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Arnold Friend Symbolism

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Arnold Friend Symbolism
Diana Barahona
Cortese
ENG 102 B09
18 February 2012
Essay 1
The not so Friendly, Arnold Friend In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,” Oates uses imagery to show the antagonist, Arnold Friend, as frightening and portrays many qualities of the devil. From the beginning Connie is shown as selfish and promiscuous and what easier target for the devil than a sinful teenager that’s only living for fun. Throughout the story, Arnold Friend has a Rock & Roll vibe that attracts Connie, yet the second she sees the slightest bit of confusions with him she starts to back off. Arnold Friend’s manipulation of Connie, an image that projects off of the pop culture, and knowledge of Connie’s life and surrounding gives the …show more content…
Arnold Friend is just an image that he knows Connie wants to see in a guy and has seen in a lot of them. The narrator says, “[Connie] recognized most things about him, the tight shirt, an even that slippery friendly smile of his, that sleepy dreamy smile that all the boys used to get across ideas they didn’t wan to put into word…But all these things did not come together” (Oates 623). Arnold Friend has that look to him that most girls would think is attractive, but at the same time there is something that was not right about him. Arnold left his glasses on for most of the conversation, but when he took them off the skin around his eyes were so pale they made his eyes seem to glow in a supernatural way. The narrator states, “He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around his eyes was, like hold that were not in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were chips of broken glass that catch the light in an amiable way” (Oates 622), making his eyes look like they were glowing like they would on something supernatural. Oates also goes on explaining that after Arnold Friend puts his glasses on top of his head he did it cautiously “as if he were indeed wearing a wig” (Oates 624). Arnold Friend could be wearing a wig to simply defy his age so Connie will go on a ride with him or also to hide the horns on top of his head, like the devil has.
“His whole face was a mask, she thought wildly, tanned down onto his throat but then running out as if he had plastered makeup on his face but had forgotten about his throat.” (Oates
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