Connie

Connie and the illusion of adulthood: the uncertainty of adolescence The sixties were a considerably turbulent time in the history of the American society. The social values were challenged, the new perspectives were adopted. So the new themes became explored in literature. The short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates explores many subjects peculiar to the teenage life of the sixties. What is particularly interesting is how the author reveals the hardships and the indecisiveness of the adolescent period of life by describing Connie's experience, particularly in sexual regard. The turbulence and uncertainty of Connie's adolescence is expressed in the short story in several ways. First of all, it should be

Our little heroine is, as it seems, one girl and school, and completely another girl when she “goes places”. Connie was a typical teenage girl at home, having arguments with her mother and not getting along with her boring and too perfect sister. She despises the friends her mother wants to impose on her as well as she hates being compelled to do the housework. As we can see, Connie's relationship with her family is a typical one of a teenager. Nevertheless, she is still perceived as a child and behaves so in the safety of her parent's house. When her female friend's father drops them off at the shopping plaza, Connie is described in a drastically different perspective: the author emphasizes the girl's adult-like look and adult-like behavior. Connie uses a hair-spray, she puts a lot of effort to make herself look beautiful. Her walk gives away her forthcoming female maturity. Connie seeks male attention when she leaves the shopping plaza for some bar “where older kids hung out”(Oates, p. 205). Naturally, the adolescence is the period of

Surely, this whole conversation can be viewed from various angles, acquiring one time literal, one time metaphorical. It is emphasized that this seemingly teenage boy is in reality a grown-up man; Connie has a strange psychological and physiological reaction discovering that. The sexually related seductive character of Arnold Friend's speech is emphasized: what he does can be viewed as taking the young girl to the real adult world. It is curious to remark that the image of the screen door of Connie's house is stressed: it might be viewed as a symbol of a crossed threshold. All the drama between the girl and the wicked imposter unravels around this, figuratively speaking, point of no return. It is interesting to make notice of the ways in which these two characters are represented in the dialogue: Arnold Friend is offensive and stable, he pursues his agenda and chooses the means according to the development of the situation; Connie, on the contrary, is unsure and submissive, she finally gives in to his threats and promises. The whole story is built around Connie's change throughout the conversation with Arnold Friend. First, she is careless and not interested. Later, especially when she discovers that neither Arnold nor his friend are the age they pretend to be, she feels indecisive and scared as she understands that something definitely