Anyone with thoughts on the meaning of the title of this story? I thought it was somewhat similar to “A Clockwork Orange” where the question “What’s it going to be then, eh?” is constantly asked. Alex goes through the whole novel figuring out (mostly subconsciously) what he is going to do with his life. Here, Joyce Carol Oates asks Connie what her past has been and what her future will be. Connie’s past doesn’t seem to amount to much. She and her sister are opposite stereotypes: June is the plain, well-behaved, “boring” type; Connie is pretty, vain, and much more wild than her sister. He hasn’t done much with her life so far, and she doesn’t seem to have any plans for it. The arrival of Arnold Friend on her doorstep forces Connie to make a decision that will change her life. She can either stand up for herself, call the police, and risk Arnold coming in the house after her, or admit that she has no spine and go to Arnold, even though she realizes that he will rape her and probably kill her anyways ("I'm not going to see my mother again. She thought, I'm not going to sleep in my bed again."). She choses her future when she walks out the screen door and leaves her family and safety (and possibly life) behind.
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i think this is a good analysis of the title. it doesn't really leave much unsaid. the only other way that i could conceivably read it is in a more literal sense.
when connie asks arnold where they are going on there ride, he just laughs and says nowhere. we don't know where arnold friend came from. there's even a passage in the story where connie wonders if he didn't just appear out of thin air. this "man" has no back story, no defined place in actual existence. his mere presence begs to the question "where are you going? where have you been?"
Numbers painted on Arnold's car are 33,19,17
Well, as discussed in class, if you count backwards in the bible, the 33rd book is Judges. Chapter 19, verse 17 reads,
And the old man lifting up his eyes, saw the man
sitting with his bundles in the street of the city, and
said to him: Whence comest thou? and whither goest thou? (The title!)
But we also noticed, in class, that if you add up the numbers on the side of Arnold's car, you get a sexual position.
Conclusion: this story can be read as a religious or secular allegory, with Arnold as the devil or Arnold as a dream representation of Connie's developing sexuality.
wow. i completely forgot about that discussion. ha. well that tosses my theory out the window!
No, boo, it doesn't. That's the whole point. Oates is brilliant because her stories work on so many different levels!
I thought of the title as the typical parent questions, the level of attention and concern they show all the time but doesn't really achieve anything, because it's not about where the kids are but what they do when they get there. If Connie had been smarter back at the mall and not so self-possessed, Arnold would never have found her.
Not to be a sheep, but I agree with this :).
I think that the title can take on even more possible meaning when applied to Arnold if we keep in mind the use of serial killers as Oates' inspiration. Continuing from there, it begs further questions, such as "How many other girls has he done this to?" If Connie is one of many, then is this story some kind of commentary on teenage girls in general?
Maybe I'm going too deep into it, though...
I don't think Songbird is going to deep. Teenage girls in general is a legit question and women in general I think is a legit question. Where are you going? Where have you been? is the quintessential question anyone asks of themselves or their group. I think Oates is definitely asking us to look at how we interact as girls, boys, men and women and what our cultural expectations are and how what we're "trained" to do, see, etc. can be quite sick (and I mean that in the disturbed, not the cool sense of the current slang)!
I thought that the title was more of an expression of how the first question depends on the second. It was almost as if Oats was telling Connie, or the reader i suppose, that the way that she was acting was leading her to an unfavorable fate. If you were to ask Connie what she thought was going to happen to her life in the future she wouldn't know. But, if you look at where she came from, how she was acting, it logically leads up to her final fate. Also, if you buy into the theory that the encounter with Arnold Friend was a dream, then the dream could have been a warning to her regarding her behavior. If she continues to seduce boys, she'll end up with one that she doesn't want and can't get rid of.
i think you're not giving connie enough credit. "seduce" may be too strong a word. i still firmly believe she is a virgin based on evidence in the story that we discussed in class (arnold referring to her "first time").
i think she was looking to the boys for attention she was not getting from her own father. those boys made her feel pretty, something her family would never recognize as a positive trait.
how could it be her "fate" to enter hell alongside arnold friend when her last act was committed to save her family? do heroics usually constitute a tortuous afterlife?
Forgive me, I didn't mean that she wasn't a virgin when I said seduce. Perhaps that was the wrong word choice. I merely meant that Connie's choices were leading her down a bad path. The dream served as a warning to her to beware of situations like that. I don't believe that she was destined for hell, I think she knew subconsciously that she could easily slip into sin from where she was. So, her mind created this dream to refocus her life on what is important, such as her family, whom she realized was more important to her than she thought.
The title, when one om my mind set considers it, takes on a meaing a bit different.
There is speculation on whether this was a dream or whether it did happen in the world. When I add the title I see the world of a dream described.
The question seems to isolate the character from the world and puts them in an altitude higher than the world. Much as in death scenes in books a transition point to life and death is reached, this seems a transition for her life course. In side her house she is presented with the phone, the door, and Friend outside. With the phone she can call out to the world, the door can block it all out, and Friend can lead her further. Both the phone and the door are items she brings to mind and holds as options, Friend, however, puts himself in to the mix. He gives Connie the option of choosing him. These three options, as I am taking them now, are representive of addiction.
Friend is representitve of addiction. For connie he is the addiction to the love of others. The door is will power and saying no to it, while the phone is representitve of reaching out for support and help. Addiction being the powerful mental force that it is then begins manipulating choices. It starts by invitation, but seeing the tendency to seek help reacts. It reacts to outside assistance because it can affect all that is Connie but nothing outside. Simply closing the door can only block it out. Friend even said that the door would hardly be enough to hold him back. The door can only hold back so much and addiction is still on the outside. It is for the fear of being driven out that addiction reacts to the phone.
In essence I take it as an explanation of addiction and why getting help is so difficult for so many. The addiction stops them out of fear, but will allow them to attempt to conquer it on their own through will power while it wears through the door.
I apologize if my thoughts are scrambeled I made this connection only recently while speculating on the similarity between the Kings cross station in death in Harry Potter and her dream.
I completely see the connection to addiction and I agree that it makes sense. That was very insightful of you. I wish I would have thought of that
just like to add this but if you take out the "r"s in Arnold Friend, you would get An Old Fiend.
Just a thought - Perhaps it is simply meant to encourage the reader to analyze their own life, as compared to Connie's..
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