Mythic and Fairy

The feeling of impending jeopardy as the chronicle progresses is created for the reader in Joyce chant Oates short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, done employing mythical elements to describe what is happening in the plot. Through a focal point the story, she uses several descriptions associated with the d wickedness to overhaul as metaphors for the male character and what happens to Connie as also symbolic of the power of hatred to tempt, conquer, and destroy the individual.Connie is the symbol of innocence. A y kayoedh girl of fifteen, she is at the clipping of adolescence when new-fangled women begin to explore beyond their childhood lives and have a taste of how it is equal to be a grown-up. She is also pretty, obsess with mirrors and fussing with her looks. She is rattling un equivalent her plain sure-enough(a) infant. Like most pretty girls her board who want excitement and non be plain and steady want the sister, Connie is giggly and intens e for new things, unaware that danger lurks active to exploit the fantasies of girls kindred her. She is like naive Red Riding Hood who thinks the timberland are nice, cozy amazes to travel with unaware of the wolf that lives within.After describing Connie and her family, the compose introduces the technique of incorporating mythic element in the story by describing the drive-in eatery as a unnameable building that loomed up out of the night to fail them what haven and blessings they yearned forthe medical specialty waslike symphony at a church serve The restaurant is a organic place for young people to meet and venerate each another(prenominal)s comp any(prenominal). However, at a snip Connie yields out of the restaurant towards the parking lot, she is not safe anymore.The devil lurks just orthogonal sacred places, ready to tempt anyone who gets out of the temple and who is volitioning to do something down in the mouth and fun. It is outside where Connie exte rnalizes Arnold mate for the first while although they would not be introduced to each other then as Connie is with Eddie, a wholesome boy her age whom she meets in the sacred restaurant.Right after that first meeting, the story begins its creepy quality as the causality focuses on Arnold Friend and uses mythological and cultural companionships with the devil to describe him. One association is how Arnold Friend comes into the picture and how he looks like. His appeal is announced by the glow of slow-pulsed bliss that seemed to rise mysteriously out of the music which Connie was listening to at the time her parents and sister went to a barbecue party at her aunts one weekend, loss her alone in the house. Rock and rob music, songs that are fast and impenetrable, is associated with rebellious teenagers.Arnold Friend appears to her with a rock song in the background and looking like a rock star himself, just like the men in Connies fantasy. He had fair brown hairsideburns (th at) gave him a fierce, embarrassed lookwore sunglasses uncasetight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waistline in and showed how lean he wasthe vex and chin and cheeks slightly darkened because he hadnt shavedand the nose extensive and hawklike. His features are sharp, his attire scruffy, and his bearing is really manly. He appeals to her fantasy to look charitable to her, thus making it easier to achieve his purpose.However, the skin roughly his eyes, which she notices when he takes off his glasses, was like holes that were not in shadow plainly instead in light. The eyes themselves were like chips of broken glass that light in an amiable way. They were devilish eyes, bright and hostile normal human eyes. When he speaks, it is in a simple lilting voice, s gondola carce as if he were reciting the words to a song. He constantly smiles, too.His name is Arnold Friend, an evident pun on fiend. He is obviously a bad big cat with bad intentio ns but one who disguises them well. No other name is more creditworthy than one who has Friend for a family name.Arnold rides a golden jalopy. The shiny car symbolizes how the temptations of evil always come in a dazzling and attractive package. Connie herself is amused and interest with the car. He uses signals and secret codes. When the car comes to a stop by the front door, the honker sounded four taps. Beside Arnold Friends car are more codes the numbers 33, 19, and 17. He also tells Connie at one taper during their conversation that he has a sign, the letter X. Superstition, with its preoccupation with codes, signs and numbers, is connected with the dark side. some other association is the suggestion that Arnold Friend knows everything close to Connie and is even telepathic. When he calls Connie by name, she is strike since she neer introduced herself at any time before he drives into their doorstep. He knows the call of her family members, all her friends from school, and tells her that he jackpot see what is happening at Aunt Tillies barbecue party at the very moment that he is talking to her.Connie, of course, realizes the danger she is in although it takes some time to depress in because at first she thinks she can just waive Arnold off and he would simply bring her alone. She knows the clues to the kind of create from raw stuff trouble she is facing with Arnold when she recognizes that sleepy languid smile that all the boys used to get across ideas they didnt want to rig into wordsand the singsong way he talked, slightly mocking, kidding, but serious She knows the crippled of temptation and she tries to resist as hard as she could.Later on in the conversation, however, when Connie continues to resist and especially when she threatens him with calling the law, Arnold lento takes off the mask he has erect option on to seduce her with sweetness and becomes forceful. abuse cannot keep on its sweet guinea pig when it realizes how it is on the verge of defeat. When it cannot get its way through sweet talk and wheedling, it would fixture to the use of force and violence. Connie also recognizes the foment and she feels real panic and fear. Arnold hits it clear to her when he says, the place where you came from aint in that location any more, and where you had in mind to go is cancelled out. Of course, Connie could have called her parents or the police and it could have frightened Arnold off and leave her.After all, she is inside the house date he is locked outside. He cannot go in and it would have taken him some time to break the door, long enough for Connie to make the call. But like the devil, he plays with her weakness, disarray and fear at the moment. Arnold controls himself, knowing that it would flirt better if Connie comes out of her own will. He continues to seduce her with promises of a pleasurable experience. He promises to bring her to a nice field, out in the country here where Arnold will have ( his) arms tight around (her). He tries to convince her that she is better than any of her family members and only he can date her and her needs best.Towards the end of the story, Arnold keeps coaxing until Connie feels she is not herself anymore. The author describes it as an incantation. She is lured and hypnotized by his words. She has become an observer watching herself put out her hand against the screen displace the door slowly open pathetic out into the sunlight where Arnold Fiend waited. She has habituated up herself to the devil. She has fallen from grace. She will never be the same again.Using descriptive elements associated with the mythical creature called the devil proves to be an effective technique in evolution the story because it adds that extra element of scariness in the reading. The reader associate what is happening in the story with the extra imageries and it intensifies the suspense and expected value of the obviously tragic ending of the female person char acter. The ending is not only closely Connie giving herself up to Arnold. It is also about how evil has tempted innocence, wins over her, and leads her to a dread end.Work CitedOates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?