What is the point of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is told by a third-person limited omniscient narrator who focuses on Connie’s point of view. This narrative choice allows readers to empathize with Connie while at the same time maintain some distance from the events.

What does Arnold represent in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Arnold Friend, the antagonist in Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” represents the devil who arrives to bring Connie to the underworld. … Arnold Friend covers his demonic features in order to pass as a teenager with the intention of deceiving Connie into leaving with him.

What does Connie represent in where are you going?

Connie, also, has been said to represent many things: Eve, troubled youth, or spiritually unenlightened humanity.

Is Arnold Friend omniscient?

Arnold Friend, the omniscient inveigler and deceptive charmer of Joyce Carol Oates’, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” is evocative of the Devil himself. Through rich symbolism, dialogue, and characterization, Oates’ creates a twisted lie of a man whose every word is to be doubted.

Why does Arnold Friend represent the devil?

Arnold Friend Symbolizes the Devil in Where are you Going, Where Have you been? … Arnold Friend clearly symbolizes the devil through his physical traits, his knowledge of Connie, and his power over her kind of like he was hypnotizing her to go with him. First, Arnold Friend’s physical traits portray him as Satan.

Is Arnold Friend a demon?

Arnold Friend, with his suggestive name that hints at “Arch Fiend,” is an ambiguous figure who may be either demon or human, fantasy or reality. Arnold makes a grand entrance at Connie’s house in his gold convertible, but beyond his ostentatious car, his appearance is less than impressive.

Why did Connie go with Arnold?

This fear, this defense that Connie has developed, is another reason that she ends up with Arnold Friend in the end. … Her insecurity, her low self-esteem, and her fear of intimacy all aid her in her unconscious decision to leave her house and go with the devious Arnold Friend in his gold convertible jalopy.

What does Arnold Friend's car symbolize?

Arnold’s Car Arnold Friend’s flashy gold car, with its outdated phrases written on the sides, is an extension of Arnold himself: extreme and not entirely right. … Once Arnold’s true, violent nature comes through, the car becomes a symbol of all that is dark and ominous about his character.

How old is Connie in Where Are You Going Where have you been?

Connie. The fifteen-year-old protagonist of the story. Connie is in the midst of an adolescent rebellion. She argues with her mother and sister, June, and neglects family life in favor of scoping out boys at the local restaurant.

Do the descriptions of Arnold Friend his face his clothing his dialogue have symbolic meaning is his name symbolic?

Why is music so important to Connie and to the story as a whole? Do the descriptions of Arnold Friend–his face, his clothing, his dialogue–have symbolic meaning? … This whole story is an allegory for temptation by the Devil. Connie is vain, and the Devil targets vain people.

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Where do Connie and her friends go when they leave the shopping plaza?

Connie and her friends enjoy being dropped off at a shopping plaza without adult supervision, wearing ballerina slippers and charm bracelets. Often after being dropped off, they run across the highway to a drive-in where older kids gather.

What does Arnold friend want Connie?

Arnold Friend: A mysterious figure who visits Connie while her family is not at home and continuously demands that Connie to get in the car and go on a ride with him.

What does Connie do at the end of the story?

Connie is compelled to leave with him and do what he demands of her. The story ends as Connie leaves her front porch; her eventual fate is left ambiguous.”

How does Arnold Friend manipulate Connie?

Friend seems to know that he can control Connie with his words: if she simply listens to him for long enough, the desired effect will take hold. … Friend’s use of manipulative language makes her believe she not only has no other option than to go with him, but that she has chosen to go with him.

Is Connie a sympathetic or unsympathetic character?

Dynamic Character: In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, Connie is a dynamic character because her character evolves during the story. In the story, Connie is transformed from an unsympathetic to a sympathetic character.

Where did Connie go in Grapes of Wrath?

” This upsets Rose of Sharon, and she storms away to sulk in her tent. When she settles down, she realizes that Connie is gone. Al tells the family that he saw Connie heading south and presumably back to Oklahoma. Connie was never seen or heard from again.

What is something that Connie notices about Arnold friend after she has talked to him for a while?

On her way to Eddie’s car, Connie feels overwhelmingly happy, a feeling she connects to the music playing more than her excitement at being with Eddie, and sucks “in her breath with the pure pleasure of being alive.” At that moment she notices a boy (later revealed as Arnold Friend) just a few feet away; he has “shaggy …

Where Are You Going Where have you been villain?

Arnold Friend is the main antagonist of the short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, by Joyce Carol Oates and its 1985 film adaption, Smooth Talk.

Who is Arnold Friend based on?

Oates has described how she based the character of Arnold Friend on the real life serial killer, Charles Schmid, who also wore makeup and stuffed his boots in order to alter his appearance, and was known for preying on teenage girls—taking three of their lives in Tuscon, Arizona the 1960s.

Who arrives in Connie's driveway while her parents are at the barbeque?

At some point later in the summer, Connie is left alone at home on a Sunday when the rest of her family go out for a barbecue. A car pulls up in the driveway: it’s Arnold Friend and Ellie Oscar.

What kind of person is Connie?

The protagonist of the story, Connie is a pretty fifteen-year-old girl who loves spending time with her friends and flirting with boys. Connie takes great pleasure in her appearance, so much so that her mother often scolds her for being vain.

What would the kitchen symbolize in the story?

Kitchens. In Yoshimoto’s Kitchen, kitchens symbolize the natural, repetitious rhythms of life, which is often what pulls the protagonist, Mikage Sakurai, out of a moment where she feels overwhelmed by the presence of death…

What is Connie's American Dream?

Connie is attempting to overcome her plain life by living an alternate life on the weekends. Joyce Carol Oates characters frequently fall short of their dreams, mainly because their dreams are unobtainable. Connie’s dream of the American rock-star does not exist, This preview is partially blurred.

What were Arnold's first words to Connie?

The first words out of his mouth are “Gonna get you, baby.

What's this about the Pettinger girl?

Having children outside marriage carries a social stigma for the mother. Some critics suspect that when Connie’s mother asks her daughter,’ ‘What’s this about the Pettinger girl?,” she is alluding to a rumor that a schoolmate of Connie’s may be pregnant.

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