Essay About Arnold Friend

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.

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

The world is full of people who portray themselves as someone or something else. People

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

"conned" into leaving with Arnold Friend, whose name becomes "An Old Friend" i.e. the devil,

“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)

The depiction of Arnold Friend runs parallel to the common conception of the Devil. Many aspects of his outward appearance, as well as his behavior, contribute to this by portraying him in a sinister manner. His nose is "long and hawklike" and he has a "slippery smile." His "greasy" boots don't fit him right, "as if his feet [don't] go all the way down." The stereotypical Beelzebub is often seen with hooves. When he draws 'his sign' – the sinister letter X

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.

The physical traits of Arnold Friend that the narrator describes are additional clues that Arnold is not who he claims to be. The three physical traits are: his eyelashes look painted, it looks like he is wearing a wig, and he put something in his shoes to make himself taller: “she saw how thick the lashes were, thick and black as if painted with a black tarlike material” (Oates, 1966), “He placed his sunglasses on top of his head, carefully, as if he were indeed wearing a wig, and

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

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

Later in the story Oates' character Connie senses the fear in a stranger who approaches her at her house when her family is gone. She here is tempted to leave in a car with this character and she senses something frightening about him. There is some sort of warning that goes off in her head. This character, the protagonist Arnold Friend description is very close fit with the devil. If you remove the "r" in his name you get "An old Fiend", Fiend meaning: an evil spirit; a demon and the devil, Satan. This has a lot to do with the temptation and clearly the evils of the story. Arnold Friend has trouble standing and walk, Connie also notices that it seems as if his boots were stuffed to give them a fit appearance. This projects too many that he has hoof like feet, feet