It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

I recently read a short story by Joyce Carol Oates called Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been about a fifteen-year-old beauty named Connie who finds herself responding to someone who shouldn't even know she exists.  He, Arnold Friend, persuades her to go with him, away from her family because they don't really care about her and he will love her.  Intense, isn't it?

But in the beginning of the story, Oates says, "For Bob Dylan."  Why?  Oates has stated that after listening to Dylan's 1965 song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," she was inspired to write this story in '66.  I have been trying to figure out why she was inspired by this song in particular.  The tone and mood can definitely be part of it.  But when you look at the lyrics of the song, they relate to Connie's situation:

“Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.

Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.

The vagabond who's rapping at your door

Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.

Strike another match, go start anew

And it's all over now, Baby Blue."

1. "Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you" is mentioned throughout the story, as Friend          keeps asking Connie to follow him.  As she keeps staring at him, she starts to think he's not eighteen like        he said.

2. Friend uses yet another method of persuasion where he tells her how her family won't follow her and the       life he will give her can't compare.  Sounds like "Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you."

3. Arnold Friend later approaches a door when Connie backs away and threatens to call the police which         pertains to the line, "The vagabond who's rapping at your door."

4. Do I want to give the end away?!  The heck, you're not going to read it!  He goes with her.  "Strike               another match, go start anew.  And it's all over now Baby Blue."  Connie looks beyond Arnold as she           opens the door and sees a world she never did before.  And as she walks to him, he talks about her             BLUE eyes...but she has brown eyes.  

People say how there are several Dylan references in this story.  Maybe I will talk about those another day.