Who are the characters in the story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Character List
- Connie. The fifteen-year-old protagonist of the story. Connie is in the midst of an adolescent rebellion.
- Arnold Friend. A dangerous figure who comes to Connie’s house and threatens her.
- Ellie. A friend of Arnold’s.
- Connie’s Mother. A near-constant source of frustration for Connie.
- June. Connie’s older sister.
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Arnold character analysis?
Despite his strange appearance, Arnold is initially somewhat appealing to Connie in a dangerous way. He is an older, highly sexualized man who offers to take her away from her life as an unhappy teenager. He is incredibly different from Connie’s family and the other boys she knows, which intrigues her.
What type of character is Connie?
The protagonist of the story, Connie is a pretty fifteen-year-old girl who loves spending time with her friends and flirting with boys. Connie takes great pleasure in her appearance, so much so that her mother often scolds her for being vain.
How does Oates define Connie’s character?
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Oates portrays Connie as obsessed with men to symbolize how one’s obsession and narcissistic attitude can cause danger to seem surreal. In the short story, Carol Oates describes Connie as having two different personalities, one being a narcissistic attitude.
Is Connie a static or dynamic character?
Connie is a dynamic character and the hero in this story because she changes from a stuck up fifteen-year-old to a better version of herself.
What does Connie do at the end of the story?
Connie is compelled to leave with him and do what he demands of her. The story ends as Connie leaves her front porch; her eventual fate is left ambiguous.”
Why does Connie have Arnold Friend?
Due to her insecurity and low self-esteem, Connie is just gullible enough to believe that it really is “all over for [her] here.” She is willing to go with Arnold Friend not because she actually wants to, but because she thinks he is right; Connie has nothing keeping her, not her friends, her family, or any of the …
What does Arnold Friend mean?
The name Arnold Friend with the R taken out spells an old fiend. The meaning of fiend goes back to old english with the word freond meaning enemy or foe. Therefore, the word fiend also means an enemy or foe. Therefore, it can be concluded that Arnolds name means an enemy.
What does Connie symbolize?
Many critics have interpreted Arnold Friend as a symbol of some larger idea or force, such as the devil, death, or sexuality. Connie, also, has been said to represent many things: Eve, troubled youth, or spiritually unenlightened humanity.
Why is Connie a dynamic character?
Connie is a dynamic character and the hero in this story because she changes from a stuck up fifteen-year-old to a better version of herself. She sacrifices herself for the sake of her family’s safety even if it meant she wasn’t returning home when she leaves with Arnold.
What are Connie’s two sides?
This quotation appears near the beginning of the story and explains the two-sidedness of Connie. At home, Connie appears childish, but away from home, she strives to appear sexy, mature, and seductive. For the most part, her two sides seem to exist in harmony.
How does Arnold Friend manipulate Connie?
In Joyce Carol Oates’s suspenseful short story, ”Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” antagonist, Arnold Friend, uses faustian tactics such as flattery, fear, and lies to manipulate and overpower the protagonist, Connie. Equivalent to the Devil, Arnold Friend uses flattery to deceive Connie.
How would you describe Connie’s relationship with her family Why?
Connie’s relationship with her mother, though nowhere near as distant as the ones with her father and sister, is equally a part of her fear of intimacy. Connie is extremely contemptuous toward her mother for always nagging her and favoring June over her; she even goes so far as to wish that her mother was dead.
What does Arnold Friend’s car symbolize?
As Friend’s own name is written on the car, it is clear that it functions as a direct extension of Friend himself and his intentions. The car is also another aspect of Friend’s disguise: like his clothes and the music he claims to love, it is intended to make him seem normal and unthreatening to Connie.
How is Arnold Friend characterized?
The story’s antagonist, Arnold Friend is a deeply sinister character—a man who pretends to be a teenage boy in his effort to kidnap, rape, and murder Connie.
How would you describe Connie’s relationship with her mother sister and father?
How is Connie a dynamic character?
What does Arnold Friend do to Connie?
These are all parts of his attempt to manipulate Connie into coming out of her house so that he can abduct her and, it is implied, rape and murder her.
What did Arnold Friend do to Connie?