The life and times of Joyce Carol Oates have a dynamic impact on the short story, “Where You Are Going; Where have you been” in which music, myth and customs shape the social text corresponding to the 1960s. The 1965 rock song, “It's All Over Now Baby Blue” fits lyrically and historically into Oates' short story, “Where Are You Going; Where have you been." First, the story's disturbing antagonist, Arnold Friend, a serial killer-rapist, represents a fictionalized version of Charles Schmid who because of the 1966 Tucson murders caught Oates's attention as the base character for the his story. plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned" Get an Original Essay Oates herself confessed to the inspiration and impact that "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" has on this. particular narrative. "In 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' Oates makes an ordinary story extraordinary by juxtaposing two powerful legends: the modern rock hero (the story is dedicated to the activist singer-songwriter Bob Dylan) and the ancient demon lover” (Bender). The lyrics of the song's first verse read: "Over there is your orphan with his gun, crying like a fire in the sun." The abandoned and dangerous child alludes to none other than Arnold Friend/Charles Schmid. Schmid grew up without parents: he came from parents who rejected him and was then adopted into a foster family who offered him no guidance. The child/adult image evokes a juxtaposed image of innocence and danger, purity and corruption. As a predator of teenage girls, Schmid combines this dual figure of childishness combined with dangerous aggression. In the novel, his unfortunate victim mirrors his dual personality as Connie herself has a dual-faceted character. She is both woman and girl, experienced and naive. After brutally raping Connie, Friend calls her "my sweet little blue-eyed girl." This epithet is an obvious reference to the title of Bob Dylan's 1965 song "It's All Over Now Baby Blue". Friend has an obsession with blue-eyed girls, and the woman in the song is affectionately referred to as "Baby Blue." The fact that "it's all over now" means that there will be a definitive tragedy in the end. The haunting refrain "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" pervades the song reminding the unfortunate character of an impending downfall. The second verse of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" references "The empty-handed painter of your streets; He's drawing crazy patterns on your sheets. These lines once again point to Charles Schmid as a psychopath with the fusion between the demented, threatening adult and the problematic child. Schmid had some psychological challenges of his own as he boasted that he had a special sixth sense with special clairvoyance, hallucinations and psychic faculties. These abilities, he believed, placed him above his own colleagues. This demented tendency identifies Schmid as someone who was on the verge of committing an antisocial transgression, causing a similar horror to an adult's act of scribbling on the sheets. Dylan's third verse mentions a travel magic carpet: “even the carpet moves beneath you ; And now it's all over, Baby Blue. This indication of enchantment and forced capture connects Connie's kidnapping by Arnold Friend and parallels Charles Schmid and the violated girls of Tucson. Dizziness, brain fog, and helplessness overwhelm Connie as she realizes her impending destruction. The magic carpet originates from an oriental myth that tells of a legendary carpet that transported its riders to exciting distant lands. The irony is that the distant landthat Friend promises to Connie, while traveling on his magic carpet - his golden car - is death. After Friend ravages Connie and orders her to get out and get into the car, Oates compares his command to a "spell" connoting an unbreakable magical spell that bewitches the victim. In 1965, Charles Schmid transported his victims to a distant Arizona desert where, after raping them, they buried the girls' corpses in shallow graves. In the last verse of "It's All Over Baby Blue", the last four verses of the song further connect the real-life experiences of Charles Schmid and the fictional Arnold Friend by portraying them as vagrants who mirror their victims in dress and behavior to trap and exploit them. The tramp knocking at your door; It's wearing the clothes you once wore; Light another match, start a new one; And it's all over now, Baby Blue. Another Bob Dylan song released in 1965, Mr. Tambourine Man, also sparks a Pied Piper sequel. The refrain echoes: Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play me a song; I'm not sleepy; and there's nowhere I'll go; HEY ! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me In the morning jingle jangle I will come to follow you. The intoxicating music inevitably poisons the mind of the tambourine player's audience and everyone joins in with him who was like the pied piper. The article Oates read in 1966 that prompted her to write this story was titled "The Pied Piper of Tucson," written by Don Moser on March 4, 1966. Full of irony, this news headline actually announced the murder of several teenage girls brutally murdered by Charles Schmid Most children know the nursery rhyme/story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who lured unsuspecting mice from the cities through his clever tricks. flute interpretations. Ultimately, he led the parasites to a river where they drowned and died. However, a darker story underwrites this story of The Pied Piper. After being refused compensation for his services, the piper has lured the children of the city with his magical music and they supposedly disappeared without a trace. The Pied Piper wore attractive and colorful clothes and befriended the children with his engaging music Yes he dressed up as a teenager to charm teenage girls. He usually deflowered the girls before killing them. He dressed as Elvis Presley, an American pop-rock icon, who was the rave in the 1960s and would alter his image. Charles Schmid pursued teenage girls who couldn't resist his innate attractiveness: He owned a nice car, dyed his hair jet black, and filled his shoes to appear taller. In the story, Arnold Friend also pads his boots to enhance his relatively short height. Connie notes that when Friend approaches her, his gait is unsteady, as his boots seemed to be padded with something. Oates notes that “it was a repressed time… Sexual harassment, sexual politics of any kind, sexual crimes did not exist as a category” (Birbaum). General sexual ignorance and the sex taboo made the work of pedophile predators like Schmid and Friend easier because the girls were mostly innocent in the true sense of the word. When the Tucson murder case was opened in Tucson, Arizona, it shook all of America. American parents were now more sensitive to their children's sexual crimes and vulnerability. Arnold Friend and Charles Schmid have a particular taste for underage girls and take advantage of it. “Charles Schmid was arrested on November 11, 1965 for having married a fifteen-year-old minor on October 24, 1965. As if she were not aCoincidentally, Connie, Arnold Friend's victim, was fifteen years old when she was raped and killed by him. Although Schmid did not kill Diane Lynch, he raped and killed Wendy Fritz (age thirteen), Gretchen Fritz (age seventeen), and Alleen Rowe (age fifteen). In the story “Where are you going; Where have you been? “Throwing lines begin with “Her name was Connie – She was fifteen. In the story, Friend's victim was fifteen-year-old Connie and in reality Schmid's first murder victim was fifteen-year-old Alleen Rowe. Both Friend and Schmid, as pedophile predators, choose teenage girls for their attractiveness, naivety, and easy susceptibility. Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Arnold Friend made sure that he was equipped with all the necessary equipment to attract girls into his car: the attractive exterior of the car, his fashion statement, his speech and his name. “It was an open roadway, painted a brilliant gold that caught the sunlight.” As soon as Connie sees the gorgeous car parked outside with the driver honking the horn, she rushes out. Like a moth to a flame that draws her in and puts her in danger, a fascinated Connie is drawn to the car, curious and waiting to see a handsome boy. Many sexual predators are known to use an attractive car as a ploy to trap girls and women. Another powerful connection that links Arnold Friend with the sinister Pied Piper is vernacular and music. Connie observes that Friend speaks with a “lilting voice,” “a slight rhythmic lilt,” and has a “humming” way of speaking that reminds her of a popular song from the past. It is also no coincidence that I see a similarity between his voice and that of a musical disc jockey (DJ). He also converses with Connie about a favorite teen topic, popular teen music, throwing names like Bobby King at her. The entire scenario occurs to a background of music blaring through the car's transistor radio. The same radio program he is listening to is broadcast in his executioner's car. The friend mirrors the adolescents, forging a similar identity with them to gain trust and acceptance. Cadence is a type of lively, rhythmic music sung by the Celts of Ireland in the absence of instruments. Additionally, Friend makes sure to keep up with teenage dialect and speaks the most up-to-date phrases that young Americans would use to communicate with each other. With ease, Friend speaks to the communists as an equal; however, in a fit of rage, he blurts out a series of teenage catchphrases he has learned. As if in a fortune-teller or medium trance, Arnold Friend reveals to Connie where his family was, what they were doing, and who was present at the family barbecue. It seems that Friend had the psychic ability to enchant his victims and to peer into the future and an omniscient vision of the present. “Right now, they're... they're drinking. Sitting here,” he said vaguely, squinting as if he were staring across town and into Aunt Tillie's back yard. Then the vision seemed to clear and he nodded vigorously. "To seduce girls, Dude makes sure his outfit exudes style, confidence and masculine charm. Both Dude and his companions wear sunglasses (posing as a cool guy in the '60s). Oates reports that: "A Connie liked the way he was dressed, which was the way they all dressed: skinny, faded jeans tucked into black, worn boots, a belt that cinched in his waist and showed how thin he was." The fashionable clothing emphasized Friend's well-built physique to charm women into his machine at their peril Popular clothes made Friend an accepted and included element in adolescent social circles and by extension give a certain influenceamong his girl victims. Another critic, Marie Mitchell Urbanski, suggests that the story is actually “the setting for a religious allegory: the seduction of Eve” (Mitchell). Eve and Pandora in the myths of theodicy represent both the temptress and the seduced. Both throw the world into confusion due to their desire to gratify their immediate pleasurable desires and who, in the end, pay a high price for their corrupt inclinations. The serpent lures Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and then convinces her husband, Adam, to eat the fruit. As the Holy Text says, both ultimately die as punishment for their transgression. This connection is fitting since it is through the temptation and seduction of women that a veritable Pandora's box opens where chaos is unleashed in the world. Oates introduces the book by showing how much Connie cares about clothes and her appearance. So her predator, as a sneaky snake, must put on an attractive façade that breaks down her defenses and opens her up to attack. To create a false sense of security, Arnold adopts the surname "Dude" to befriend his prey. When Connie hesitates to get into the car, Friend states, "Don't you know I'm your friend?" His words eerily give voice to the theme of Death and the Maiden, which bodes ill for Connie. “Death and the Maiden” figures as an important theme in the tale as it recalls childhood predation. The legend is poeticized by Schubert in this way: Give me your hand, adorable, tender child, I am your friend and I will do you no harm. You see, I'm not wild. Now go sleep on my arm. Connie, exemplified as a common damsel in distress. she screams for help but no one hears her. She is brought to her knees, submissive to a twisted man who would overpower her to achieve his own ends, like a child, tries to lull her with lies and false oaths. Serial murders in Arizona in 1966, the girls killed were all friends and girlfriends of Charles Schmid. To make girls let their guard down, both sexual predators attempt to foster an atmosphere of trust and friendship. Oates symbolizes Arnold Friend's sexual rapacity with his "Long, hawk-like nose, which he sniffs as if it were a sweet he was about to devour." Hawks are not only predatory birds but are also omens of death, witchcraft and evil - not an optimistic sign for Connie. Hawks have keen eyesight, just like an eagle. Its vision transcends the normal vision of an average animal. For maximum hunting success, the falcon has binocular vision that can spot a possible victim at a distance. Oates' biography and narrative are inseparably intertwined with each other (Johnson). The neighborhood where Connie resides resembles the small house in Oates where she grew up as a girl. Oates lived a normal childhood growing up on his parents' ranch in Lockport, a small rural New York town in 1938. "Where Are You Going" tells of Connie living on a ranch full of asbestos, a place Oates would have been family since living in a rural New York town to poor parents struggling to survive. The passage also reveals that to go to a restaurant or a movie, Connie must be driven miles to the nearest, most modernized town. Before Oates could speak, he was telling stories through his drawings. As time went on, storytelling became an intrinsic part of his life. In 1953, at the age of fifteen, Oates composed his first novel. This significant age reflects Connie's own. His novel was about the rehabilitation of a Detroit drug addict. However, the book remained unpublished due to its dark theme and unattractiveness to young audiences. Four years before>.