Comments on "Where are you going, Where have you been?"

Though it might be considered obvious and not worthy of mention, I interpreted this story as a warning. The warning was at a practical level to be safe and watch out for men such as this Arnold Friend. There are numerous occasions in the story that one can point too and state that with appropriate common sense and safety measures, the threat from someone like Arnold Friend could be avoided. For example, not opening the door for someone you do not know when no one else is home and not engaging in conversation with someone you do not know when no one else is home. These practical things aside, lets look a little deeper into the story. Connie has begun to rely on her good looks to obtain this near indescribable feeling of euphoria that she gets when others give her attention (primarily from boys), which I assume is felt by all girls to some degree at some point in their life (I say this as i know guys desire for girls to give them attention to some degree at some point in their life). It has lead to her dismissal and ignorance towards anything else that does not have to do with this obtaining of feeling of being longed for or found attractive by guys. The danger is that some guys may perceive this behavior that Connie engages in to get attention to be mean more than what is actually meant by it. What is worse in the story is that this Arnold Friend is a good psychological manipulator. He uses subtle means of manipulation such as, continuously telling Connie that she will go away with him or love him or simply get in the care. Friend also, manipulates Connie into believing that there is no other alternative than to do what he says, by alluding to her desire to be liked and thus unable to do anything that might compromise that, stating that she has always felt this way and thus was always going to belong to Arnold Friend. Finally, this Arnold gets Connie to consent or give in to a few seemingly harmless requests, but he is aware that one is more likely to consent to requests from someone who you have already said yes too, than you are to someone who you have not said yes too, no matter how trivial the earlier requests that one said yes to were.
I do however, find it hard to believe that a girl would be so blind to the obvious danger she was in by even opening the door and talking with this person for so long before actually becoming scared. She has not learned caution or discretion and it cost her in not being able to recognize this Arnold Friend for the deceitful predator that he was.