Connie Knows the Devil and his Name is Arnold Friend

Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a story of childhood destroyed by evil. Its antagonist, Arnold Friend, primarily drives the short story. On the surface, Arnold Friend is everything Connie would be attracted to. He listens to music she enjoys, he drives a nice car, and he dresses in a fashion she prefers. However, throughout the story, he becomes more menacing and more terrifying, through his manipulation of Connie, as well as his threats, outlandish statements, and demands. Arnold Friend frightens the reader by manipulating his and Connie’s conversation into directions he intends.
Oates craftfully creates the slow deterioration of Arnold Friend’s mask, but she does foreshadow is ill intentions. As Connie leaves the diner with Eddie, she first sees Arnold Friend, unbeknownst to her. His character first leaves an impression by his reaction to Connie: “He stared at her and then his lips widened into a grin… there he was still watching her. He wagged a finger and laughed and said, ‘Gonna get you, baby,’ and Connie turned away…” (¶ 7). His fake persona is slightly hinted at when he first approaches Connie at her house. “There were two boys in the car and now she recognized the driver: he had shaggy, shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig and he was grinning at her” (¶ 16). Connie notices again that Arnold Friend seems to be wearing a wig when she observes, "He placed his sunglasses on top of his head, carefully, as if he were indeed wearing a wig..." (¶ 94).
Arnold Friend speaks far more like a kid than Connie. In his rant to Ellie, he practically rolls out a list of hip phrases to tell Ellie to shut up, and Connie notices it to be peculiar, “… he [was] running through all the expressions he’d learned but was no longer sure which of them was in style, then rushing on to new ones, making them up with his eyes closed” (¶ 50). With his hip phrases, he is trying to lure Connie with imagery of childhood, in an attempt to make her more comfortable with his presence and willfully go with him. However, this tactic does not work out so well, because Connie has no desire to speak like a child, and finds his speech to be artificial. Connie recognizes Arnold Friend’s bad intentions when she notices, “that slippery friendly smile of his, that sleepy dreamy smile that all the boys used to get across ideas they didn’t want to put into words” (¶ 77) but she does not comprehend it (“But all these things did not come together” (¶ 77)). Even his name—which could very well be a fake name—suggests he is someone Connie can trust: Arnold Friend sounds like “an old friend.” The name proposes that Arnold Friend possesses a friendly demeanor than he really does.
However, some of Arnold’s manipulation happens almost inexplicably, suggesting he has supernatural powers over Connie. Oates always refers to him by his full name, when she could easily use pronouns instead. Her usage of his full name suggests that he has an overwhelming presence, possibly not even human. His presence makes Connie notice things about her surroundings she had never observed before. When she runs into the kitchen to reach for the telephone, Arnold Friend’s presence makes her realize, “The kitchen looked like a place she had never seen before…” (¶ 114). His knowledge of incredible details of the barbeque Connie’s family is attending—“There’s your sister in a blue dress, huh?” (¶ 98)—suggest that he has an all-seeing power, like Satan. The devil imagery is further conveyed when he draws an X in the air as his “sign” (¶ 77). He controls Connie’s actions towards the end of the story, actions she would never normally do. When Arnold Friend is commanding her over to his car, she has no control over her actions:
“ ‘Now get up, honey. Get up all by yourself.’
She stood up.
‘Now turn this way. That’s right. Come over here to me…” (¶ 156 – 158)
Connie’s lack of control over her movements makes Arnold Friend endowed with a God-like ability to control actions. However, because Arnold Friend represents the dark and evil, he represents Satan. Connie describes Arnold Friend’s face as “a mask… tanned onto his throat but then running out as if he had plastered makeup onto his face but had forgotten about his throat” (¶ 110). His mask could be covering up the real face of Satan.
The biblical references do not end with Arnold Friend. Oates establishes the secret code as a reference to the Bible. The numbers are 33, 19, and 17. Going backwards in the Old Testament of the Bible, the 33rd section is Judges. Chapter 19, verse 17, is “And the old man lifted up his eyes and saw the wayfarer in the street of the city; and the old man said to him, ‘Where are you going? And whence do you come?’”
The title itself is asking a very similar question in two different ways, with different tenses. The title remarks that Connie never truthfully tells her mother where she really is going all those nights she’s at the mall and the movie theatre. And after her encounter with Arnold Friend, she will never be able to again. (890)



“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” lyrics
by Bob Dylan

"You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last.
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun,
Crying like a fire in the sun.
Look out the saints are comin' through
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.
The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
This sky, too, is folding under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home.
All your reindeer armies, are all going home.
The lover who just walked out your door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor.
The carpet, too, is moving under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue."