Arnold Friend Theme

Where there is desire, there is hope, despair, and struggle. Joyce Carol Oates illustrates animatedly the asphyxiated struggle of desire in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” The story narrates the life of a young girl, named Connie, and her fated and enigmatic confrontation with a strange man. Feeling trapped in her own home with her own family, Connie, a self-conscious and rebellious teenager, tries to figure out a way to identify herself with the world around her. Her desire of escaping the reality fuels her struggle to enter adulthood. Through the physical form of Arnold Friend, who embodies both the hope and the despair in Connie’s struggle, the author metaphorically portrays a vigorous and psychological pressure that Connie has to endure. The story is scripted to allude to the danger of identifying oneself through sexuality in young girls. To better understanding this cryptic story, it is important to follow the psychological processes and conflict of Connie’s character, which help unveil the allegorical meaning of a young girl’s rite of passage through sex.

A door to the beginning of her outcome is all that divides Connie in, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” from Arnold Friend, the devilish predator. Symbolism takes a big part in this story that gives a deeper meaning to Connie’s choices that ultimately extent to giving herself to Arnold. The author, Joyce Carol Oates in the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” represents Arnold Friend as the real world by being challenging and malicious, and Connie as the innocent world by being defenseless and naive.

Connie is a young, immature character, who is incredibly self-conscious about her looks, and how people view her. She has a habit of constantly looking at herself in the mirror, and is often scolded at by her mother. Her mother compares Connie to her older sister, June, who receives all the praise. Her mother favors June because she is grown up and makes contributions to the home, as Connie is just in her own realm, usually daydreaming. This creates resentment towards her mother, and Connie wishes that her mother was dead. This most likely fuels her to gain the independence that she is looking for and become the mature adult she acts like outside the home. Connie had completely different

Theriot, Michele D. "The Eternal Present in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”." Journal of Short Story in English 48 (2007): 59-70. Print.

Joyce Carol Oates's short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” was written in 1966 and twenty years later was made into a movie entitled Smooth Talk by Joyce Chopra, winner of the 1985 U.S. Film Festival for best dramatic picture. The writing by Oates is loosely based on a true story known as “The Pied Piper of Tucson.” The most significant differences based on the story and movie are the father-daughter relationship with Connie and Chopra’s changing the mother’s attitude toward her. Even with these changes, however, the character of Connie and her creepy stalker Arnold Friend remain the same.

In this essay, I argue that the main theme of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is internal conflict. The main character, Connie, struggles with multiple internal conflicts throughout the short story. Some of these internal conflicts include a search for independence, internal judgment, and fantasy versus reality.

Joyce Carol Oates is an excellent writer who is well-known for her work. In her short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” she managed to deliver a piece that is pleasant to read, but filled with evil. This essay will discuss, the form which the evil takes, its origin, and how this story is aesthetically “beautiful” despite that evil.

Besides Connie’s shallow self-absorbed character which is the result of her relationship with her friends, her relationship with her family also attributes to Connie’s self-absorption and shallow attitude. She never feels she is good enough for her parents. Her mother constantly

Moral and social beliefs were being challenged and the youth of America, while coming of age, were rebelling against their parent’s ideals and creating their own culture. The birth of a social movement was upon the world and issues such as sexual freedom, feminism and other civil rights were hot topics during the years prior to Oates writing this story. It is these social changes and society’s interest in them that creates the foundation for the setting that breathes life into this story. Without this foundation, the coming-of-age story of Connie, not to mention American society, and her journey from the innocence of the 1950s into the bitter reality of the turbulent times of the 1960s would have been lost.

2. Caldwell, Tracy M. "Joyce Carol Oates ' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?." Literary Contexts In Short Stories: Joyce Carol Oates 's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? ' (2006): 1-8. Literary Reference Center. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

There are some stories that capture the reader’s attention and which keep us riveted from the beginning to the ultimate line of the tale. ‘’Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’’, a short story written by Joyce Carol Oates in 1966, is one of those. Inspired by the mythic song of the phenomenal singer Bob Dylan entitled ‘’It’s all over Now, Baby Blue,’’ the author describes the main character as a 15-year-old girl named ‘’ Connie’’, who is obsessed by her beauty and does not get along with her family. The heroine of the story ‘’Connie,’’ engages in an adolescent rebellion against her entourage by acting to appear older. This increases her vulnerability through the story and at the end

“Where are you Going, Where Have You Been?” is a story written in 1966 by Joyce Carol Oates. It was originally published in Epoch magazine, but now it is in many short story anthologies. The story tells of a young girl named Connie, who doesn’t want to grow up, and is kidnapped by Arnold Friend one day when she is home alone. It is based on an American serial killer Charles Schmid, who lured young women to the desert where he murdered them. I first read this story last year in a fiction and nonfiction class, and I fell in love with it. I couldn’t explain why; after all, it’s a sad story, isn’t it? Still, I love it because Oates uses characters, plot, and imagery to craft a captivating story.

The year was 1966 when Joyce Carol Oates published “Where Are You Going, Where have you been?” a short story about your typical all American teenager at the edge of adulthood. Throughout this story, Oates displays the main character, Connie, to wanting to portray herself as mature and rebellious. The major theme in this story is fantasy and reality. However, Connies fantasy of being a grown woman will soon turn into a reality full of regret.

In this story we are immediately introduced to the protagonist Connie, who is a 15-year-old girl trying to figure out her place in the world, as a young adolescent. She is described throughout the story as “looking one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home” (315). This can be interpreted as her struggle for independence while she is still living under the rules of a parental authority. We are also introduced to Connie’s home life and realize that her mother exudes contempt for her, that may be a form of jealously for Connie’s youth and appearance. Connie is constantly being bombarded with complaints from her mother, and is often compared to her sister June whom is the golden child and can do no wrong. “Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over” (315). Explaining just how badly the way her mother treats her affects her outlook on the world and as well as her own self-worth. This lack of self-worth and gloomy outlook on the world may have an effect on her decision to leave with Arnold Friend and Ellie Oscar at the end of the story.

Many of Connie’s feelings about herself directly result from her family life. With an emotionally absent father who is never there for her, one can assume that the idea of how a man should act to and around women alludes her. Connie’s relationship with her mother is everything but healthy. Connie and her mother are constantly at odds. In Connie’s eyes this is because her mother used to be pretty like Connie, and since her mother’s looks have faded, her mother makes it clear how she is jealous of Connie. Connie also shows bitterness and jealousy towards her older sister. Her feelings are no doubt an expected effect of her mother’s constant carping. A perfect example of her mother’s petty yet impactful and hurtful speech is when she says, "Why don't you keep your room clean like your sister? How've you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don't see your sister using that junk." Her mother regularly conveys her blatant favoritism towards Connie’s sister, and Connie sees it.