The concept of the double, demonstrated in fictional characters by Poe, Conrad, and Crane, and studied from a psychoanalytic perspective by Otto Rank, reappears in Connie, the creation of Joyce Carol Oates. connie's "double" is Arnold Friend, who represents clusters of unconscious feelings, wishes, and identifications. A. Friend (Arnold) exemplifies the "imaginary friend" sometimes described by young children. This figure, a representation of unconscious wishes, embodies elements of superego and ego ideal as well. When preoedipal and oedipal conflicts re-emerge at puberty, the "friend" may be an idealized peer. The process of idealization and de-idealization is part of the work of adolescence, and the Oates story underscores the essential conflicts with which one wrestles, and the fact that "each person must undergo the rites of passage alone."