Connie: A Narrative Fiction

She knows he is threatening her and her family but it seems she is controlled by an unknown source that makes her go with him. Someone could argue that Connie went willingly to protect her family, but that seems weird since she tried to call for help. When she tried to call for help it seemed like Arnold Friend was controlling her so that she wasn’t able to call for help. Arnold Friend has a mysterious control over Connie that makes the reader believe that she is under his control. The story says, “She felt her pounding heart. Her hand seemed to enclose it. She thought for the first time in her life that it was nothing that was hers, that belonged to her, but just a pounding, living thing inside this body that wasn’t really hers either”(Oates 325). This could prove that she didn’t have control over the situation, kind of like someone or something was controlling her.

Joyce Carol Oates began her short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” with a 15 year old girl named Connie whose mother that had always compared her to her sister June. This gave the reader a chance to establish a connection with Connie. Since almost every teenager has felt a comparison to another sibling at least once in their life, unless they were an only child, but then they were probably compared to family friend’s child. Her mother would say things like “Why don’t you keep your room clean like your sister?” or “How’ve you got your hair fixed – what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don’t see your sister using that junk” (Oates, 1). Perhaps this is the reason that Connie has created a fantasy against the reality of the

In Joyce Carol Oates’s, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, character development is a key element throughout the story. As the main character, Connie is a very dynamic character as the story progresses. In the beginning, Connie is a very vain and frivolous character, giving the reader a negative impression. But, as the story continues, the reader learns about Connie’s indifferent and neglectful family and how popular media raises her, rather than her own family. This leads the reader to understand Connie’s personality better, and how the lack of love from her family makes her like this. By the end, Connie performs a heroic act, in which she saves her family by offering herself

This thought, however, ignores the insecurities she has and the decision she has already made in her mind. After all, Connie did know that Arnold Friend was dangerous, she was wary of him when he first showed up and when she makes out his age she gets put on her guard even more and eventually threatens to call the police on them. Then, Arnold says words that ring through the mind of Connie: “…I promise it won’t last long and you’ll like me the way you get to like people you’re close to. You will. It’s all over for you here…”. These short sentences echo through her mind as they remind her of the relationships she has in her life. Connie realizes that will never be intimate with Arnold Friend because she cannot have a relationship like that with anybody. Because of her insecurities, Connie thinks she deserves this ending. She will go with Arnold not because she wants to, but because nothing can hold her, back she wanted to explore and have an adventure, but the adventure was thrust upon her too

In the story, danger is unpredictable, unexpected, it can occur anywhere. By her use of the setting and symbols, the author plays with contrasts and opposition, making the danger and threats appearing slyly, insidiously. To this end, the story is set in a calm little town, on a sunny summer afternoon. Nothing indicates the disturbing turn of event awaiting Connie. All throughout the story, the author refers to the sun which usually symbolizes a positive matter, light as opposed to the definitely dark side of this story’s event. The strongest use of the sun as a symbol comes at the end of the story, when Connie “[moves] into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited.” (333) Whereas sunlight is supposed to represent some kind of good enlightening the world, Connie follows Arnold to the ultimate danger she will face, leaving in the unknown. The use of setting and the sun as a symbol demonstrate how danger is unpredictable and can happen in any circumstances.

Towards the end of the story, Arnold Friend 's tune turned a bit more aggressive. He eventually got his way by making Connie his puppet; she moved on on cue with every string he pulled. As Connie got closer to the door, she saw herself leaving, as if she were officially being torn apart from her old ways. She did not recognize anything, her front yard was a foreign landscape to her. Connie knew that by going to Arnold Friend she would never see any of her family again, nor her house with the music still playing in her room. In the beginning of the story, Connie mentioned to her friends how she wished that she could just kill her mother and sometimes herself, just to end it all. At the very end of the story, she places her now relaxed hand over her heart just to notice for the first time that it was not even hers, but

“She backed away from the door but did not want to go into another part of the house, as if it would give him permission to come through the door” (Oates 7-8). Arnold Friend has a mental hold of Connie. Connie felt as if any action she made would cause a negative reaction from Arnold, letting him get closer. Connie felt as if she was being taken over. “She felt her breath start jerking back and forth in her lungs as if it were something Arnold Friend was stabbing her with again and again with no tenderness” (Oates 8).

Arnold Friend arrives at Connie’s home when her family was out , and implores that she go with him “to a nice field, out in the country here where it smells so nice and it’s sunny”. He tries to be relatable a first, claiming to have the same music taste as Connie and even declares to be her friend and lover. Arnold Friend knows everything about Connie, seeming to be boundless and powerful, even narrating what is happening at the barbeque, and threatening Connie that if she doesn’t cooperate, her family will be murdered. He uses all these techniques to manipulate Connie's mind which causes her to have internal and psychological struggles, creating a thin border of what is real and what is not. When Arnold Friend threatens her, she tries to call for help, but he causes her to lose her grip with reality, making her mind believe the phone started roaring, “She began to scream into the phone, into the roaring.”, which symbolizes her hopelessness for rescue. Arnold Friend got Connie to surrender herself to him, which portrays the change in consciousness she had from her egotistical ways to doing the most altruistic act of sacrificing herself for her family's lives. Connie was not the same fearful girl anymore, “He ran a fingernail down the screen and the noise did not make Connie shiver, as it

Her mother is constantly in a state of disapproval, always favoring Connie's sister June who is more mature. Connie is mostly concerned with how pretty she looks, while her mother scoldes her for it "Stop gawking at yourself, who are you? You think you're so pretty?". Her father mostly works and when he came home, he is too tired to talk and only went to bed. Connie's mother made her want "to throw up sometimes" (361). The father of one of connies friends drops her off and some friends at a shopping plaza, so that they could go see a movie and hangout. However, they would often spend their time else where, usually a drive-in restaurant and meet boys. One night, she is invited by a boy named Eddie to have some dinner. Connie accepts and goes out with him leaving her friend behind at the drive-in restraunt. After spending some time eating, Connie looks up and meets the eyes of a man in a gold convertable, the man grin's and says "Gonna get you, baby" (362), Eddie didnt notice anything. The next morning, since it was summer vacation, Connie was back to spending time around the house with nothing to do. Her mother would drag her from her day dreams and give her something to do around the

Friend was very passive-aggressive in his approach. He attempts to comfort Connie, but he also used words to intimidate and scare her into going with him. He says, “…This place you are now – inside your daddy’s house – is nothing but a cardboard box I can knock down any time” (399). The words that Friend uses, and his behavior, proves that Friend had done this before. Arnold didn’t even flinch when Connie threatened to call the police.

Even though Connie continues to accept Arnold Friend’s statements, she starts to dig deeper into Arnold Friend superficial appearance, in an attempt to uncover her repressed thoughts regarding him. Considering Connie states, ‘“She could tell he wasn’t a kid, he was much older- thirty, maybe more. At this knowledge her heart began to pound faster. “That’s a crazy thing to ask. Can’tcha see I’m your own age?” […] “Eighteen?” she said doubtfully (670).”’ Although she doesn’t believe Arnold Friend is the same age as herself, Connie doubtfully accepts his assertion. However, when Connie notices Ellie’s appearance, her denial slowly diminishes as her repressed thoughts start to surface. For instance, she states, “ “Connie felt a wave of dizziness rise in her at this sight and she stared at him as if waiting for something to change the shock of the moment, make it all right again (670).” When Connie’s repressed thoughts are uncovered, she finally notices the threat Arnold Friend and Ellie pose to her. Thus, once Connie’s denial about Arnold Friend’s superficial appearance diminishes, Connie realizes her repressed thoughts and the imminent danger ahead of

She returns home but while in the car with Arnold she wasn’t aware of what his intentions were. Any teen girl would have plenty thoughts racing through their head, being lost and confused. Going back to the value of family, in Oates’ short story you question Connie's actions. Is this a self sacrifice? Or did she step into the car because of her curiosity? For example, Arnold Friend gives off a bad comment, "You don't want them to get hurt”(Oates 13). She thinks about her family before herself and even if she was upset with her mother and sister she put them first. Another lesson that possibly could have been learned would be Connie’s self admiration foreshadowing her downfall. Due to her being flattered by the attention of someone older she allows him to lure her out the house, “ She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited,”(Oates

As the story progresses, it is Sunday morning and her family is getting ready to attend a family bar-b-queue. However, Connie insists on not attending and is left alone at home. As she is washing her hair, she hears an unfamiliar car driving up to her house and her heart begins to pound for she does not want the visitor to see her undone. When Arnold Friend, a man she has seen at the restaurant before, but has never spoken to, shows up on her doorstep, she is someone curious as to why he is visiting her. Throughout the scene, he is attempting to persuade Connie into taking a ride with him and his friend Ellie. The more he speaks to her, he reveals to her that he knows many things about her such as her friends, her name, and family and where they are currently at. As the scene develops, Connie no longer has interest in Arnold for she now is scared and is fearful of what his intentions are.

One of the key factors in creating the tone in this story is the setting. Oates choice of setting creates two distinct ideas helping to shape the tone. The first setting is the city, which can be characterized as a protective figure. The city offers Connie anonymity from her parents and from the other people. It allows her to be free and wild with no care as to the consequences. She is judgment-free in the city and allowed to fully express herself. Connie's house, on the other hand, is a "protective" cage, hidden away from prying eyes. The woods are often associated with confusion and mystery, which Connie often feels at home. The house is a gilded cage, it offers Connie "protection" from the outside; however, it is easily breached and allows

Connie and Clive were robbers. They robbed a lot of banks and they didn’t want to stop. So, one morning they arrived in Sunshine City. When they parked their car outside the bank Connie suddenly felt bad. She told Clive to go without her. He was disappointed, but there was no choice. He got out of the car and looked around. There were no people on the street so he cheered up. There was a large door in the building where the bank was located and a convenient window for observing the situation outside. He decided that it was a good position and confidently walked to the entrance. After he came, he decided to wait a few minutes and assess the situation around. He saw several people in the queue, two cashiers and one woman waiting for a manager.