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Example research essay topic: Anymore Oates Friend Appearance Connie - 1,263 words

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... evidently feels they should. "He read off the numbers, 33, 19, 17, and raised his eyebrows at her to see what she thought of that, but she didn't think much of it" (Oates 706). This reference that Friend makes is from the bible. By counting backwards, the 33 rd section of Judges, Chapter 19, verse 17 says (Souther): And the old man lifted up his eyes and saw the wayfarer in the street of the city; and the old man said to him, Where are you going?

And Whence do you come? (KJC NIV). The numbers and the symbol are just as meaningless to the readers eye because we are supposed to feel the disorientation Connie (our protagonist) feels at the invasion of Friend. Despite his charming manner, Friend is boldly blunt, especially when talking to Connie about sex. He uses explicit phrases that turn Connie's fanciful ideas about experiencing sweet love into a frightening sexual act.

He tells her "'I'll come inside you where it's all secret and you " ll give in to me and you " ll love me'" (Oates 710). Connie, feeling increasingly threatened, retreats further into the safety of her home. By the time Connie finally steps outside the door of her house, she has completely disassociated herself from her person as well as everything she had come to know and trust. She leaves a part of herself in the house as she "watched herself... as if she were safe back somewhere... watching this body and this head" (Oates 713).

Even her heart "was nothing that was hers, that belonged to her" (Oates 713). When she finally crosses over into his arms, she is no longer the same Connie she was at the beginning of this story, her illusions gone and only the unforeseeable future ahead of her. Connie is the main character of the story. The story is about her, not the more colorful, but less prominent Friend. Friend may be the most fascinating character superficially because his quirks jump out at the reader, but it is too quick a judgment to say the tale is his. A possible interpretation of the character of Friend requires a deep examination that reveals a stronger explanation: that he is duplicated from sheer realism.

The knowledge he displays, which may at first appear extraordinary, is nothing more than guesswork and a little spying. What he knows of her family's picnic could easily be explained when we understand that Arnold has been watching Connie, which he in fact "picked" her and was stalking her. He told Connie he had "seen [her]... and thought, that's the one...

I never needed to look anymore" (Oates 711). A stalker would likely know when she is to be alone, and being in a small town he would have no trouble learning of a local picnic her family might attend. In describing the scene at the picnic, he appears to be searching for a story, speaking "vaguely, squinting as if he were staring all the way into town" (Oates 709), and the one he gives is one any of us could have made up if we were so inclined. Connie, in her fear and confusion, believes him to be telling the truth, when he is likely just making things up and piecing things together with simple psychological insight. Most teens would think of a square older sister as "poor, sad" (Oates 709), therefore he needed no extra perception to deduce that. Friend's mysterious appearance in Connie's driveway, that he seemed to "come from nowhere and belonged nowhere" (Oates 709) is not because he is otherworldly, but rather a dangerous criminal of unknown origins.

Friend's appearance and personality are further proof he is not Satan. Friend, at various times, feels "offended... pleased... embarrassed" (Oates 708) with Connie's responses to all he is saying. It is probably safe to assume the Prince of Darkness would not feel personally emotionally wounded or prided by a human's skepticism.

His appearance is downright unattractive, and the powerful Satan, if he was truly attempting to seduce a girl, would probably choose to make himself attractive to her. To claim Arnold is the devil incarnate and the story is about him is to quickly make a decision without taking time to closely examine the facts. Another common interpretation of Oates's tory is that it is the tale of the sexual awakening, a girl's realization of "the full reality of her sexual nature" (Winslow 238) when she is "entering into sexual experience... initiation" (Winslow 238). Somehow Friend is "the answer to Connie's unuttered call and to her erotic desires" (Tierce and Crafton 724). But reducing the story to a tale of mere sexuality is an oversimplification that denies the true power of the piece.

Analysts contend that the numbers on Friend's car "add up to 69 " (Winslow 239), and his verbal threat to her "is explicitly sexual" (Winslow 239) in nature. Yet these numbers could mean anything; they could be the age of himself and his victims, they could be a secret code only he knows. The numbers are not definitively sexual. Friend's threat to Connie is, on the very basic surface, sexual. But his imposition on her goes far deeper than that. The story is not about Connie's innocence only in terms of sexual matters, although that is a part of it.

It is about Connie's youthful incompetence of all things in life. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" deals with Connie's interaction with life in all its facets. Consequently, Friend's invasion of Connie's world is not a purely sexual one, although it does simplify the story to say so. Friend invades her home property and threatens her family and illusion of love and life. Her house becomes, as a result of Friend's appearance, "nothing but a cardboard box" (Oates 713), and her heart "feels solid but we know better" (Oates 713).

In short, "the place where [she] came from ain't there anymore" (Oates 713). Friend tears apart every foundation that Connie has come to consider as truth, and sex is just a piece of that. The argument of the author herself has a fallacy that forces the reader to question the validity of her contention. Oates uses Connie to tell of the innocence and fantasies of youth and how they end in such a brief instant. This is the use of a well-known cliche that is not always true in all cases. Not all youths have naive fantasies and false illusions about the world.

For example, many children in rough cities learn at a very young age that life cannot afford you daydreams, and that the world is a tough, unsafe place. Their youth is based in reality. Also, not all people experience a defining moment when their past is behind them and the future is ahead. For some people, the transition between youth and future is a gradual process, moving so slowly that one particular minute cannot be appropriately designated as more crucial than the others.

This fallacy, while not completely rendering her message invalid, nonetheless constrains the credibility of her assertion. Using a true case of violent crime, Joyce Carol Oates examines how youthful naivete and fantasy end in a crucial moment just before the uncertain future begins in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been." For Connie, that moment came the day Arnold Friend violated her world. A closer inspection of our own lives would perhaps show us the moment we ourselves stood between the illusions of our youth and the indefinite future. Bibliography:


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Research essay sample on Anymore Oates Friend Appearance Connie

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