Moral Exercise and Symbolic Figures in Joyce Oates' Book
In “Where are You Going, Where Have you Been ?” Connie meets the devil. It is not clear whether this is a fantasy or reality. The line between fantasy and reality is blurred by his name Arnold himself. His physical appearance makes him seem both human and less than human. He drives a gold jalopy and claim to “know all about you” or could he just be death coming to take Connie away? The two focal characters of 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,' Connie and Arnold Friend, have uncertain personalities. Oates composes of Connie, 'everything about her had two sides to it'. Connie occupies distinctive personas relying upon the setting she winds up in; at home she is one individual, with her companions she is another. In like manner Arnold Friend's personality is undecided.
The writer gives explicit signs and references to mean that Arnold Friend is underhanded, that in which the peruser can without much of a stretch uncover. The name given to the adversary in this story is one clue to the reader that Connie is dealing with the devil himself: “Connie looked away from Friend's smile to the car, which was painted so bright it almost hurt her eyes to look at it. She looked at the name, Arnold Friend. She looked at it for a while as if the words meant something to her that she did not yet know”. The name ‘Arnold Friend’ is an alias the devil uses to portray an angel of light. He came in disguise, uninvited with the intention to do no good. Connie being the perfect victim for him to prey on. She is young, pretty and so much into herself. Connie is the type that will look in your eyes just too check herself out. She was experiencing problems at home, her mom would degrade her and tell her “She was not pretty” her father was hardly around, which spun to her seeking relationships from the outside world. Furthermore, “There were two boys in the car and now she recognizes the driver: he had shaggy, shabby black hair that looked as a crazy wig”. The storyteller underlines the 'wig' to make the peruser feel that he is wearing it for a reason, which is shroud his villain's horns. Also, the way that Arnold Friend's eyes are secured is another methodology use by Oates to affirm the supposition of the underhanded nearness: “ He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around his eyes was it, like holes that were not in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were chips of broken glass that catch the light in an amiable way”. In this statement, Oates proposes that Arnold Friend is concealing something in excess of an abhorrent 'look'; he is concealing his very own sinister appearance.
Other than Arnold Friend physical appearance, which influences the pursuer to accept that his character is certifiably not an individual, Oates gives him heavenly powers that a typical individual couldn't have. One case of this is the power that he has over Connie; he knows everything that includes her: “ 'Just for a ride, Connie sweetheart.' Arnold Friend says. 'I never said that my name was Connie, she said.' And he replies: 'But I know what it is. I know your name and all about you, a lots of things, Arnold Friend said”. The security of Arnold Friend words provides for pursuer the feeling that he has been watching her intently and all the time without her knowing it or seeing it. This affirms the pursuer's theory that Friend's is Satan. Besides, when Connie endeavors to escape him in her home, Arnold controls her into going out just by guiding her, similar to a puppeteer and his manikin: “You won’t want your family to get hurt. Now get up all by yourself. Now turn this way. That’s right. Come over here to me. Now come out through the kitchen to me honey and let’s see a smile, try it, you are brave sweet little girl”. Connie is trapped and hopeless but, in light of the fact the fallen angel ‘Satan’ can't get into your home unless you have welcomed him in. Subsequently, he utilizes his capacity to entrance Connie's and to influence her to carry out his once promise of “Gonna get you, baby.”
The last indication that Oates provides for the pursuer is the conduct of Connie and her family. Connie entices the fiend by submitting the transgression of vanity. The storyteller indicates how Connie's vain is one of the primary factors that impacts the fallen angel's appearance: ”She was fifteen and she had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right”. This statement influences the peruser to imagine a young lady that thinks just about her appearance. Oats starts this story with this statement to underscore the fundamental driver of the deadly end of Connie's life. Likewise, to underscore the families religious convictions. “One Sunday Connie got up at eleven, none of them bothered with church. Her parents and sister were going to a barbecue at aunt’s house”. Here, the storyteller stress that the family isn't engaged with any religious practices and this is another entryway open to Satan to shows up.
'Where Are You Going , Where Are you Been?' is an exercise in existence with a lethal closure. The storyteller focuses on the absence of religious tendency and the absence of interest by the family to show moral qualities to Connie, blunders that at last are paid with Connie's life. Oates moral exercise is very much represented by her decision of the symbolic figures and a topic that gets the enthusiasm of the peruser, leaving the peruser toward the end with inquiries of what truly happened to Connie.
