You Don't Have a Friend In Me

          When I finished reading “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” I was very disturbed. The short story is indeed grotesque with Arnold Friend, and the many references to religion. The teenage culture that Connie is a part of becomes its own religion, but a religion that lacks moral values and has its own demons.

            In a reaction to Oates’s work, Joyce M. Wegs writes, “In all of [Oates’s] fiction as in this story, she frequently employs a debased religious imagery to suggest the gods which modern society has substituted for conventional religion” (Wegs 100). The modern society in the short story is the teenage culture, which during the sixties became a time in which teenagers were freed from answering the questions “Where are you going?” or “Where have you been?”  In fact, when the father of Connie’s friend picked the two of them up from the mall, “he never bothered to ask what they had done” (Oates 1). The teens were free to go where they pleased; sometimes they actually shopped at the mall and saw a movie, but many times they went to drive in diner to flirt with guys and listen to loud music. The diner the girls go to Oates even compares to a church: “The music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon” (Oates 2). The teenage culture that came about in the sixties replaces conventional religion in the short story because of Connie’s intense devotion to the culture. Oates even highlights the fact that the family does not even go to church anymore on Sundays, providing strong evidence that modern teenage culture replaces religion in the story. The loss of religion comes with its loss of moral values, but it also comes with new demons that haunt the adherents of the teenage culture.

            The most obvious demon of the story is Arnold Friend, who symbolizes Satan, and his power to corrupt the innocent. Satan is usually portrayed in some sort of disguise, and the same is true for the short story (Wegs 102). Arnold Friend, whose ironic name is “an old fiend” when the R’s are removed, is described as a middle-aged man in a disguise. Connie describes his hair as “crazy as a wig,” he wears heavy make up to hide his old age, and even stuffs his boots in order to appear taller (Oates 3). He changes his appearance in order to take on the values and appearance that the modern teenage culture adheres to, so that, like the devil, he may seduce her and take away her innocence.

            Indeed, “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” is a truly grotesque story. It portrays the collapse of moral values and the appearance of a demon that will take advantage of those with the perverted values.

Works Cited

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Print.

Wegs, Joyce M. “’Don’t You Know Who I Am?’: The Grotesque in Oate’s ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” Journal of Narrative Technique 5, 1995. Print.