An Old Friend

Oates creates some incredibly eerie tension in this story through the tone of her dialogue. Arnold Friend has a menacingly smooth way of talking, and consistently won't take no for an answer, seeming unstable throughout the story. Oates also does a great job setting up the story to make Connie seem like such a typical teenage girl, and this becomes very important for the path of the conversation. Friend really sounds like an old man referencing phrases that he believes kids her age would understand. The fact that he repeats things so often and has random outbursts of anger also shows how on edge he is and threatening.