Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?

1 Pages 311 Words

Compared to the other characters in the short story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the character Arnold Friend is one of the most developed and multifaceted. Besides have an intriguing personality, Arnold Friend is symbolic to the devil.
Through out reading the text I came to the conclusion that Arnold friend is a rounded character due to how his personality is close to reality. Arnold Friend’s complexity and contradictive ways was noticed when the main character Connie is caught by his gaze in a crowded parking lot for cars. Arnold sat in his gold colored convertible and watched every move that Connie made. As he watched her pass by he said, “Gonna get you baby.” Arnold Friend’s first impression was that of a regular teenage boy with an abundance of confidence. Later on in the text Arnold’s character develops further. An example of this is when he swiftly beings to play games with Connie’s fragile mind, twisting his words, making her confused and tense.
Besides being a complicated and contradictive character, I believe he also appears to be a symbolic figure of the devil. As he tries to coax Connie to go with him in his golden colored convertible, he mysteriously knows things about her family such as there location and being able to tell what exactly they were wearing that day. He as was made different types of deals with Connie. One of the deal were either she would go with him for a ride or he would kill her family. With these empty promises and almost prophet-like inferences Arnold was able to play on her feeble mind as if he was the devil. The weak mind gives in easier to temptation and traps of all sorts, not thinking the possible outcome that left Connie as another victim for Arnold Friend....