Joyce Carol Oates' 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 is trying to manipulate her into leaving with him. Arnold Friend, the manipulative man behind the screen door, taunts Connie with sexual innuendos and thinly veiled threats of physical harm towards her family if she doesn't cooperate. Many critics have compared Arnold's character Friend to Satan himself and stated that Connie's encounter with Friend represents Eve's fall in the Garden of Eden. This popular reading extends the text, seeking 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 adolescent daydreams and the evil he represents is the manipulation of rock and roll as a gateway to sex and drug. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Connie's meeting with Arnold Friend in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" it is, in fact, a heat-induced dream sequence. Oates writes that Connie is relaxing at home on a summer day in July, while her family has gone 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 dazed by the warmth that surrounded her, as if it were some kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind drifted to thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how kind he had been, how sweet he had always been, not as someone like June would have supposed but sweet, gentle, as he was in the movies and promised in the songs; and when he opened his eyes he hardly knew where he was, the back yard was filled with weeds and a fence of trees and behind it the sky was perfectly blue and still.” This section of the story shows that Connie is dreaming of guys she has been with and how she feels that these encounters are like the kind of love promised in movies. There is evidence that Connie is sleeping as 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: “He shook his head as if to wake up. It was too hot." This shows Connie shaking her head as if trying to wake up, but Oates provides no clear evidence that Connie actually woke up from the dream she was having about the boy she was with last night. The movement of Connie's head here is just her subconscious transferring from one dream about boys to the next. This illustrates how everything that happens next, when Connie sits in the yard, is a dream and her meeting with Arnold Friend is her subconscious mixing together Bob Dylan and the boys she saw at the drive-in. Oates' description of Arnold Friend matches elements of Bob Dylan's physical appearance. I wait and since Connie is dreaming; his subconscious is mixing elements of the boy he saw at the drive-in and Dylan's features. Connie's dream could be influenced by music someone is listening to in their yard or as they drive by. Oates' story's dedication to Bob Dylan plays here; During the time he wrote it, Dylan had released songs that had ominous themes similar to the Oates story. Oates demonstrates that Friend is a combination of Dylan when he writes; “And his face was somewhat of a familiar face: the slightly darkened jaw, chin and cheeks, because he hadn't shaved for a day or two, and the long, aquiline nose.” The fusion ofDylan's features and the fusion of another boy's facial features shown here in Connie's dream state. Connie sees that Friend's face is familiar because he takes on aspects of Dylan as well as aspects of other boys she has met. Arnold Friendle's characteristic medical examinations are shown when Oates describes him when Friend first pulls into the driveway. “There were two guys 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 her.” This quote describes Friend's hair as having a similar style to Bob Dylan's shaggy hair. Dylan's. Oates uses other physical descriptions for his comparison between Arnold Friend and Bob Dylan. Mike Tierce and John Michael Crafton state in their article "Connie's Tambourine Man: A New Reading of Arnold Friend". they 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 of their physical descriptions." The authors provide extensive evidence that Friend is an allegory for Dylan when they write; “It's no wonder then that Arnold talks to 'the voice of the man on the radio,' the disk jockey whose name, Bobby King, is a reference to 'Bobby' Dylan, the 'king' of rock-and-roll roll”. Here Tierce and Michael demonstrate the references that Oates inserted into the story to illustrate how Arnold Friend is an allegory for Bob Dylan. The fact that Friend's voice changes and merges with the same voice as the disk jockey shows that Connie is dreaming and sees a combination of people's facial features on Friend's face. Evidence provided by Arnold Friend's appearance shows that Oates modeled Friend on Bob Dylan's physique. Oates uses Connie and Arnold Friend's dream sequence to demonstrate what fears have become associated with boys and rock-and-roll music. Connie's fear of Friend is representative of what she has been told about boys. Connie may have been told not to get in cars with strange guys or go out alone with guys. That's why he sneaks off to meet the guys at the drive-in. Connie subconsciously understands that men can pose a sexual danger to women. The fear that Connie shows in the dream is the fear of growing up, the fear of boys, and adolescent insecurity. She knows somewhere in her mind that men can be dangerous when it comes to 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 listening to Bob Dylan. Connie is fascinated by music and Amica represents Dylan in her dream, Bob Dylan's fans followed him with almost religious fervor. Tierce writes: “Dylan was more than just a 'friend' to his listeners; he was 'Christ revisited', 'the prophet who leads his followers towards a new Consciousness'”. This example illustrates how Dylan fans thought of him at the time; they made him more than just an artist. Connie also does the same with her thoughts on Arnold Friend. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper 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 consider Friend an allegory for Satan, or for the Pied Piper's murderer, Charles Schmid, in Tucson, Arizona. This story is alarming to many people because Connie's situation could, and does, happen. Despite the evidence, other possible readings cannot be overlooked. This story can also;. 219-224.