You've got A. Friend in me

Everything Connie chased after appeared outside of her house with a flashy paint job and bad intentions. Raised without sufficient parental guidance, but instead with the idea that physical attraction is everything, Connie comes to experience the consequences of her vulnerability all because she can’t help but to put herself in danger.

Wegs views Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? through a religious literary lens. Being the master of disguise and manipulation, Arnold’s front represents the unrealistic ideal boy during the mid-sixties, implying that he embodies not only Connie’s infatuation with pop culture, but also Satan. Wegs explains that Friend’s intentions are  “Kind of psychological manifestation of deep powers, deep imaginative, mysterious powers, which are always with us, and what has in the past been called supernatural.” (Wegs 104).  Arnold Friend is the exact representation of what Connie wants in a boy, which is no coincidence.

Wegs proposes to the reader that the purpose of Arnold Friend’s name is that it can be easily be misinterpreted as “fiend,” and that, “his initials would well stand for Arch Fiend.” (Wegs 103). Although it would be clever that Arnold Friend shares the same title as the devil, I believe that his name is just another deception to add to the suspense of the story and to his pseudo kindness. Giving himself the name “Arnold Friend” and giving himself the ability to introduce himself as “A. Friend” before he abducts a fifteen year old girl seems like something he would do.

One could argue that Arnold Friend’s manipulation caused Connie to eventually let go of hope and turn to leave with him, but Wegs offers another option; she suggests “the forces of her society, her family, and herself combine to make her fate inescapable.” (Wegs 106). Because her father couldn’t care less about where she’s been and her mother’s competitive nature in terms of beauty influences Connie’s flirtatious nature, her fate with Arnold was inevitable.

Oates asks two simple questions in the title of her story, and Arnold Friend gives an answer: “The place where you came from ain’t there anymore, and where you had in mind to go is cancelled out.” (Oates 9).

Works Cited

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Print.

Wegs, Joyce M. “’Don’t You Know Who I Am?’: The Grotesque in Oate’s ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” Journal of Narrative Technique 5, 1995. Print.