The Devil Went Down to Connie's

Arnold Friend is, to say the least, a strange character. He is first encountered as a creepy stalker when Connie is out with a boy named Eddie, and shows up one Sunday with his friend Ellie to kidnap her. Descriptions of him always hint at some sort of deception, but the nature of this deception is never made explicit in the work. However, Arnold Friend is most likely the Devil, due to a strange pattern of coincidences in the story.

The day that Arnold and Ellie come to Connie's house is Sunday; it is mentioned as an aside that “none of them bothered with church” (12). This is not the first indication we receive of Connie's sinful nature; as is apparent from the first paragraph, she is proud. The fact that the main character is sinful is crucial for the notion of Arnold as the devil to make any sense; he would not be able to take the soul of an innocent person. Further support is the fact that Sunday is clearly associated with Christianity; Oates is essentially setting up a giant sign saying, “this story is clearly connected to the Christianity!”

This isn't the only indicator she provides. Arnold points out the numbers “33, 19, 17” written on the side of his car, referring to it as “secret code” (36). This number is a reference to the 33rd book in the Old Testament, counting from the end, Judges, and the 17th verse of the 19th chapter. While this may seem like excessive pseudological contortion, this reference is clearly justified: “And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou?” (Judges 19:17). It would be an understatement to say that the old man's question is uncannily similar to the title of the text.
It's also made apparent throughout the text that Arnold is no ordinary man. He has many strange characteristics, such as the “pale” skin around his eyes and the unfamiliarity with a simple “ride somewhere” (55). He possesses near-omniscience about Connie's personal life that would be almost impossible for a normal man to attain, but his attempts at stay in style are pretty pathetic; it's ridiculous to consider the possibility of him gaining all this knowledge about Connie through normal means yet still be so out of touch with the larger populace. It is much more probable that this information was obtained in some unconventional way, perhaps by supernatural means. Again Arnold seems almost supernatural whenProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

he X he draws in the air is “almost visible” even though “his hand fell back to his side” (77). Connie also feels that he “had driven up the driveway all right but had come from nowhere before that,” suggesting that he is foreign to the world (94). Most importantly, he is unable to say the word “Christ” without sounding “forced” (110). If Arnold is supernatural, he certainly is not divine, because he speaks the name of Jesus as an enemy presumably would.

It's also heavily implied that Arnold is covering up his true physical appearance; Connie thinks that he may indeed be wearing a wig (94). One of his boots is worn awkwardly (118), and they “must have been stuffed with something so that he would seem taller” (124). Connie even observes at one point that “his whole face was a mask” (110).

It is certainly possible that Arnold Friend is just a creepy old man who stalks young girls. However, in light of certain facets of the story associating Arnold with Christianity and the supernatural, the explanation away of each coincidence as a fluke becomes less and less reasonable. The pattern that emerges in the story of Biblical allusion and satanic deception is a much better explanation than the alternatives. There is no reason why Arnold could not dress, talk, and act more like a human if he really were one; his character is, in general, too inconsistent with what may be considered normal thought patterns. In light of this fact, the story may be interpreted as another of the devil’s many conquests over the sinful. Given this fact, though, why does Arnold take Connie to an Edenic land at the end? (724)