Arnold Friend

Arnold Friend is the main antagonist of the short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates.

The protagonist of the short story is a young woman named Connie. Naturally beautiful, yet self-absorbed, Connie was always at odds with her mother, who was a former looker herself. In secret, she picks up boys at a Big Boy restaurant each evening, which proves to be her undoing. On one such evening, she catches the attention of a total stranger who had a golden convertible in his possession. After some minor flirting, the stranger states his intention on acquiring the young woman.

While her parents and her sister were away at a barbacue, a car pulls up in the driveway. At first, Connie doesn't realize that the car belonged to the same stranger she met at the drive-in restaurant, but she immediately remembers him once he exits his car. The stranger identifies himself as "Arnold Friend," and he insists that he's 18 years old. Initially calmed by his smooth-talking, Arnold asks for Connie to accompany him on a ride to a far away location. He also introduces her to his partner, Ellie, who was eerily silent about Arnold's intentions.

Connie becomes frightened by the man before her as it dawned on her that Arnold was far older than he initially claimed, and demands for him to leave. Arnold's tone quickly evaporates and he starts to threaten her family if she refused to go with him, and he even proclaims that he'll burn her house down with her still inside of it. Feeling compelled by his threats, in an act of self-sacrifice, Connie goes along with the deranged man. She cries for her mother when the car began to pull out of the driveway.