The short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, by Flannery O’Connor and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, by Joyce Carol Oates revolved around the themes of good and evil. Both the themes of good and evil are parallel to how people portray the concept of both dark and light. The short stories are similar in their religious references conveyed by their antagonists, but the development and the characters give readers varying perspectives. The antagonists of the stories are figurative representations of Satan. Arnold Friend from “Where Are You Going, Where Have you Been”, was depicted as Satan solely through his behaviors and intentions. In a thesis approved by the University of North Carolina written by Elizabeth MacInnes De Nittis, …show more content…
The characters draw readers into the book through their unique characteristics and their relatability towards modern society. Nittis elaborates on Arnold Friend “[which revealed] his true intentions toward Connie [that] are grotesque exaggerations of the male-female dating ritual, because Connie is not to be merely flattered and seduced, but kidnapped and murdered.” When Connie was introduced in the story, she was portrayed as a young teenage girl who lives in a world of fantasy with the strong desire to reach adulthood. She dreamed of becoming one [an adult] and to be able to experience what relationships are. When Arnold Friend comes into the picture, it was as if he was the one is she has been looking for. However, she realizes the predicament she was in and immediately tried to cut ties with Arnold. The twisted plot device used on Arnold in this story makes Connie’s luck with the devil more daunting. Contrary to Arnold, The Misfit persuades the reader to sympathize with him while revealing his sinister characteristics. Assuming that The Misfit would kill the grandmother, he gives everyone [grandmother and audience] a glimpse into his past. By opening up to the grandmother about his past, he became vulnerable. This gave her the opportunity to survive by using his weakness against him. She took advantage of The Misfit’s emotions in which she thought would …show more content…
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the grandmother is held at gunpoint. She pleads relentlessly, trying to persuade the Misfit to let her live. In an essay by Anna Woodiwiss, she explains that “The grandmother's acceptance of someone so different from her is wrenched out of her by extraordinary circumstances, and she is only partly conscious or rational as she expresses it.” The grandmother was senile and was devoted to her traditional views, which would make her less accepting of the thoughts and ideas of others. The Misfit was the exception to her personality and her willingness to show contempt by saying he is one of her own children. By being held at gunpoint, it made the grandmother throw aside her rationality that she deems to be good. Of course she values her life, however these consequential situations have brought out the best in her. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Connie tries to go with the flow and endures these ordeals as long as possible to try to get out of impending danger. Connie's father would arrive any minute now, she says this repeatedly after realizing the angle Arnold is playing. After Connie learned what person Arnold is, she fears for the worst and seeks help. In an existential allegory written by Marie Mitchell Oleson Urbanski, she writes that Connie “is not simply surrendering her virginal
Satanic References in Literature Depictions of the ultimate force of evil have existed for thousands of years. In Christianity, the name Satan or Lucifer has been given to define this evil, depicting him as a half human and half goat. Lucifer is fabled to exist since the beginning of time. Due to Lucifer being the representation of the most ancient evil, he is presented in many different forms in dark literature. This is shown in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
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
Redemption is the act of being saved from acts of evil and sin. The debate of whether human nature is redeemable or not has been one to plaque religious scholars. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, this question continues in the interactions between the characters; the most notable being the Grandmother of a rather horrible family and the Misfit, a murderer. While on a road trip, these two characters’ paths collide and lead to a rather unfortunate end where the Grandmother and her family are killed. While many readers believe the ending creates and overall negative tone of the story, some believe that there is a hope for redemption; the story’s author O’Connor who is a devoted Catholic included.
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," despite the grandmother's apparent belief in her moral supremacy-which she expresses through her self-proclaimed identification as a
A Look at “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Have you ever been in a situation that you were afraid you wouldn’t get out of? In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates tells about a young girl who encounters a strange man and is afraid that she will never see her family again. The story is about a fifteen year old girl named Connie who is being harassed by an older man named Arnold Friend.
In the coming of age story “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses symbolism, conflict, and the third person to foreshadow fifteen-year-old Connie’s unfortunate, yet untimely fate. While one may think that the conflict stems from Connie’s promiscuity, it is clear to see her promiscuity is only a result to a much bigger conflict, her mother’s constant nagging and disapproval, alongside the lack of attention from her father. the author paints a vivid picture of what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl such as Connie goes elsewhere to find to find the love, attention, and approval that she lacks at home. All which is vital for her growth and wellbeing as a person.
He tries to seduce and persuade her to go with him for a ride similar to how the Devil lured Eve with a shiny and mysterious apple. Oates displays evidence of biblical allusions regarding Arnold Friend’s appearance and persona in the story by depicting his physical characteristics, his supernatural knowledge, and his demeanor as an image of evil. Connie wants to be desired for her sexuality and Arnold possesses this by his tone throughout the story. His appearance comes
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
At the end of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” I believe that Connie is a normal girl. Although Connie is illustrated as a self-indulgent and vein teenager I did see anything that stood out in the text with lead me to believe that she was particularly evil. The same goes for her being a good girl she didn’t do anything that I found profoundly good. The fact the Arnold Friend scares Connie into coming with him is a cause for concluding that he is evil.
The Role of Family in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor is a short story that brings out mystery and cruelty. Manipulation plays a big role in this story by the grandmother. She tends to manipulate her family and tends to get her way by playing with them. Although the author wanted to give many perspectives of the grandmother, we as reader got our own views of her.
In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” she uses writing skills such as symbolism and imagery to get across her different themes to the reader’s with plenty of room for self-interpretation. Though O’Connor’s work could be defined as cynical, she does an excellent job of writing in the third person with her uncomplicated structure of sentences leaving plenty of room for her character 's thoughts, feelings, and actions to get across the realism of our world. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a battle between a grandmother with a rather artificial sense of goodness, and a criminal who symbolizes evil. The grandmother treats goodness as having good manners, and coming from a family of higher class, but at the end of the story comes to
The balance of what is good and what is bad is a rather controversial topic in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Most notably, the characteristics of both the Grandmother and the Misfit. The Misfit portrays an immoral personality and seems to be the evil in the story while the grandmother is the innocent lady seeking to be the good in this story. However, the religious virtues effect both personas and in itself draws the line around them mutually as sinners. Both characters have a particular relationship with Jesus, a physical crisis crossed with a spiritual crisis and different conceptions of reality; thus, revealing how the portrayal of these characters are not what may seem.
Connie: The Victim To A Demon The “heroine” of the short story Where Are You Going Where Have You Been written by Joyce Carol Oates has been interpreted in many different ways by many different authors across the globe. They all have their own opinions on why Connie had left her home and walked into the arms of Arnold Friend. Larry Rain makes the argument that Connie was a noble heroine that “chooses the side with the devil [to save her family]” (Rain Gale).
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.
The story Young Goodman Brown was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main character of the story is Goodman Brown who is a very young innocent guy and also religious. The story talks about Brown who went out night to a dark ugly forest and came across and face many evil courses like the devil, witch, the staff and the creepy gray clouds. Evil can mean sins, drugs, and cruel and untruthful human beings. No one can avoid sinning and escape evil because there is evil everywhere and there is no one that cannot escape from evil.