Connie: The Little Girl Hidden
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates starts with the kind of pressure like any other family goes through when there is a teenager involved. Connie, a 15 year old girl, who is worried of the way she looks even though she knows that she is very pretty. She has long dark blond hair and brown eyes, and she loves to wear shorts with a pull over jersey blouse and flat ballerina slippers with charm bracelets. This story starts with how Connie's mom is always telling her how she needs to look and act like her sister, June, does. Her mom is very persistent with this, which makes Connie feel miserable with her life. This even makes Connie wish her mom's death and hers. The readers can take this as part of Connie's motivation for her to do the things that she does, which she later on shows how she regrets it. Connie is a little girl who wants to look much older and hang out with older guys in the evening. At her house, she is the little girl that she actually is, but at night she is the woman that she desires to be at all times.
Everything about her had two sides to it, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out; her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home- "Ha, ha, very funny,"- but high-pitched and nervous …show more content…
At first, Connie "[speaks] sullenly, careful to show no interest or pleasure, and he [speaks] in a fast, bright monotone," but then she doesn't feel like going with him at all (321). Arnold goes to her house because he wants to take her to some other place to take advantage of her in a completely bad way. The readers might interpret that he wants to "rape" her. The readers know that he wants to do this to her because he
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates starts with the kind of pressure like any other family goes through when there is a teenager involved. Connie, a 15 year old girl, who is worried of the way she looks even though she knows that she is very pretty. She has long dark blond hair and brown eyes, and she loves to wear shorts with a pull over jersey blouse and flat ballerina slippers with charm bracelets. This story starts with how Connie's mom is always telling her how she needs to look and act like her sister, June, does. Her mom is very persistent with this, which makes Connie feel miserable with her life. This even makes Connie wish her mom's death and hers. The readers can take this as part of Connie's motivation for her to do the things that she does, which she later on shows how she regrets it. Connie is a little girl who wants to look much older and hang out with older guys in the evening. At her house, she is the little girl that she actually is, but at night she is the woman that she desires to be at all times.
Everything about her had two sides to it, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out; her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home- "Ha, ha, very funny,"- but high-pitched and nervous …show more content…
At first, Connie "[speaks] sullenly, careful to show no interest or pleasure, and he [speaks] in a fast, bright monotone," but then she doesn't feel like going with him at all (321). Arnold goes to her house because he wants to take her to some other place to take advantage of her in a completely bad way. The readers might interpret that he wants to "rape" her. The readers know that he wants to do this to her because he