McKenna Cook

Professor Legerski

English 102-097

06 April 2020

Car Talk

    Believe it or not, Satan plays a role in everyone’s everyday life with the choices made and

even temptations that are encountered. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, by

Joyce Carol Oates, there are multiple symbols of Satan. Oates establishes Arnold Friend as a

symbolic Satan through characterization, specifically his appearance, dialogue, and motivations. 

    Appearance triggers a tremendous characterization in this story. Arnold Friend is being

portrayed as if he is almost not human. One of the first ways that Oates interprets Friend’s

appearance is by saying, “His whole face was a mask, she thought wildly, tanned down to his

throat but then running out as he had plastered makeup on his face but had forgotten about his

throat” (Oates 7). This quote reveals to readers very clearly that Friend is not exactly who he

says he is. He evidently is hiding something from Connie that he does not want her to know

about. He is disguising all of his “flaws it seems like. As Connie interacts with Friend, she starts

to realize other physical features that do not make sense or that leave her in question. Friend is

following Connie to her front door when he begins to stumble while walking up the stairs. Once

he made it to the porch Connie says how he is standing in an awkward way. Connie goes on to

say, “One of his boots was at a strange angle, as if his foot wasn’t in it. It pointed out to be the

left, bent at the ankle” (Oates 7). At this point, there is definitely something not right about him.

When Connie describes his feet as if they were “bent at the ankle”, is proving that he indeed had
hooves for feet that he was trying to disguise with boots. This explains why he could not walk

correctly. As the story progresses, readers are shown exactly how Friend is a symbolic Satan

through his overall appearance. In the Bible, it says, “You belong to your father, the devil, and

you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding

to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a

liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). The Bible verse (John 8:44) is explaining how the Devil

will sound and look like everyone else. This is how Connie is tricked by the appearance of

Friend that he portrays in the story. As if his appearance being portrayed did not tell exactly who

he is, the way he is talking to Connie tells readers even more in detail of how he is symbolic

Satan. 

    The second characterization Oates portrays is Friend’s dialogue. One of the first examples of

this is when Friend says to Connie, “I’m Arnold Friend and that’s my real name and I’m gonna

be your friend, honey” (Oates 3). So here, readers are shown that Friend is a little demanding in a

way. This relates to Friend as being a symbolic Satan because the Devil is always a friend before

stabbing a person in the back. His name “Arnold Friend”, is also relative to the meaning of “an

old friend”.  Old friends are no longer a friend anymore because of a backstabbing situation.

Digging even deeper into dialogue, Friend tries to illustrate his words and phrases as a teenager

would. Friend begins to panic and says as many different phrases as he can, trying to sound like a

teenager: “Don’t crawl under my fence, don’t squeeze in my chipmunk hole, don’t sniff my glue,

suck my popsicle, keep your own greasy fingers on yourself” (Oates 8). As he is blurting out as

many phrases as he can, he is panicking, thinking of exactly how teenagers in this time and age

speak, just as the Devil would in disguise. Friend will be talking about one subject then randomly

say something off topic and completely different. Such as, when he demands to Connie that she
come out of the house and go with him in his car for a ride. After Connie calls him crazy, Friend

says to Connie, “Yes, I’m your lover” (Oates 6). Which when he does this, he also talks about

how “he knows she doesn’t know what a lover is, he purposefully both scares her and makes her

understand she is moving from a world of innocence to experience” (David). At this turning

point, Connie begins to feel a change within herself. She is not so sure how to confront it, but is

having a life changing experience with the Devil, at such a young age. She may not be as

innocent as she seems. Connie begins to feel this change as she continues to interact with Friend.

The more she talks to him, the more he affects her. 

    Throughout this story, many things happen that eventually lead to Friend tempting Connie into

doing something that she does not want to do because of motivation. The first thing he says to

Connie that really shocks her is, “I took a special interest in you, such a pretty girl, and found out

all about you - like I know your parents and sister are gone somewheres and I know how long

they’re going to be gone” (Oates 4). This is definitely a red flag. Friend knows things about

Connie that she has never told him. Just as the Devil, he knows anything about anyone but only

to use it against you, just like Friend is to Connie. Connie begins to feel as if she is not herself

anymore, as if she were taken away by something. She begins to feel as if “She thought for the

first time in her life that it was nothing that was hers, that belonged to her, but just a pounding,

living thing inside this body that wasn’t really hers either” (Oates 9). As this happens Connie

does not mentally want to go with Friend but she is tempted to. Just as Adam and eve were in the

Garden of Eden with the apple. Satan has many ways to trick anyone by changing his

appearance, voice, anything. He tempts people and Connie to do things that people are not fond

of doing at all, but are tempted to do so. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 7:5 says, “Then come

together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control”. Oddly
enough the story also says that, “Connie goes back into her house to get away, she is unable to

call the police. Friend threatens that he will kill her and her family is she does not get in the car

and go with him. Oddly again, he is unable to cross the threshold of her house. If Connie had

invited him inside, he would have been able to come inside but without her invitation, he is

unable to enter. The Devil cannot enter you or your house without being invited” (Davis). This

explains how Connie loses her self-control, because she ends up leaving with Friend. He lures

Connie to go with him since he is unable to enter her house, since he is not able to enter her

house since he is not welcomed. Also, since self-control is only something that an individual can

control, people choose to let go and give in. That is the only way he can get Connie to go. With

her leaving with Friend, she is unable to know where she is going. She only knows the facts that

she will not ever be coming back and she will never be the same. 

    As Oates illustrates Arnold Friend as a symbolic Satan through the characterizations of his

appearance, dialogue, and motivations, readers are shown all the examples of how Friend is

really Satan. By covering himself up with a disguise and tempting Connie to leave with him, it

gives the perfect example of a satanic figure, exactly how Adam and Eve give into temptation by

an apple that the Devil offers her from the tree. Even after God has told them not to eat any fruit

from it. This is the perfect example that not everything is what it seems and how Friend is a

symbolic Satan. 

   

   
 Works Cited

All the Prophets. “23 Bible Verses about Satan - Scripture on the Devil.” Bible Study Tools,

Salem Web Network, 4 Feb. 2015,

www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-about-satan/.

David, L C. “Short Story Analysis ‘Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?".” Owlcation,

Owlcation, 30 Oct. 2014, owlcation.com/humanities/Where-Are-You-Going-Where-Have-You-

Been-Short-Story-Analysis.

Davis, Carol. “Explain How the Antagonist Is  the Devil in ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You

Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates.” Enotes.com, Enotes.com, 21 Sept. 2012,

www.enotes.com/homework-help/explain-how-antagonist-like-lucifer-satan-where-361153.

Martinez, Spencer. “Satan Drives a Convertible.” Satan Drives a Convertible | Prized

     Writing, 1993, prizedwriting.ucdavis.edu/satan-drives-convertible.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”. 1966. pp.1-9.Print.