Can The Path Of Evil Alter One 's Life?

In 1966, Joyce Carol Oates published her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. Oates was inspired to write this story after reading about a serial killer that was referred to as “The Pied Piper of Tucson”. Oates was disturbed by the number of teenagers that this killer was able to persuade to help him and keep his secrets (Oates 1). Oates uses irony, imagery, and symbolism to support her theme of evil in this short story.

In comparing and contrasting Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Joyce Carol Oates's “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” the stories contain very different plots, but they both have similarities between the characters Arnold Friend and Misfit. They appear to be mentally unstable and highly selfish by only caring about their needs. For example, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” Arnold Friend shows his mentality and selfishness by harming the main character Connie by being highly persistent. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find” the Misfit showed his mentality and selfishness by killing the grandmother when she was trying to bring out faith and his good side when the situation escalated when the car crashed. Regardless of these two completely different stories, there are several similarities between the characters Arnold Friend and Misfit in their personalities.

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.

The Grandma is prim and proper and self-acclaimed to be very ‘lady like’ yet is extremely crass in her mannerisms. From the very beginning of the story the grandmother begins to show her selfish ways. “…and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did." (O’Connor 1). Though the grandmother is not specific in her selfishness, it seems her indirectness is what gets her nowhere in her statements. As a result of this, neither her children nor her grandchildren do not show reverence for her. Without the parents respect for the Grandmother, there is no possibility for her to gain the grandchildren’s respect. Here again we have another character whose role was not the main role, but one who has a lesson to teach if the reader is willing to dig deep enough to find

The reader can feel the excitement that the children have about the house and the excitement that Connie has when she is with Eddie. When Grandmother is talking to the Misfit about his family and when Arnold talking to Connie about her family, how both, the Misfit and Connie, how they have but a wedge between themselves and their families. The light heartedness of the stories comes from several places. In "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", Grandmother's actions help the reader to see the comic side of her. She is insistent that she does not want to go to Florida, but she refuses to leave the cat. Therefore, she sneaks the cat into the car, like a child sneaking a cookie into his pocket. Ellie is the comic relief in "Where Have You Been, Where Are You Going." Ellie is in control of the music and Arnold wants Connie to believe that Ellie is the "bad guy." The good verse evil is the most compelling of these stories, Grandmother and her religion verses death and innocents verse the harmful world. Grandmother's religion did not stop death from coming nor did it help comfort her in while talking to the Misfit. Although Grandmother tried to get the Misfit to convert and change his ways, the Misfit knew that the minute Grandmother recognized him, he was going to have to kill them even though they were "good" people. Connie thought that while in her house, she could not be hurt. She was comforted by a false sense of security of the house. Arnold was like the wolf in sheep's

Although the stories’ main components mirror each other, they still differentiate. For example, in “The Devil and Tom Walker,” everyone believes Tom has made a deal with the devil, whereas in “Young Goodman Brown,” the author questions the actuality of the night’s events: “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meaning?” Even if the incidents never did transpire, Goodman Brown could not return to his Christian life. On the other hand, Tom Walker tried living a Christian life again, but the devil still carried him off. The protagonists’ relationship with their wives also varied between the stories. Goodman Brown loved his seemingly innocent wife, Faith; while Tom Walker hated his termagant wife and though he

In both stories “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” and “Young Goodman Brown” the common themes are characters being in a dreamlike state with a subconscious presence of the devil. Not only do they share these common themes, they also reveal the meaning of the story with the character’s coming-of-age and crossing boundaries. These characters being in a dreamlike state and their interactions with the devil gives them a glimpse of how their actions will play out in the future and the consequences they will have to suffer.

The grandmother is the central character in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. She is also a very well rounded and dynamic character. She shows various characteristics and reveals various remarks as they story progresses. Some of her qualities include selfish and a pushy person. She is also kind of manipulator in a way that she insists her family to change the plan. At the beginning of the story when we first realize her desire to visit her childhood house, she is being a very selfish person. Examining her conversation with her son Bailey, the grandmother is moreover a pushy person. She is convincing Bailey to change the trip plan according to her need only and which will

Written two centuries apart, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Where Are You Going; Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates are two seemingly different stories. However, if looked at closely, several elements can be tied together. Each story has a similar point of view, but the story is told from two different perspectives. Several themes are unique to the stories, but deep within similarities can be found. The authors conclude their stories in two different ways, but the endings are somewhat the same. These two stories contain elements that are obviously contrasting, yet comparable at the same time.

In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor is a short story about a family who is taking a trip to Florida and is killed by the Misfit and his crew after an accident. As the short story begins, the grandmother is seen by the reader as the hero/protagonist but as the story progresses, the grandmother shows he true colors and is seen as the monster/antagonist. The grandmother is a manipulative, dishonest and selfish person who leads herself and her family to their death. This is a woman who is willing to use manipulation to get what she wants, shows her self-interest and her little concern for anyone else but herself throughout the short story. The grandmother is the cause of the accident that lead to

When the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have you Been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates was first published, there were many controversies to the theories and interpretations regarding the story. According to the author Oates, the inspiration of the story was based on “the tale of Charles Schmid, a twenty-three-old from Tucson who cruised teenage hangouts, picking up girls for rides in his gold convertible. Eventually, he murdered three of them, while other teenagers served as accomplices” (Coleman et al. 211). With knowing such fact of where the author got her inspiration, there is a clear understand to why many critics have suggested that the antagonist in the story, Arnold Friend, represents: feminist allegory, fear of the adult world, rebellion against the conformity, and symbolism of monster or even Satan.

In the stories “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” and “Young Goodman Brown,” there is a common theme that the characters are in a dreamlike state with a subconscious presence of the devil. Not only do they share these common themes, they also reveal the meaning of the story, which is each characters’ coming-of-age journey and crossing boundaries. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is about a girl named Connie, who wants to grow up fast and flirts with the temptation that comes with being an adult. “Young Goodman Brown” follows a man, Goodman Brown, on a night journey into the forest to meet with a stranger, even at his wife’s protest. These characters are in a dreamlike state and their interactions with the devil gives them a glimpse of how their actions will play out in the future and the consequences they will suffer when those boundaries are crossed. With the theme of being tempted by the devil, in Connie’s case growing up fast and in Goodman Brown’s case a communion in the woods, both characters face significant changes in their outlooks on life.

The short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been , written by Joyce Carol Oats, is an interesting story that explores evil through the interactions of two main characters. This essay will explain how one of the main characters, Arnold Friend, is the Devil, as depicted in the Christian religion through his strange features as well as his strange and immoral behaviour, and how the other main character, Connie, is a perfect target for the Devil because of her sinful behaviour.

In “A good man is hard to find”, revelations” and “Everything that rises must converge” by Flannery O’Connor clearly portray a theme of racism based on selfishness, pride and grace. All three main characters undergo a prophecy like moment that eventually leads to the loss of their dignity and selfish attitude and in turn they each achieve grace. This paper will provide a detailed analysis on how all three main characters go from being selfish to eventually self-analyzing themselves and in turn they mature and gain grace and change the way they view others. My investigation of these stories will show how each protagonist had to experience some form of tragedy in order to become self-aware of the way people perceive them. O’Connor presents in these stories how each main character and also in reality people in life need to be brought to a tragic like moment in life that causes them to not continue in the ways they are accustomed to.

The short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O 'Connor and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne both include characters who are greatly affected by the battle between good and evil. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells the story of a family 's seemingly normal car trip turning in a tragedy of blood shed after they come face to face with evil himself in the form of The Misfit, a violent killer who has escaped from prison. “Young Goodman Brown” tells us about a young man who has to face evil in himself and those close to him after he travels down an evil path while traveling through the forest. Both stories show how personal choices and chance encounters put people in the path of evil and can be life-changing and in some situations even life-ending.