YMMV / Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Arnold Friend gets a lot of this, particularly concerning his true nature. People seem to be evenly split on whether he's Satan himself, some other kind of supernatural entity, or just a human serial killer (the inspiration for Friend was a Serial Killer named Charles Schmid).
• Epileptic Trees: The fact that the story is frequently anthologized and is a standard for teachers of high school or college literature courses means that it's fairly widely read and discussed, and there are very diverse theories about various aspects of the story. The nature of Arnold Friend (Serial killer? Satan? Alien? Something else entirely?) and his even more mysterious friend Ellie Oscar, as well as what the numbers "33, 19, 17" mean are the most common subjects.
  • The numbers could represent the Biblical reference to sexual assault, or even the ages of Arnold's previous victims before Connie. Connie is 15, and Arnold's numbers keep getting closer in 15. They also (possibly) serve as a subtle Name Drop, as the bible passage (Judges, 19:17), is "When he looked up and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, "Where are you going, and where do you come from?"."
• Nightmare Fuel: Oh, where to begin?
  • Arnold Friend is perhaps the scariest element of the story. He's a very odd man who, although initially charming, soon shows his true colors. Connie is very disturbed by him, as the longer she talks to him, the more "wrong" he appears to be. She notes to herself that all of his characteristics- both physical and personality-wise- don't seem to "fit" together correctly, giving off a distinctively creepy feel.
  • Just the idea of being in Connie's situation. Imagine that you're alone in your house, in an area where the houses are spread apart, when two strangers arrive and start trying to coax you to leave with them. Not only that, they threaten to hurt your loved ones if you don't comply and you can't call for help. What would you do?

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