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Fiction essay on joyce carol oates where are you going where have you been
The use of symbolism in the novel
Fiction essay on joyce carol oates where are you going where have you been
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Who or What is Arnold Friend? In Joyce Carol Oates “Where are you Going, Where have you been”, one of the characters is revealed to have a sinister and malevolent agenda. This character’s name is Arnold Friend. A man with a charming tongue and a diabolical nature. He is a very mysterious person in the story. The question about him is who is he? or even worse what is he? He is primarily based on Charles Schmid and his acts Tucson. His character has readers questioning if he is a a real person, a figment of Connie’s imagination or a supernatural entity? Arnold Friend is a supernatural entity. He has the attributes that correlates with the devil. His charm and the way he hypnotized a frantic Connie to come with him, show disturbing evidence of him not being an ordinary human being. Another example of Arnold Friend as the representation of the devil is his strange appearance. He had wild hair that almost looked like a wig, he wore sunglasses that were mirrored and he had pellucid skin. Why is his appearance so strange? It’s almost as if he is disguising himself to look human. This evidence makes Arnold Friend a suspect. The irony of his name makes this case appealing. Arnold …show more content…
There are countless evidence that proves that Arnold is no ordinary human being. Another eerie evidence is the code on the car. It has two meanings. One meaning refers to a sexual position showing his intentions to Connie and the other a reference to the Bible. Another concrete evidence of Arnold being a supernatural entity is his personal knowledge of Connie and her family, that alone should seem very suspicious and that also scared off Connie. From his wild appearance to his devilish charms and eerie knowledge prove that Arnold Friend is a dangerous man. We all can learn from Connie and revisit that old saying “don’t allow strangers into your
Throughout “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Arnold Friend is a very intimidating and mysterious character that is hard to figure out. Arnold knows everything about Connie, a teenage girl that he has never met before. He is very persistent with getting Connie to run away from her awful teenage life at home with him. Arnold’s appearance adds even more mystery to who he actually is. Arnold has a roughed up look to him, a secret code painted on his car that can be interpreted as a Bible verse, and he can not stand steady on his feet, because of all of these attributes Arnold appears that he is possibly Satan.
Although Arnold friend proves to be a valid contender of The narrators craziness, this is evident in the beginning of the story where the first thing to come out his mouth is “Gonna get you baby”(2). At this point in the story (Beginning) Connie didn’t even know who he was but yet he lets her know that he is coming for her. Arnold friend, in his gold jalopy, pulls up a few days later just as he promised. Even though Oates uses mental games to scare her audience in “WAYG”, it does not match Poe’s description of violent death. In the “Black Cat” the narrator decides to mutilate a cat by “taking a knife and opening it, grabbing the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” (7) This obviously shows the psychotic tendencies of The Narrator: in his drunken state he simply decides to mutilate a cat for nothing but his own pleasure. Arnold Friend is a less frightening character because although he is very disturbed, he only seems to play mental games where as the Narrator uses physical
"Connie, don't fool around with me. I mean—I mean, don't fool around," he said, shaking his head. He laughed incredulously. He placed his sunglasses on top of his head, carefully, as if he were indeed wearing a wig…” (Oates 6). Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” highlights an altercation, meeting, conflict and dispute between a teenage girl, named Connie, and a psychotic rapist named Arnold Friend. Throughout their altercation, Arnold Friend tempts and encourages Connie to get in the car with him and lead her to a variety of possible dangerous situations, one of which includes her getting raped . There is no doubt that Joyce Carol Oates’ uses Arnold Friend in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” to symbolize the Devil and embody all of the evil and sinister forces that are present in our world. This becomes apparent when the reader focuses on how deranged Arnold Friend is and begins to
Although Arnold Friend's traits are never stated outright, they are presented through his speech and interaction with other characters, which ultimately creates a more impacting effect and lasting impression. Arnold Friend is the devil in human form. However, as his physical description progresses, he b...
In “Where are You Going, Where Have you Been?” Joyce Carol Oates uses an allegorical figure of evil to illustrate the theme of temptation. Oates alludes to hell through the character Arnold Friend, as the devil, and his victim Connie, who invites him in by committing the sin of vanity.
We know Arnold Friend, not personally, but we know his character. Arnold Friend stalked Connie throughout the story convinced that she was his lover; he used threats and smooth talk to coerce Connie to leaving her house and into Arnold friend, Ellie Oscar’s, car. Arnold Friend is like many serial killers our society has encountered the past century including Charles Schmid, Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson by how they target their victims, their charisma, and their influence over others. Charles Schmid is the serial killer that influenced Oates to write “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” he had killed three teenaged girls while dressing up to resemble Elvis Presley (“Serial: It’s Not Just For Breakfast”, Schumaier, 2002.) Arnold Friend resembles Elvis to with his black wig and sunglasses. Ted Bundy was a serial killer, rapist, necrophile, and kidnapper whom targeted young women. Bundy found his victims at a public place, such as a park, he would then use his charm to convince them leave the safety of the public area to a more secluded...
Arnold Friend could possibly be a symbol of the devil. Friend tries to be kind and tells Connie he will take care of her and everything to try and get her to come with him. Oates says, “His whole face was a mask, she thought wildly, tanned down onto his throat…”; this could symbolically be connected with the devil. The devil would never be out in the open he would be in disguise. McManus also talks about how Friend is related with the devil. “Friend’s suggestion is that if Connie’s house was on fire, that she would run out to him, may also suggest symbolism. Fire being associated with devil.” This is a great symbol of Friend and the devil because fire is most definitely associated with the
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” tells the tale of a fifteen year old girl named Connie living in the early 1960’s who is stalked and ultimately abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. The short story is based on a true event, but has been analyzed by many literary scholars and allegedly possesses numerous underlying themes. Two of the most popular interpretations of the story are that the entire scenario is only dreamt by Connie (Rubin, 58) and that the abductor is really the devil in disguise (Easterly, 537). But the truth is that sometimes people really can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Connie, a victim of terrifying circumstance will be forever changed by her interactions with Friend.
Oates uses a great number of symbols in her short story "Where are you going? Where have you been? to create an aura of unease and Devilishness. Her principal symbols are Arnold Friend, his disguise, and the music Connie listens to. Oates' use of symbolism and Biblical allusions to Satan force the reader to raise an eyebrow to the character of Arnold Friend and the doomed future of Connie.
The overuse of biblical allusions throughout the story helps to expose the naive nature of Connie that reveals her as a victim of evil which shows that lust often transgresses on an individual’s identity. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates expressed the subjective ideas by symbolizing Arnold Friend as a devil that tempts a clueless teenage girl Connie, who wanted to experience love.
Greg Laurie describes the devil as a sly, smart person, in his article “The Truth About the Devil,” and says that even though Satan does not know everything, he knows how to use what he has to lure you to him. Right off the bat, Arnold tells Connie that he knows her family is out and for how long. He also mentions her best friend and other friends by name and tells her, “’I know everybody’ (4)”. This shocks Connie and I think makes her fear that he will hurt them if she does not comply.
First, Arnold Friend’s physical traits portray him as Satan. Oates says that “There were two boys in the car and now she recognized the driver: he had shaggy, shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig and he was grinning at her,” (Oates 316). The hair could actually be a wig hiding something that he didn’t want someone to see. Maybe he was hiding his devil horns. Also when he was standing Connie had mentioned that “He was standing in a strange way, leaning back against the car as if he were balancing himsel...
The story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates is about a fifteen year old girl named Connie who has a strange encounter with a man named Arnold Friend. I agree with Joyce M. Wegs' interpretation of the story, that Arnold is symbolic of Satan.
"Connie's Tambourine Man: A New Reading Of Arnold Friend."
In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of the symbolism of Connie’s clothes, her fascination with her beauty, Arnold Friend’s car and Arnold Friend himself help to understand the story’s theme of evil and manipulation. The story, peppered with underlying tones of evil, finds Oates writing about 15-year-old Connie, the protagonist of the story, a pretty girl who is a little too into her own attractiveness, which eventually gets her into trouble with a man named Arnold Friend. The story is liberally doused with symbolism, from the way Connie dresses to the shoes on Arnold Friend’s feet. In “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” the reader can pick up on some of the symbols very easily, while others need deeper thought. The subtle hints of symbolism throughout the story create a riveting tale that draws the reader in. Connie finally succumbs to Arnold Friend at the end of the story, it then becomes obvious that he represents the devil and the symbolism of her clothing and Arnold’s car all tie together to create a better understanding of the story.