Where are you going, Where have you been. It can be argued that there are many different degrees of rape, and that in this story Connie may or may not have been raped. Rape can only be decided on a case-to-case basis, because even the most ordinary cases are not all same. In my mind it is clear that Connie was raped, because there is nothing normal about her situation, mainly because it’s not every day that the devil comes knocking at your door. Arnold Friend had ways of manipulating Connie’s mind that an ordinary human wouldn’t have been able to. If Arnold would have been some regular teenage boy, Connie would have definitely been able to make her own decisions, with little influence from Arnold.
Some may argue that Connie could have chosen to stay inside her house, and ignore Arnold, which is true, but Friend had very strong persuasion over Connie’s actions. Even though it was ultimately her decision to go with Arnold, it was not her normal mind that was making that decision. The story makes it clear that Friend has some sort of supernatural power, whether he is the devil, physic, or anything else along those lines. The first appearances of these powers come when Arnold first starts talking to Connie.
Arnold evidently knows many things about Connie and her friends, but she has never seen him before. When Connie asks how Arnold knows her name, he cleverly talks around the question, not giving a direct answer. Connie seems to have control of herself for the beginning of her confrontation with Arnold, but there is a point where she starts to feel uneasy. When Connie realizes that the kid in the passenger seat is kind of strange looking, she starts to feel unsafe and asks them to leave. Arnold replies, “We ain’t leaving until you come with us.” Arnold’s true character starts to show after Connie asks him and his passenger to leave. Friendly starts talking about Connie’s family and what they are doing at that exact moment.
The Essay on Arnold Fiend/ No Friend
A protagonist by the name of Connie in the story short story entitled “Where are you going, Where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates, soon learns that her trashy daydreams and self-absorbed behavior only leads to disaster by way of a man named Arnold Friend. Arnold Friend character in this story represents the devil. Connie, a horny high school freshman shows a strong disdain for family values ...
This proves that Arnold has some powers, because there is no way for a regular human to know what Arnold knew. When Connie finally gives in and decides to go with Arnold, she is persuaded to do so mainly because she doesn’t want her family to come back and be at the risk of getting hurt. This also helps prove that Connie was raped, because any normal person could not have changed Connie’s state of mind to make her believe that she was making the right choice. When rape is thought of, some people might think that there has to be a physical struggle or confrontation, when in fact they are wrong.
Rape is when one sexual partner does not give consent to have sex with the other for any given reason. Arnold, at no time, was physical with Connie, but it was still clear that she did not want to have anything to do with Arnold, let alone have sex with him. This is without a doubt a case of rape, because Arnold’s emotional and spiritual control over Connie made her do something she would have never regularly done.
