An Old Fiend
Arnold Friend in Joyce Carol Oates’s
Where are you Going, Where have you been?
represents the evil influence that a
masculine society can have over young people.
More specifically in this story it is Arnold Friend who Connie is directly
powerless against. His good looks, the way he is dressed, even his car are all
things that Connie considers, and eventually decides she is powerless against.
Connie
is a young girl who acts two different ways while at home, and out with her
friends. While it is evident that Connie
thinks her mother is scolding her because she is prettier than her, however this
does not stop Connie from continuing to act the way she does. It is even stated that her shirt is worn two
different ways; one for home and one for when she out in public.
While
Connie is out with her friend at a drive in diner (that is shaped like a giant
phallic coke bottle, come on masculine society) and talking to a boy she
happens to notice a boy looking at her in a beat up gold convertible. First appearance of Arnold Friend he says to
her “Gonna get you baby.” Even the wording is dominate and demeaning.
If you accept the general consensus
that Arnold Friend is indeed supposed to be the devil, than you can no doubt
also assume that everything he is representative of is also supposed to be
evil, his good looks, his popular clothing and his beat-up freshly gold painted
convertible are just evil tools used by society to warp the minds of teenagers
and young adults of the 60’s.
Then
when Arnold makes his appearance at Connie’s house uninvited he seems to know
everything about Connie, and about what her family is doing that day ( in a
strange moment, reminiscent of Lula the
Hyena). All of the stuff on Arnold’s car,
from last year’s popular expression “Man the flying saucers” to the dent that
says “hit by crazy female driver” are a direct metaphor for the way Oates’s
view of pop culture’s almost mind control like ability, and it is that ability
in part, that Arnold wins over Connie. The same thing goes with the way he
blurts out popular sayings one after another; “he said in a rapid, meaningless
voice, as if he were running through all the expressions he’d learned but was no
longer sure which of them was in style,” to Ellie when frustrated with him. Arnold
tells Connie what she is going to do, and inevitably she listens. “You come out
here nice like a lady and give me your hand, and nobody else gets hurt.” Which
she ultimately does do. She does succumb
to the evil patriarchal society machine.
I think your ideas about the link to pop culture and Arnold Friend’s car are especially interesting. Initially, the car seems to serve like the vehicle that will drive Connie out of her childhood and into the next stage of her life. However, as Connie observes the oddities of the car, she begins to realize the true nature of this encounter. For example, she notes the outdated phrases on the car, like “Man the flying saucers,” which Arnold also uses to ward of Ellie’s aid. He is dressed like an eighteen-year-old boy and claims to be just a few years older than her, but Connie realizes he is most likely in his forties. The gold-painted car becomes a symbol of Arnold’s disingenuous character and eventually a symbol of his darkness and evil.
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