2. Where have you been, where are you going?

The tough guise that the male youth is obliged to wear and beside this obligation the fascination of the female majority is being analyzed very intensively in this short story in my point of view.

Oates gives us the image of a 30 year old tough men who is trying to pick up on a 15 year old teenager. Immediately one would have the idea that our bad guy Arnold has bad intentions on Connie, the pure young teenager; but Oates also shows us that there is also bad in the good and good in the bad. For example, Arnold, taking the evil role, stays always kind and caring about Connie. He treats her kind, in some sort of way, whether his intention is bad or good. On the other hand, Connie "the victim" of the fiend, also trying to take advantage of Arnold because he's older, tougher and cooler from the male friends, she and her friends know from the neigberhood. So this story was not a dispute between the evil and the pure.

Another point which troubled me was the role of Arnold in the eyes of Connie. Connie at the beginning, wanted her mother dead, hated her family and wanted out of the suburban neigberhood she lived in; but at the end she refused to go with Arnold till he threatened her about her family. So it was a little confusing for me to understand whether she took off with Arnold to be out of her misery or to save her family. She is totally different from the stubborn, crabby to a affectionate, loving daughter. Also some critics discuss the issue whether Arnold is satan or saviour.

After some research, I also found out that in the year of publication of the story in 1966, there have been a big scandal. There was a serial killer in Arizona which was very popular in 1966 among the youth since they knew he killed his own girlfriend and her sister and didn't inform him to the police. This event influenced the author deeply and made her write this short story to give a lesson to the youth which I think was sufficient.