Where Are You Going Where Have You Been Scold Friend Character Analysis

She views something as small as a car ride exciting and new because her family avoids giving her the opportunity to be in a situation where she can have adventures and feel love. At the end of the story, when Arnold is still trying to convince Connie to come in his car for a ride he tells her, “I’ll have my arms tight around you so you won’t need to try and get away and I’ll show you what love is like” (Oates 26) Arnold is only trying to provide Connie with the love she is lacking from her family. She does not know what love is and most of the time resents her family and the expectations she is expected to meet. Connie has never been close with anyone, so she does not understand how to give and receive

She spends most of her waking hours "dreaming about the boys she met. But 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", which is merely to say that Connie, like many teenagers, is in love with love (Coulthard, par. ). She fantasies about a boy she met one night and about how nice, kind and sweet he was. When Connie meets the guy at the restaurant, she doesn’t know his intentions and she doesn’t know that he’s truly sweet and kind. Connie always lets the men in her life control her: her romantic interests, the man on the radio, and eventually Arnold friend.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Essay Since it’s publication in 1966, Joyce Carol Oates’s short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the character Arnold Friend has caught the attention of many critics and readers. Connie is a fifteen year old girl who has an encounter with Friend while she is home alone one summer afternoon.

Arnold Friend was there to take Connie away; away from her childhood and home, which never quite felt like home until her fantasy world deteriorated and reality set it. The next moment is pivotal, this is when Connie forgets her hedonism and becomes something of much more substance. Before Connie studies Arnold Friend’s abnormal personality and erratic behavior she is fascinated by him and even worries that she is ill prepared for this

Home is where the heart is, but what if home is no longer safe? Joyce Carol Oates explores this concept in her 1966 short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. On surface level, this story appears to discuss a rebellious young girl named Connie and her confrontation with Arnold Friend, a stalker. The ending leaves the reader to assume that Arnold Friend plans to sexually assault the young girl.

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.

Arnold Friend is an archetype of death. Being very persistent he tells Connie “gonna get you baby” (Oates 430) and proceeds to follow through with his plan, consisting of using many mind games and in the end winning the power struggle. Arnold friend seems to know a great deal about Connie’s home life and private life without her having to disclose any information. This story’s setting is before social media so the only way he could’ve obtained this information is through stalking or to be a close family friend is disguise.

The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates can be interpreted in a multitude of ways due to its ambiguity. A psychological lens, however, provides the most accurate viewpoint for analyzing the story as it clarifies certain obscure scenes and actions of Connie. One psychological issue of Connie that is easily inferred from the beginning of the story is her insecurity about her looks. Connie constantly worries about the way that she looks and takes any opportunity to do so, “craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right” (1).

Instead of realizing the danger that she was in, Connie was focused on what Arnold Friend was wearing and how attractive he was. Connie’s obsession with finding her own sexuality overpowered her gut feeling of danger. In an analysis of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Barbara Wiedemann discusses how the antagonist Arnold Friend is based upon serial killer Charles Schmid, who murdered several young girls during the 1960s. In the analysis, Wiedemann

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.

Connie was young and beautiful, working hard to show off her maturity and sexuality in spite of her mother’s disapproval. Her vivacity and charisma attracted boys and men alike, which gave her the attention she so desperately craved. Her thirst for attention was quenched by an unlikely and unwanted man who forced her to confront the harsh reality of the world, bearing no resemblance to what she daydreamed love and romance would be. It was no secret that Connie was beautiful. She knew it, her mother knew it, and this realization caused tension between the two.

In Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Connie, a teenage girl who acts older than she actually is, argues with her family about how she dresses and acts. While sneaking out with friends one night, Connie encounters an older man named Arnold Friend who is convinced that he is her lover. One day while her family is not home, Connie is confronted by Arnold, asking and threatening her to come with him. The story ends with her going away with this strange man who showed up at her door, leaving the reader to ponder what will become of Connie.

Although some may argue that the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, reveals that Connie’s materialistic ideals drove her actions which caused her ultimate demise, this position limits the importance of Connie’s repressed thoughts. Her repressed thoughts, identified through daydreams and inner dialogue, reveal her psychological efforts to protect herself from the imminent danger ahead. These thoughts form as she strives to achieve a differentiation of self from her older sister, yet her newfound identity becomes superficially based off how she believes she should behave around her peers. When Arnold Friend appears at her doorstep, even though Connie deploys her defense mechanisms of repression and denial, she remains vulnerable to Arnold because she does not acknowledge her repressed thoughts and only considers his superficial appearance. Once Connie’s repressed thoughts surface, her reality anxiety allows her to uncover Arnold Friend’s true intentions with her and shed light on Connie’s fatal flaw: her differentiation of self.