Where Have you been and Where are you going?

Arnold Friend perhaps represents the sub conscious fantasy or fear of the young confused Connie. She saw a guy just like Arnold who appeared at her house with the same exact gold beat up car she had seen previously at her usual hangout. His voice matched the man on the radio Connie was listening to, and he somehow knew everything about her. Those facts and that she had been sun bathing too long leads me to believe that Arnold may indeed be make believe. Not exactly an imaginary friend but an epitome of what she either wants or is afraid of. Fear and fantasy seem to have mixed in this short story creating the suavely scary character harassing her. So was Connie looking for something new in her life or just crying for some positive attention that she does not seem to get from her family members including an antagonizing mother, indifferent father, and shy sister. I guess the author Joyce Carol Oates left that for me to decide with the open ending either suggesting the new future for Connie is good or bad. She went into the creeps arms. I am assuming looking for love but I have a feeling it may end with harm. If Arnold is even real of coarse, that is just what I think based off of my gut feeling. Who knows what will become of the naive teenaged Connie, maybe things will work out for the better and he will indeed not exist and she will wake up with a better more mature attitude towards life. All in all this story made me think and I enjoyed reading this suspenseful freaky thriller in the great Mrs. Healey's world literature class.