Joyce Carol Oates’ literary work

Both the character Arnold Friend from Joyce Carol Oates’ book “Where are going, where have you been” and the character The Wolf from Agha Shahid Ali’s “Little Red Riding Hood” have many parallels and some differences. The characters of Arnold Friend and The Wolf, though they are in two separate literary works, share quite a few similarities with one another because they are at the center of themes of violence and deceit against young girls. The characters Arnold Friend and The Wolf share similar character traits in both literary works, taking advantage of the innocence of young females to further their own goals. Though the two characters in the two literary pieces share some character traits, they also have some differences in their fundamental character traits. This paper aims at illustrating the similarities and the differences of Arnold Friend in Joyce Oates ‘Where are going, where have you been” and that of The Wolf in Agha Ali’s piece, “Little red riding hood.”

The character traits displayed by Arnold Friend’s in ”Where are going, where have you been” is similar to the traits displayed by The Wolf in Ali’s ”Little red riding hood.” In both literary pieces, both characters prey on girls, seducing and bringing harm to them. Arnold, in ”Where are going, where have you been” not only forcefully seduces Connie, a fifteen years old girl, but also threatens her and into submission by telling her he will kill her family. Connie, who had initially had some sexual interest in Arnold, is quite fearful of him especially when he confesses to having killed her neighbor, a woman who owns kitchen (47). The mysterious power Arnold possesses in his ability to tell things accurately and the aura of mystery that he carries himself with adequately convince Connie that he is indeed a killer hence giving in. In Ali’s piece, ”Little red riding hood,” The Wolf took advantage of the little girl, Little Red Riding Hood and tricked her into picking flowers, despite the early warning from her mother not to stray in the woods as she took food and wine o her ailing grandmother. The wolf after extracting information from Little Red Riding Hood on her ailing grandmother ran to her house and ate and wore her gowns. When Little Red Riding Hood, arrived at her grandmother’s house, she was also eaten by the wolf.

In the two literary texts, both Arnold and the Wolf use treachery to achieve their missions. In ”Where are going, where have you been,” Arnold’s first interaction with Connie was quite incidental and lasted for a short time. When Arnold notices that Connie has shown some interest in him, he goes for her to home. Connie is able to remember the visitor from a gold convertible as the man he had seen while with her boyfriend, Edie while they had gone to a restaurant (Tierce and John pg 220). Despite the struggle to not show interest in Arnold and denying never knowing him, Arnold plays tricks on her by telling Connie many things about her personal life including the names of her friends and her parents and what they were doing at the moment. Arnold utilizes fear and intimidation to ensure that Connie is submissive and goes away with her. He not only declares her love for Connie but also convinced her that he is taking her to a new and a better life than the life of fantasy she has been leading, though with a lot of fear she deep in her heart she beliefs him (Tierce and John pg221). On the other hand, The Wolf in ”Little Red Riding Hood,” applies tricks on Little Red Riding Hood when he meets her on in the woods on her way to her ailing grandmother. The wolf makes Little Red Riding Hood to tell him more about her grandmother. After gaining information, the Wolf tricks Little Red Riding Hood into picking flowers as he rushes to the grandmother’s place and eats her. The Wolf further applies more trick on Little Red Riding Hood, as he puts own her grandmother’s nightgown to pretend to be her, on to eat Little Red Riding Hood when she arrives.

The two character Arnold Friend in ”Where are going, where have you been” and the Wolf in ”Little Red Riding Hood” differ in their characters to a larger extent. While they both use treachery to achieve their objectives, only Arnold achieves the ultimate objective. Arnold, uses treachery to intimidate Connie, the protagonist in the story ”Where are going, where have you been” into submission of going out with him. Arnold coerces her by appearing mysterious and with some supernatural powers as he is able to name all of Connie’s friends and identify where her parents had gone and what they were currently doing. When Connie finally gives in, and they go away in Arnold’s gold convertible, he declares that she is now changed and will not be the same again. Despite the situation and the happening Arnold is successful in winning Connie over. On the other hand, though The Wolf is successful in tricking both Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother as he tricks and eats them, the success is short-lived. After eating Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, the Wolf falls asleep and begins to snore loudly attracting a hunter who passes by and opens up his stomach to extract both of his victims. His stomach is filled with stones which lead to death when he wakes up and tries to run away. Therefore, the two authors differ on the ultimate impact of treachery as Shahid Ali illustrates that treachery eventually results in negative impact while Joyce Oates confirms that by using tricks success can be gained.

Shahid Ali’s literature piece character, The Wolf and Joyce Oates character Arnold Friend to share some character traits including the use of violence and treachery. While in ”Little red riding hood” the Wolf uses violence to eat victims of his treachery, Arnold Friend applies violence to some of his victims by killing them. In both cases, characters use tricks to achieve their objective as Arnold tricks Connie using threats of violence into going out with him and eventually winning her heart over. On the other hand, The Wolf tricks Little Red Riding Hood to pick up flowers so as to delay her and goes ahead and eats her grandmother. The two characters differ from one another in that they never accomplish the same results through their utilization of treachery; as Arnold successfully wins over Connie while the Wolf dies as a result of his schemes.

Works cited

Oates, Joyce Carol. Where are you going, where have you been?. Ed. Elaine Showalter. Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Hood, Little Red Riding. Little Red Riding Hood. JS Pub. & stationery Company, 1837.

Tierce, Mike and John, Crafton. Connie Toumbrine man: a new reading of Arnold friend. 219-223