes about all the boys she meets.