Arthur Friend Symbolism

In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, a young girl faces a fateful ending in a story about awareness and beauty. The author, Joyce Carol Oates’, main inspiration of this story was that of a Tucson serial killer during the 1950s (citation). In the mid-20th century, serial killers were highly publicized, with most of them being killers of women. With the high traffic of serial killers in the media, there is no surprise as to why Oates’ chose to write a short story not only to take the media image of celebrity away from serial killers, but to make the events more realistic to women everywhere, therefore spreading awareness and caution. Joyce Carol Oates’ history of writing is mostly limited to stories of violent themes in nature. Most of her stories include tales of rape, violence, or dark topics that most people are too afraid to approach in their writing, mostly targeted towards women. This type of writing led her to
His name alone is ironic, in the fact that he assists in Connie’s doom. This most likely plays to the fact that why you see at first glance is not the truth. Some critics believe Arthur Friend is symbolic of the devil, something that may or may not have some truth behind it. With the use of his last name, Friend is anything but a friend. By using a word that usually has a positive connotative meaning, the author takes that meaning away and gives the audience a new association to that word. Friend is the person who initiates the violence against Connie, destroying the positive image the word has. With Oates’ historic background, it is easy to understand the link between her common themes and symbols in her stories. In this particular short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates’ distributes one of her most common themes, violence against women. By the use of this element, Oates’ was able to alert readers of the potential violence that could become