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

This story honestly freaked me out. Arnold Friend was a creepy person who slithered up my spine especially at the part where the author brings up the rape images of the "stabbing". Arnold was a controlling person, and all he wanted to do, it seemed, was to lure Connie out to him in order to show that she had affection towards him, rather than fear. It bothered me with how this story ended. It would obviously end in this way, but it is shocking, as a reader, to realize how realistic it is told. Everyone has their demons, and Connie's was Arnold. Every woman lives their life as they should; entirely. This story made it seem like Connie was being punished for her vanity. I am not sure if the point was to always be careful, (or modest is how I saw it). This would be a disturbing point, if it were true. It may have also been to point out that this could happen to anyone, and it made it especially disturbing to know how attractive and outgoing Connie was. It made it easier to feel for her.

Under stress, Connie reverts back to being a defenseless child. She has a master, Arnold, who acts as a father figure, which was even more bothersome. It is sick to see that he was trying to earn her trust, only to break it with her "permission". He wants her permission to break her personal seal. This is all to hard to read over, but it may be necessary to bring up the unnecessary in order to convey what really could happen. It is easy to simply ignore this truth, and look at it as simply a story, but the author had even openly remarked that it was based on flashes of news reads to develop this concept of an "Arnold Friend". Trust is a thing kept close, and so is her self-worth. These things are all violated, which is a shame that these things could even be in question.

It is very hard for me to discuss this since everything was thoroughly discussed, but I was very fascinated with the relation of the numbers on Friend's car, with the bible passage. I think that was a very fun thing for the author to put in the passage. I think the description of the acts that Friend was to do after the novel was finished was taboo to talk about, and every mention of it makes someone cringe, or wince at the very thought. These instances are unfortunately not spoken of for reason of discomfort, or embarrassment. It is sad that women should have to feel the embarrassment rather than the Arnold Friend type. This story documented the dominance of the male psyche on the female one. It goes through animalistic characteristics of Connie and Arnold, pointing out the attacker and the prey. I felt that Connie was portrayed as defenseless and innocent. Friend was the big bad wolf, who was coming to dominate. It is depressing, but I suppose it must be expressed in a short story such as this. It is not fair that women must feel subjected, and modest consistently. Modest in the sense of living life modestly and not to its fullest. Is this short story pointing out the bigger issue that women in burka's must face? The explanation being that they are being protected from the "big bad wolf" and the uncontrolled libido of men. Should women be constantly punished, and hindered from living their lives just because of this? It does not seem fair that Connie would regret being the way she was, and feeling as though it were her fault for being who she was, and that was why Arnold was after her, it was because he was a weirdo!(629)