Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" presents the charismatic and nefarious character of Arnold Friend, based on an actual serial killer of the 1960s in Arizona.
Connie, fifteen and rebellious, draws Friend's attention when she sneaks to the drive-in restaurant across the highway to hang out with the older kids. This is a critical mistake. He comes to her house one Sunday afternoon, knowing her name and that her family is away for the day.
Arnold wears a disguise; he is a man with a lot to hide. His hair is "crazy like a wig." He wears metallic sunglasses so that his eyes are hidden. His boots are stuffed, maybe with newspaper, to make him appear taller.
It has been suggested that he is Satan-like: perhaps he has hooves instead of feet, which is why he wobbles when he walks. His speech is mesmerizing,...
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even referred to as an "incantation." He draws an "X" in the air which to Connie was "almost visible," whichcould be interpreted as a spell. There is also a sense of timelessness about him:
Connie...had the idea that he had driven up the driveway all right but had come from nowhere before that belonged nowhere and that everything about him and even the music that was so familiar to her was only half real.
He says, "Don't you know who I am?" as if he is some fearful creature she should recognize from an old fairytale.
Then there is the reference is the sum of the numbers painted on his car. Arnold calls it his "secret code."
"Now these numbers are a secret code, honey..." [and] ...He read off the numbers 33, 19, 17, and raised his eyebrows at her to see what she thought of that...
The numbers add up to 69, which can be...
...interpreted as yet another indication of Arnold Friend's sexual deviancy[...]the secret code underscores Arnold's intention of raping and murdering Connie whom he allegedly wants to take 'just for a ride.'
I'm your lover, honey...
...those words [were] the echo of a song from last year, about a girl rushing into her boyfriend's arms and coming home again—
...the way it was in movies and promised in songs...