Oates holds Connie, her parents, but predominantly society accountable for Connie’s predicament, which is revealed through the time period Connie and her friends are growing up. In the midst of her slanderous mother and absent father, Connie takes an unhealthy obsession with herself. As Oates writes, “Their father was away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted supper” (Oates,1). It is inferred that Connie’s parents not only lack the parental affection towards Connie, but also the physical and emotional development towards her. What comes from a girl who has no loving father figure? Taking a good look at Connie, it is evidence of such. Connie’s father is the epitome of society’s downfall. A father is supposed to show kindness …show more content…
and gentleness towards their daughters, for the sole purpose that when a girl begins dating she looks for a man with her fathers’ characteristics. Kismet talks about his adolescent years writing, “My natural introversion magnifies the sense that I am alone in the world, and that no one could possibly understand what I am feeling” (Kismet).
Connie has the same mentality, knowing her father nor mother is there to comfort her in her times of struggle. Connie’s parents have obligations to fill, for which Connie sees the negative side of, lacking the acquired personal development and nourishment. Emotion epitomizes love, passion, and sensation. It is the way one feels, the way one cries, and the way one smiles. All ruined by intolerable, patronizing parents who could give a damn if their Connie does well. Resulting again to her independence and spitefulness. Due to the lack of intimacy Connie processes, in much thanks to her indignant, abhorrent parents. She develops into the unconscious low self-esteem girl that the reader understands her to be. Holmen writes, “Connie's fear of intimacy leads her to retreat emotionally even from the person she should be the closest to” (Holmen). Referring to Connie's failure to open up to her parents and show her true emotion. It is abundantly clear that Connie chooses not to connect with her parents, but do not forget that her parents are to blame for the lack …show more content…
of affection they show to her. Connie’s parents are parents by blood none other. They are the reason she struggles with compassion and ultimately her encounter with Arnold Friend. Based on Connie’s life at home and the treatment she is receiving, she is fearful to let go of herself because that is all she has. One thing Connie does not lack is the drive, the drive to catch society’s eye and to be noticed for once.
“Any time we feel we need outer approval, it’s because we feel an inner lack of self-worth or self-acceptance” (Ghosain). Ghosain writes, who is an expert in sexual invitation and the art of sex appeal. Connie's lack of self-worth and intimacy give her that fire to be noticed. Her goal to make her crave that feeling of being wanted and adored. Connie’s mistrust in her parents, leave her with a contagious ability to frequently lie to others, more importantly her parents. “We lie because we have this craving for autonomy and independence” (Hank, Pellissier). Connie’s self-independence and mistrust in others, leads her into an endless black-hole that she struggles to overcome. The sexual appeal and hormonal drive that connie pocessess helps her deal with her only experiences, sequentially attracting Arnolds eye. “ She wore a pullover jersey blouse that looked one way when she at home and another way when she was away from home” (Oates). Every person wants to be heard whether it is from their friends or family. Connie struggles with her voice primarily focusing on her appearance. It is easy to mistake Connie for being sexually misleading ultimately leading to the altercation with Arnold, but do not mistake immaturity and loneliness for sexual desires and
temptations.
Mother always blames the girl because Connie very often admires in front of a mirror. Also, mother constantly puts the older sister June as an example for Connie and it leads to alienation of the girl. Connie's father spends not enough time at home because he is busy on the work and when he returned to family, he just had supper, read newspapers and went to sleep, as a result, Connie feels a lack of parental attention. There is not enough love and care about each other in their family; therefore, they are
First of all, Connie was not happy at home. The story says that her father "was away at work most of the time," and "didn't bother talking much to them," so Connie didn't have love from him and had to find male attention somewhere else. Connie found her happiness in escaping with her friend to the drive-in restaurant and daydreaming about boys. But the happiness she found in both of these things had nothing to do with actual events; it is based on a fantasy. When she was out at the drive-in with a boy, her face gleamed "with the joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place; it might have been the music." When she daydreamed about boys, they all "fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face, but an idea, a feeling mixed up with the urgent pounding of the music..."
Parent/Child relationships are very hard to establish among individuals. This particular relationship is very important for the child from birth because it helps the child to be able to understand moral and values of life that should be taught by the parent(s). In the short story “Teenage Wasteland”, Daisy (mother) fails to provide the proper love and care that should be given to her children. Daisy is an unfit parent that allows herself to manipulated by lacking self confidence, communication, and patience.
Connie is only concerned about her physical appearance. She can be described as being narcissistic because "she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirror or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right" (Oates 148). Connie wants her life to be different from everyone else's in her family. She thinks because she is prettier, she is entitled to much more. She wants to live the "perfect life" in which she finds the right boy, marries him, and lives happily ever after. This expectation is nothing less than impossible because she has not experienced love or anything like it. She has only been subjected to a fantasy world where everything is seemingly perfect. This is illustrated in the story when Connie is thinking about her previous encounters with boys: "Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been, how gentle, the way it was in movies and promised in songs" (151).
Connie has the need to be viewed as older and as more mature than she really is, all the while still displaying childlike behavior. She shows this childlike behavior by “craning her neck to glance in mirrors [and] checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (Oates 323). This shows that Connie is very insecure and needs other people’s approval. Although on one side she is very childish, on the other side she has a strong desire to be treated like an adult. This longing for adulthood is part of her coming of age, and is demonstrated by her going out to “bright-lit, fly-infested restaurant[s]” and meeting boys, staying out with those boys for three hours at a time, and lying to her parents about where she has been and who she has been with (Oates 325, 326). “Everything about her ha[s] two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home” (Oates 324). Even her physical movements represent her two-sided nature: “her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearin...
Friend lies in Connie’s blindness; she misses what any reader could easily miss. Through Oates’
In the short story, Connie is a young, naïve, sassy, little girl who hates her mom and sister. According to Oates, “Connie wished her mother was dead” (324). Connie enjoys going out with her friends and going to a drive-in restaurant where the older kids hang out. Connie is innocent, but thinks about love and sex. She is desperate to appeal to boys and succeeds at it when a boy with shaggy black hair says to her, “Gonna get you, baby” (325). Her encounter with this boy will change her life forever, because he is the antagonist that influences Connie’s loss of innocence. On a Sunday afternoon, the boy, Arnold Friend, visits Connie and asks her to come for a ride, which she declines. But, Arnold Friend won’t take “no” for an answer and threatens to go in the house. For example when Connie says she will call the cops, Arnold says “Soon as you touch the phone I don’t need to keep my promise and come inside”
A mysterious car pulled into Connie’s driveway and the driver proceeds to get out of his vehicle, showing that he belonged there, not recognizing the car Connie opens the door to her house and leans out it. “She went into the kitchen and approached the door slowly, then hung out the screen door,” (2). Without even knowing who or why this person has come to her house, Connie opens her door and leans out to possible talk to the driver, who would turn out to be Arnold Friend and wants to take her on a “date”. Connie’s ignorance towards Arnold and his arrival almost immediately puts her in a vulnerable state without her even realizing it, this vulnerability would be the first event to foreshadow Connie’s inevitable kidnapping. After greeting and talking to Arnold for a little, he proceeds to ask Connie if she wants to go for a ride in his car. Instead of turning down the offer since she barely, if at all, knew Arnold, Connie somewhat debates it. “Connie smirked and let her hair fall loose over her shoulder,” (3). Though she lacks any information about Arnold, Connie kind of debates taking up his offer to go for a ride, further letting her ignorance towards the entire situation usher her into an even more vulnerable
Oates is accused of "producing too much" (676). This story is no different. Her exposition is painstaking. She sets the scene by making the main character and protagonist, Connie, parallel to an average girl in the sixties. Oates' narrator introduces Connie using elements of description which puts emphasis on the vanity of the main character. Connie's mother is quickly introduced and is used by the narrator to reveal how much disdain her mother has for her vanity. The narrator uses the main character's mother to introduce her sister, June. One is led to believe that sibling rivalry is one of the many causes that lead to the demise o...
Oates takes us to a journey of rebellion as the protagonist sorts through self-created illusion in order to come to terms with her own sexual inexperience. Connie’s desires for attention from the opposite sex, her vanity and immaturity blind her to think of the real intentions of guys, in this case Arnold Friend. A character that many critics argue is real, yet, others argue it was created by Connie’s mind.
When approached by Arnold Friend at first, she was skeptical but was still charmed by him. As she began to feel uneasy, Connie could have used her intuition to realize that he was trouble. Once she had been engaged by Arnold, her life was over. The influences on Connie and her lack of instilled reasoning led to her down fall. Her family’s fragmented nature was echoed in her actions; consequently, she was unable to communicate with her parents, and she was never was able to learn anything of significance. She felt abandoned and rejected, because no one took the initiative to teach her how to make good decisions. Connie was unable to mature until she was faced with death and self sacrifice. In the end, her situation made it difficult for her to think and reason beyond the position she was in. By not being able apply insight, she fell into Arnold Friends lure. Misguidance by the parents strongly contributed to Connie’s
Connie’s clothes and infatuation with her own beauty symbolize her lack of maturity or knowing her true self, which in the end enables her to be manipulated by Arnold Friend. Connie was enamored with her own beauty; in the beginning of the story Oates states that Connie “knew
In addition, a teenager’s feelings of self worth are dependent upon the approval of others. Connie displays this as she practices “…checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (208). And of course there is also the explosion of hormones and corresponding sexual urges and fantasies. Oates makes all of these characteristics clear in her descriptions of Connie’s actions, thoughts and feelings.
Readers familiar with the work of Joyce Carol Oates know that she often explore powerless teenage females such as in Oates (1996) short story. The narrator describes an event about a 15 year old girl name Connie. She is a rebellious girl who usually spend most of her free time in the summer meeting up with boys. Unlike her Sister June best described as a boring professional woman who is also Connie opposite. Connie mother wish that Connie can be more like June. But later will she know that her rebellious actions will attract a dangerous man name Arnold Friend. When the rest of her family attends a barbecue Arnold decides to approach her and threatens to harm her family if she calls the police. Connie made an effort to call the police. Shocked by fear
due to her family leaving to attend a barbeque. Like Chet, Connie also has to rely on herself to overcome her obstacles, such as the threatening Arnold Friend. Stegner and Oates both use this plot point in order to establish that their characters cannot rely on their family for help or protection, which emphasizes their transition to adulthood. In Stegner’s depiction, the purpose seems to be the successful overcoming of obstacles that a child, specifically a boy, has to go through in order to become a man.