Arnold Friend Identity

11). Connie is fixated on her beauty and the role beauty plays in life. The first thing she thinks about when the two boys that she has never seen before pull up her driveway is how she looks. Some may say that because of the lack of control Connie possesses over her beauty, Arnold Friend, her eventual abductor, is attracted to her. He sees her naivety and sets forth to capture it.

Arnold Friend’s layers of deception. Connie’s blindness is the pretext of her loss of innocence

When Connie first hears a car pulling up in her driveway, her attention is immediately directed to her hair and looks. She isn’t concerned as much about who is outside or what they want, but how see will look to them. When she initially sees Arnold she is attracted to his style and car. He is muscular in tight faded jeans and a drives a bright gold jalopy. His image is everything that Connie has fantasized about and can relate to. Arnold is even playing

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.

From the songs and movies, she sings that boys around will act with her as the boys from the lyrics and motion picture. Connie, in fact, behaves with the opposite sex similarly. Finally, it can be said that all her behavior manifestations are such questionable because of the challenging transition from girlhood to womanhood experiencing by her. Until the end of the storyline, her role remains uncertain yet she managed to play numerous of them: from daughter and sister to friend and eventually an object of sexual desire. Apparently, Connie herself remained unsure of the role she represented in her ordinary

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,

Once Arnold Friend unexpectedly arrives to Connie’s house, “her fingers snatched at her hair, checking it, and she whispered, ‘Christ. Christ,” wondering how bad she looked” (3). Connie thought she recognized the mysterious man in the driver’s seat, the kind of guy she is used to attracting. She saw his hair as

The characterizations of Connie’s family members have great effects on Connie. And Connie’s mother’s characterization is the main motivator for Connie’s rebellion. She always compares Connie with June, who is the “ideal daughter” in her eyes, and blames Connie for some little things, such as improper dressing and not having a tidy room. Oates suggests that the reason for Connie’s mother prohibiting Connie to dress up like an adult is that “ Her mother had been pretty once too” (Oates 1), but now “her looks were gone and that was why she always after Connie” (Oates 1). Therefore, she is jealous about Connie’s beauty and feels uncomfortable when seeing Connie wear beautiful outfits. Meanwhile, she likes June so much because June is obedient and plain, which makes her feel that she is dominant in the relationship. In the short story, Connie’s father is not given much description by the author, but

The characterizations of Connie’s family members have great effects on Connie. And onnie’s mother’s characterization is the main motivator for Connie’s rebellion. She always compares Connie with June, who is the “ideal daughter” in her eyes, and blames Connie for some little things, such as improper dressing and not having a tidy room. Oates suggests that the reason for Connie’s mother prohibiting Connie to dress up like an adult is that “ Her mother had been pretty once too” (Oates 1), but now “her looks were gone and that was why she always after Connie” (Oates 1). Therefore, she is jealous about Connie’s beauty and feels uncomfortable when seeing Connie wear beautiful outfits. Meanwhile, she likes June so much because June is obedient and plain, which makes her feel that she is dominant in the relationship. In the short story, Connie’s father is not given much description by the author, but his characterization has an effect on Connie as well. The irresponsible father spends little time with family and seldom has conversations to his daughters. When hearing his wife’s complain about Connie, he just bends his head with saying nothing, which makes Connie feels ignored and lonely. Urbanski states that “The father, who spent most of his time at work, is weak” (Urbanski 200) to reveals the father is not an active figure in his daughter’s life. Therefore, lacking of the company and communication of family members, Connie becomes upset. In addition, Connie’s sister June, who has the opposite characterization, is also one of the reasons for Connie’s rebellion. In Connie’s eyes, June is a

In the same vein, narcissism is another trait that characterizes Connie’s attitude. She obviously has the sophisticated mind-set of a young lady that she pretends to be although she is only an adolescent. It is easy to detect through the story that the protagonist Connie spends all her time acting and protecting her ego. So many passages illustrate that point of view. Connie is a two faced adolescent. She presents to the exterior world the image of a modest and well behaved girl whereas she has in her the hidden quality of sexual flirtation. To describe Connie, Oates mentions, ‘’Connie had long dark hair that drew anyone’s eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out and the rest of it she left fall down her back. She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home’’

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, was published by Joyce Carol Oates. She was born on June 16th, 1938 in Lockport, New York. As an American writer, Oates published over 40 novels, as well as a number of plays, short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Out of her works, one of her publications consisted of the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. This particular story was about a teenage girl, named Connie, who encounters an unknown, demonic “stranger” (Arnold Friend). Throughout the story, Arnold Friend caused much awkwardness and puzzlement, by his demanding actions and odd, but true knowledge. It had became apparent that he wanted more than a friendship with Connie, and never took rejection as an answer. Within

Throughout the story, Oates suggests that a woman’s worth to society is based solely on her physical attractiveness. Oates does this by characterizing Connie, a manifestation of the typical teenage girl, through objectification, revealing the social norms which negatively impact women throughout society. For example, when Connie’s mother scolds her for gawking at herself, Oates writes, “Connie… knew she was pretty and that was everything” (Oates 1). Connie’s self objectification demonstrates that she has been taught to be beautiful before all else. She is concerned

Apparently the authors of the three critical interpretations differ, too, in their views of whether Connie has been sexually active prior to her meeting with Friend. Greg Johnson states, “Oates makes clear that Friend represents Connie’s initiation not into sex itself” she is already sexually experienced “but into sexual bondage” (161), while Joan D. Winslow argues that Connie has “not yet experienced sexual intercourse, but she is moving toward it” (162).

When Arnold felt that Connie was not going to do what he wanted, he started to threat in hurting her family. The more the story was coming to end, the more orders were thrown at Connie by Arnold. Many different critics were written on why Connie decided to leave her family and home and leave with a stranger. But taking the time of the story into account, it is possible to see that men, like Arnold, broke women pride and dominated them. Marie Urbanski writes “Connie leaves with Arnold because she is, “bowing to absolute forces which her youthful

Daisy Miller is breaking these social norms by constantly associating with different men, drawing the attention of many others and Connie expresses her sexuality by abandoning her friends to spend time with a boy in his car; this ultimately leads to society’s metaphorical murder of these women.