In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce C. Oates in the year 1966, tell us the horrify story of a young girl led out of her house by a creepy fellow. There is a lot of different interpretation of the story as what the antagonist Arnold Friend represents, what Connie represents. What Joyce Carol Oates is trying to say in the story there are lots of elements of mystery to the end as well, but at its core surface, it’s about a girl being kidnapped by a devil.
Connie works hard to prove her maturity, but despite her efforts with clothes and boys, she is not as mature as she would like to believe she is. She desperately wants to be attractive to older men, but once an older man—Arnold—actually pays her explicit sexual attention, she is terrified. Connie knows little about reality or what adulthood entails, preferring to lose herself in the rosy ideas of romance that her beloved pop songs promote. When Arnold appears at her house, she tries to seem in control and unfazed, but she eventually breaks down and is overpowered by him. In her moments of terror, she proves herself to be childlike: she calls out for her mother.
Connie is an attractive teenage girl, but her vanity sometimes gets her in trouble. She goes out with her friends, and they end up taking advantage of the fact being dishonest about the things they don’t necessarily be responsible for their actions. Connie, for example, giving a hard time to her mother, drawn a direct contrast to her sister June who is reliable and steady as it plotted, somebody who is not popular as Connie is and also somebody who doesn’t have any male figured friend in her life.
Connie, her vanity, and her Novato get her in the trouble when this hunting character ends up coming to her house when her family is out at the barbeque. This guy Arnold friend drives up with his friend Ellie and procedure to threatened Connie to get out of her house and go with him where presume bad things are going to be happening to her. They are lots of different possibilities that suggest the idea that represents to be the devil such as the fact it says he has trouble standing its seems like things are stuff into his boots. He falls over a couple of times, presently he has hubs and also seems he is wearing a wig. His friend Ellie describe having a pale chest and check pulled out which seems weird. Arnold seems terrifying, and he knows exactly where Connie family is he does seem to have all knowledge of the things that he could not have which led to the idea of Arnold represents the devil.
Another thing about Arnold is he in a way is a commentary on being modern trends. He is also too old to seat, and trance he is listening to a popular radio station all of the things served all Arnold critically follows the modern things which come down to a problematic situation. Connie who take like very much granted and having two-sided duplicity in her character and her lack of sincerity and honesty comes back to her in this problematic way. Connie is an innocent young girl and just because she is little immature in her way doesn’t mean she deserves to have some evil male figure to coming to her life and talk her away and being in a position to raped or murdered.
The line between fantasy and reality is blurred himself by Arnold, who never quite falls into one category or the other. His physical appearance makes him seem both human and less than human, and Oates never makes explicit whether he is reality or fantasy. He may be simply a strange man, he may be the devil, or he may be a nightmare that Connie is having from staying in the sun too long. In any case, whether this experience is fantasy or reality, whether Arnold is human or demon, the effect of the experience and Arnold’s interaction with Connie changes the way she views the world.
Weather Connie deserves it or not, but Arnold Friend is an antagonist of the story. It does bring in general play of women that women constantly are in the situation where she has a fear of retribution from an influential figure at any point in her life. It’s something Joyce C. Oates wrote about in her career. Arnold Friend why is he called that if you take the word ‘R’ out of his name you end up with ‘Anold Fiend’ which led to devil type of interpretation ‘An old Fiend’. ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a hunting and horrify story that shows a girl ended up in an awful situation.
