Analysis Of Arnold 's ' An Old Fiend '

Another symbolism of evil is that Arnold tells Connie that he will not come in her house. He has come to take Connie away but “he may not cross a threshold uninvited” (Wegs 2). Arnold threatens Connie by telling her that if she does not come outside then he will wait till her family gets home “then they’re all going to get it” (Oates 481). Arnold ultimately lures Connie out by promising that her family will be unharmed if she gives herself to him (Oates 1). We do not know how Connie sacrifices herself. As Oates states in her article, we only know “that she is generous enough to make it”.

One of the symbols in the story are the sunglasses Arnold wears. He wears them to hide himself from the real world and to hide what his intentions are to do with Connie once she gets in the car to go for a ride with him. Arnold Friend himself also plays a symbol in the story. When you see the name, “Arnold Friend” and take the R out you will get “An old friend” or if you take both R’s out you will get “An Old Fiend” that is referring to the devil. He keeps talking to Connie trying to lure her into the vehicle stating everything will be ok and her family will not be home anytime soon because he knows exactly what they are doing at the exact moment. The text also says Arnold stands up in his boots and wobbles as if his boots were stuffed to make him taller and not all the way in.

Through plot, Oates demonstrates how Arnold Friend can be seen as a symbolic Satan. Plot starts when Arnold makes sure to tell Connie he is interested in her as he says,“Gonna get you baby” (Oates 1). Connie is in a drive-in restaurant for an older crowd when Arnold sees her for the first time. Once Connie leaves the drive-in dinner with a boy named Eddie, Arnold decides to make a move on Connie. Arnold uses foreshadowing to let her know he will meet her again. Just as Arnold says he is going to get Connie, he shows up in her driveway, creating a creepy situation. That Sunday afternoon, Connie is alone in her house while her parents and sister are on a picnic at one of their neighbor’s house, Arnold decides to use this opportunity to make his

about him that lead the reader to believe that he is covering demonic physical traits with a fake

how Arnold Friend sees her and does not realize that she cannot see him or his motives. Arnold

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

The narrator implies that Arnold Friend is Satan by giving certain clues that the reader can easily deduce. The name that Oates gives to the character is one hint to the reader: “Connie looked away from Friend's smile to the car, which was painted so bright it almost hurt her eyes to look at it. She looked at the name, Arnold Friend. She looked at it for a while

“Nothing about Arnold Friend is genuine, except his violent intentions and his skill at psychological and physical intimidation. By the story’s end, Connie understands that she is not the confident flirt she thought, but a powerless pawn in the hands of a dangerous individual.” (Cormier)

Arnold Friend's façade gives the reader the feeling that something is wrong, as if Oates were trying to persuade Connie away from her impending doom. When Arnold first pulls into Connie's driveway, the reader is alarmed. Connie notices that he is actually much older than he appears and the reader knows that

Adding on to that, Connie’s shortfall that rock music has molded her has come to light when Arnold Friend gives sexual advances to her. Joyce Carol Oates shows this by writing, “It was the same program that was playing inside the house. “Bobby King?” she said. “I listen to him all the time. I think he’s great.” “He’s kind of great,” Connie said reluctantly.” “Listen, that guy’s great. He knows where the action is.” (p.3-para.2). This shows how Connie feels shocked that Arnold was also listening to the same music as she was when she was inside the house last time. Since she was incompetent in realizing how teenagers interpret the music than adult figures, Connie is vulnerable when Arnold threatens her to come to him because of the rock music that is being allotted to teenagers. To sum it up, the sexual song lyrics and the image of rock music that is normally played and embraced in the American culture has influenced Connie, a teenager, physically and mentally; therefore, she is taken advantage of by Arnold because of her immaturity and youth.

As stated previously, the screen door is considered a boundary between Connie and Arnold. Arnold stands outside the house with his arms wide open as if he is waiting for Connie to come out and Connie is inside the house. When Connie opens the screen door at the end of the story, she hesitates because “she put out her hand against the screen. She watched herself push the door slowly open” (56). When she opens the door even though she is hesitant, she is acting mature by accepting her fate to go for a ride with Arnold (she will not come back the same after the ride). If Connie keeps the screen door closed and stays inside the house she would still be the same girl, a fearful young innocent teenage girl who is afraid to face her own fate. Being mature also means sacrificing valuable things in life, Arnold Friend implies that he is going to threaten Connie’s family when he tells her that they do not need to get “involved”. Connie sacrifices herself for her family, which shows a kind of maturity. Even though she feels detached to her family, they mean a lot to her since they were the ones who always stood beside her and took care of her. The inside of the house is a safe place for Connie, but she leaves the safe area as a mature (sacrifice-taker) version of herself, a different person. Once she opens the screen door to go for a ride with

Arnold Friend is an ironic name for this character because he isn’t Connie’s friend, she doesn’t even know him. And if you say the name out loud, it sounds like “are no friend” He proves that he can’t be a friend in the first place, he left his so-called friend in the car and talked to him like he meant nothing to him.

During the conversation between Connie and Arnold Friend, she experiences a dramatic moment so intense that it cannot be avoided or ignored. Her attempt was creating a sexy appearance and fascinating the boys in the local diner delivers as her experiment to analyze new fields as well as a new side of herself. However, until Arnold comes into the story, her expeditions have always been closed into security. She may go into an dark alley with a boy for a short period, but no matter what happens there,

Although we never fully discover the humanness of Arnold, one thing is for sure, “He invites fear rather than attraction when he claims to know things about her family and neighbors that he couldn’t possibly know.”(SparkNotes Editors)

Arnold Friend is a seductive man, or should I say ArN OLD FrIEND with a dark appearance hiding something deeper, something evil? Arnold, posing as a teen-age boy, is none other than the devil himself, which shows in his words and actions, and in his physical traits. From the very beginning of, Joyce Carol Oates', "Where are you going, Where Have you been?" a certain number of religious references are interspersed throughout. These references help to maintain a biblical feeling, as well as to set a path for Friend's entry into the story. They also foreshadow that; powers beyond a human level will be presented. Friend looks like one person in the beginning, but as the story unfolds, he is shown as someone else or