Joyce Carol Oates's 1966 short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" » tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl, Connie, who meets a man who tries to manipulate her into leaving with him. Arnold Friend, the manipulative man behind the screen door, taunts Connie with sexual innuendo and thinly veiled threats of bodily harm to her family if she does not cooperate. Many critics have compared the character of Arnold Friend to Satan himself and said that Connie's encounter with Friend represents the fall of Eve in the Garden of Eden. This popular reading stretches the text, searching for a biblical reason to justify such an evil act. Arnold Friend is not a flesh and blood threat to Connie, he is an allegory of Bob Dylan, in one of his teenage daydreams and the evil he represents is the manipulation of rock and roll as a gateway access to sex and drugs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Connie's meeting with Arnold Friend in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is, in fact, a heat-induced dream sequence. Oates writes of Connie lounging at home one summer day in July, while her family went to a barbecue. The first evidence Oates provides that Connie is tired from the heat is when she falls asleep while drying her hair outside. Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dizzy with the warmth around her as if it were some kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind turned to thoughts of the boy she was with. she had been the night before and how nice he had been, how gentle he had always been, not in the way someone like June would assume but gentle, gentle , like it was in the movies and promised in the songs; and when she opened her eyes she hardly knew where she was, the back yard was grass and a fence of trees and behind her the sky was perfectly blue and still.” This section of the story shows Connie dreaming about the boys she has been with and how she thinks these encounters resemble the kind of love promised in the movies. There is evidence that Connie is sleeping while Oates states that Connie is dreaming. When Connie finally enters the house, we see evidence that she may not be awake either. When Oates writes: “She shook her head as if to wake herself up. It was too hot.” It shows Connie shaking her head as if trying to wake up, but Oates provides no clear evidence that Connie actually wakes up from the dream she was having about the boy she was with last night. Connie's head shaking here is just her subconscious switching from one dream about boys to another. This illustrates how everything that follows when Connie sits in the yard is a dream and her encounter with Arnold Friend is her subconscious mixing up Bob Dylan and the boys she saw at the drive-in. Oates' description of Arnold Friend matches elements of Bob Dylan's physical condition. appearance and given that Connie is dreaming; her subconscious mixes elements of the boy she saw at the drive-in and Dylan's features. Connie's dream could be affected by the music someone plays in her yard or when she drives by in her car. Oates' dedication of the story to Bob Dylan plays here; while she was writing it, Dylan had released songs that had menacing themes similar to those in Oates' story. Oates demonstrates that Friend is a combination of Dylan when she writes; "And his face was sort of a familiar face: the jaw and the chin and thecheeks were slightly darkened, because he had not shaved for a day or two, and the nose was long and hawk-shaped." The blending of Dylan's features and the blending of other boys' facial features shown here in Connie's dream state Connie sees that Friend's face is familiar as it takes on aspects of Dylan's as well as aspects of other boys she has met. Physical Examination of Arnold Friend's characteristics. are displayed when Oates describes it when Friend first pulls into the driveway “There were two boys in the car and now she recognized the driver: he had shaggy, scruffy black hair that looked crazy like a wig and. he was smiling at him." This quote describes Friend's hair which is in a similar style to Bob Dylan's shaggy hair. Oates uses other physical descriptions to compare Arnold Friend and Bob Dylan to John Michael Crafton. state in their article “Connie's Tambourine Man: A New Reading of Arnold Friend”. provide further evidence of Dylan's characteristics in the story when they say: "That Oates consciously associates Arnold Friend with Bob Dylan is clearly suggested by the similarities in their physical descriptions." The authors provide ample evidence that Friend is an allegory for Dylan when they write; "It's no wonder, then, that Arnold speaks with 'the voice of the man on the radio,' the disc jockey whose name, Bobby King, refers to 'Bobby' Dylan, the 'king' of rock and roll". Here, Tierce and Michael demonstrate the references Oates put into the story to illustrate how Arnold Friend is an allegory for Bob Dylan. The fact that Friend's voice changes and blends into the same voice of the disc jockey shows that Connie is dreaming and she sees a combination of people's facial features on Friend's face. Evidence from Arnold Friend's appearance shows that Oates modeled Friend after Bob Dylan's physique. Oates uses Connie and Arnold Friend's dream sequence to demonstrate what fears have been associated with boys and rock and roll music. Connie's fear of Ami is representative of what she has been told about boys. Connie may have been told not to get in cars with strange boys or not to go out alone with boys. That's why she sneaks out to meet boys at the drive-in. Connie subconsciously understands that men can pose a sexual danger to women. The fear that Connie exhibits in the dream is the fear of growing up, the fear of boys, and the insecurity of teenage girls. She knows somewhere in her mind that men can be dangerous in everyday encounters. This is why she knows to fear Friend when he starts pointing out things about her that he shouldn't know, like her name. Connie's fear of Friend in her dream symbolizes how adults feared their children while listening to Bob Dylan. Connie is fascinated by music and Friend in his dream represents Dylan, Bob Dylan's fans followed him with an almost religious fervor. Tierce writes: “Dylan was more than just a 'friend' to his listeners; he was the “Christ revisited”, “the prophet leading his disciples towards a new Consciousness””. This example illustrates how Dylan's fans thought of him at the time; they made him more than just an artist. Connie does this too with her thoughts on Arnold Friend. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” ” can be seen as a story with many different meanings. Popular readings make ;. 219-224.