An Unconscious Friend

5 Pages 1264 Words

“ ‘ Who the hell do you think you are’ Connie said.
‘Toldja I’d be out, didn’t I?’
‘I don’t even know who you are.’ ” (Oates 1227)
Fear and uncertainty have come to fifteen-year-old Connie in the form of a “boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold” (Oates 1225) in Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” The boy, who readers learn is named Arnold Friend, comes to the insecure and culture-obsessed Connie one random Sunday afternoon and eventually uses his manipulative powers to lure Connie away from her home to meet an uncertain fate. Like Connie, readers find themselves wondering exactly who Arnold Friend is and what his role in the story means. Oates, when speaking about Friend, said that he is “a fantastic figure: he is Death, he is the ‘elf-knight’ of the ballads, he is the imagination, he is dream, he is a lover, a demon and all that” (Franco). As one can tell, Arnold’s meaning in the story is subject to debate. While some argue that Arnold Friend is a psychopathic killer or Satan incarnate, he is actually a collection of Connie’s unconscious thoughts and desires in human form.
Some readers have come to the conclusion that Arnold Friend is a psychopathic murderer who has come abduct Connie. This is most likely due to his character’s strong resemblance to real-life serial killer Charles Schmid--better known as “The Pied Piper of Tucson.” Charles Howard Schmid Jr. acted out the same habitual behaviors exhibited by Arnold Friend in “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” The fictitious Friend, like Schmid, keeps his “skin darkened to a deep tan with pancake make-up” (Moser 1225); he stuffs rags and tin cans into his shoes to make himself taller, and both Schmid and Arnold cruise around town in gold colored cars. Like Charles Schmid, Arnold Friend wears the make-up in order to conceal his real age. Schmid...