There are always two sides to every story. The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” by Joyce Carol Oates, is a perfect example of this. In this story, the protagonist is a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie. The young teenager has two sides of herself; one when he is at home and one when he is out with his friends. When Connie is home, she acts childish. However, when she goes out, she tries to act like an adult, changing her clothes and the way she talks. She has an older sister who follows her with her intelligence, but Connie believes she is more beautiful and worthy than June. June is twenty-two years old, very well behaved and is actually very close to her mother. Connie not only struggles with her family, but she also finds herself in trouble with a much older man named Arnold Friend. This story shows that there can be darkness even in the brightest places and that all is not always as it seems. The story follows Connie in her struggle between good and evil. When he is at home he dresses, speaks and laughs differently than when he is out. She and her friends are dropped off at the movies, but walk across the street to a restaurant where they will flirt with boys and listen to music. One night, Connie meets a boy named Eddie after talking for a while. Eddie took Connie for a drive, where she saw Arnold Friend for the first time. Connie was enveloped in the joy that music brings her when she looked up and saw a boy with raven hair staring at her. Arnold immediately showed interest in Connie by smiling and saying "I'll get you, baby." This showed me what kind of character that assertive, persistent Arnold Friend would be. He also mentioned what kind of… middle of paper… most people try to put on a show for themselves or others. Connie was a young person who thought she knew everything, but she hadn't been given the chance to find out for herself. A few things may have pushed her into the arms of Arnold Friend. For example, it may have been his cutting, repetitive words that Connie forced herself to believe. Arnold Friend deceived her at first and made himself look like "an old friend", but inside it read "archdevil". Arnold Friend is a mythological character who represents the evil that resides in all of us. In some people that evil can break out as rays of light, like those described in Connie's story. Like the expression “there's a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other,” Arnold Friend was Connie's devil. Works Cited "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?", by Joyce Carol Oates