people's belief in a national culture or cause.

Therefore, when Arnold Friend, whose name has been "de-coded" as removing the r's to make "A old fiend," there is an apparent seduction intended by Friend who disguises himself as a teen, speaking to Connie "like a singsong" while his companion Ellie turns up the volume on music that is "familiar," but "only half real." Clearly, too, the music is used to lure Connie into thinking of her dreamy world with the boys that she meets at the shopping plaza.

After his devilish declaration that Connie is not safe in her father's house, Arnold Friend convinces her to come out to him. With a sense of unreality, Connie "watches" herself moving toward Friend, who, in "a half-sung sigh" says, "My sweet little blue-eyed girl," the beginning of a song by the rebellious Bob Dylan,

You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last 
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.

If Connie's "father's house" as Friend calls it, were a place where her father truly exerted authority and influence, Connie may have not been lured outside by Friend and the seduction of music in which Connie has put so much faith.  As it is, she has no trust in her familial relationships and is, thus, susceptible to the "Fiend" and the illusionary world of music, moving toward a land that she does not "recognize except to know that she [is] going to it."

Joyce Carol Oates has spoken about the influence of Bob Dylan's song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and Life magazine's story about Charles Schmid, a serial murderer who preyed on teen girls in the mid-1960's. The magazine story disclosed that a girl, Mary French, waited in the car listening to the radio as Schmid and an accomplice murdered Alleen Rowe. Schmid was known as "the pied piper of Tucson."

Oates understood that rock and roll music was, in the 1960s when she wrote the story, an expression of rebellion and sexuality in youth culture. Because Connie is in open conflict with her mother, a natural part of Connie's characterization is her obsession with the music of the day. Lyrics about romantic relationships and fast, driving beats inform Connie's daydreams about boys.

Arnold Friend is savvy enough to understand, after observing Connie out on the town with her friends, that he must present himself as a rock and roller with his shaggy black hair and sunglasses; the narrator observes that "Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way all of them dressed: tight faded jeans stuffed into black, scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pull-over shirt that was a little soiled." Friend uses Ellie and his transistor radio tuned to Connie's favorite station as a prop and a lure; by presenting himself as a music lover like herself, Friend plots to make himself seem nonthreatening, a "pied piper" like Charles Schmid.

Everything about Arnold Friend's appearance is contrived, faked. His look, his hair, and even the way he talks are all a performance. He's created this persona in order to seduce girls. It becomes clear that Arnold and Ellie are both much older than Connie. Therefore, Arnold must act and appear younger than he is in order to appeal to Connie. Part of that is his physical appearance which has similarities to the way Bob Dylan looked in the 1960s. He is described as having shaggy black hair and wearing sunglasses. This is not to say that Arnold is similar to Dylan. Arnold was trying to look like Dylan (or a similar rock and roll star) in order to appeal to a younger Connie. Ellie listens to the same radio station as Connie. It is Bobby King, also a reference to Dylan. Also notice that Connie thinks his shaggy hair looks like a wig, another indication that Arnold's entire persona is constructed. 

Arnold (and Ellie) use music to connect to Connie. Music becomes a unifying component among the three characters. Despite the fact that Connie feels threatened, the music gives her a familiar feeling. So, there are, for Connie, feelings of danger and seduction associated with the music. Although Arnold may be seen as a symbol of evil, one could also see this event as one of Connie's "trashy daydreams." And in the case of the latter, the story is also about the seductive power and rebellious draw of rock music. 

There is another reference to Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man." One of the lines from the song is, "Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship." There is an allusion in "trip" and "drug-induced trip" and a song as a "trip" all of which connects with the trip Arnold wants to take Connie on. A lot of Arnold's speech sounds like he's memorized song lyrics. 

Don't hem in on me, don't hog, don't crush, don't bird dog, don't trail me," he said in a rapid, meaningless voice, as if he were running through all the expressions he'd learned but was no longer sure which of them was in style, then rushing on to new ones, making them up with his eyes closed. 

Arnold uses music and this contrived way of trying to sound like a lyricist to connect with and seduce Connie. He is like a siren or a snake-charmer. He is like the wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood," using a disguise to trick a young girl. Music and lyrical allusions are part of the disguise. 

This is a very good question. My version of the story has a dedication to Bob Dylan, and I wondered why.

First, music is important to all teenagers. As Oates says in the story, music "made everything so good: the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon." Can't you picture where you were the first time you heard a certain song?

The program Connie is listening to, XYZ Sunday Jamboree, is a dedication show: "An' look here you girls at Napoleon's--Son and Charley want you to pay real close attention to this song coming up!" It was a way for people to send messages to each other. By listening to these dedications, Connie could imagine they were for her--the "trashy daydreams" her mother accuses her of having.

In answering your question, I just had to find out why she dedicated this story to Bob Dylan. In an interview, Oates said that Dylan's song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" happened to be playing while she was writing, which "struck Joyce as 'hauntingly elegiac,' similar in tone to the story she had written." Isn't it interesting that Arthur Friend calls Connie his "sweet little blue-eyed girl" at the end?