Essay about Connie's Downfall

Submitted By dagendrake
Words: 1563
Pages: 7

Dagen Hughes
English
Professor DeBoard
05 November 2012
Connie’s Downfall Opener: Joyce Carol Oates in her short story “Where are you going, where have you been?” establishes the theme that looks are not everything by painting her protagonist, Connie, as a tragic hero. Oates develops Connie through her infatuation with appearance, her split personality, and her need to be viewed as mature, all of which lead to her downfall. Oates first introduces Connie as a fifteen-year-old girl completely infatuated with her appearance and full of self-confidence. Connie’s character demonstrates the typical teenager caught up in the superficial view of society. She is so concerned with her looks that she has a “habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right” (584). Connie has “long blonde hair that [draws] anyone’s eye” (585) and when she is approached from a boy at school that she has no interest in, “it [makes her] feel good to be able to ignore him” (585). Connie is always thinking of her appearance to others, and so when she meets Eddie she “couldn’t help but let her eyes wander over the windshields and faces all around her” (585). Connie’s constant need for attention from her peers and ideally, men, causes her face to be “gleaming with a joy” (585) when she can that others are watching her. It is while Connie assumes that all eyes are on her, that she demonstrates her high self-confidence by “[drawing] her shoulders up and [sucking] in her breath with pure pleasure” (585). Connie’s continuous need to catch the eye of those around her, eventually leads to her catching the eye of Arnold Friend, “a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold” (586). However, Connie is not concerned with the consequences of her “trashy daydreams” (584) because “she [knows] she [is] pretty and that [is] everything” (584). Oates then uses Connie’s concern with her appearance to develop the split personality that directly affects Connie’s relationship with her family. When it comes to family, Connie wants to keep herself distant. In fact, “everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that [is] not home” (585). Connie’s personality at home is made up of a “childlike” walk, a mouth that is “pale and smirking most of the time,” and a “cynical and drawling” laugh (585). However, when Connie is away, her sexuality is revealed through her “languid” strut, her “bright and pink” lips, and her “high-pitched and nervous” giggle (585). Even the ways she dresses is different, for she will wear a “pull-over jersey blouse that [looks] one way when she [is] home,” (585) a way that is age appropriate for a fifteen-year-old girl. However, the same blouse will look “another way when she [is] away” (585) depicting Connie’s need to separate her home from her need to be viewed as sexual and mature by others.
Furthermore, Connie does not have a relationship with any of her family. Her father is emotionless and does not “bother talking much” (584) while her mother keeps “picking at her until [she wishes] her mother [is] dead” (585). Connie also feels that there is a major distinction made between her and her sister, June. When “June’s name is mentioned her mother’s tone [is] approving, and if [her] name is mentioned it [is] disapproving” (586). Even with her being set apart from her sister, Connie does not feel that her “simple” (586) mother could actually prefer June over her because “she [is] prettier” (586) and June is just “so plain and chunky” (584). When her family is leaving for the barbecue at her aunt’s house, it is not only the idea of being stuck with her parents and sister, but also the idea of being trapped with the entire family that repulses Connie. She tells her mother that she not even slightly interested and then “[rolls] her eyes to let her mother know just what she [thinks] of it” (586). Connie feels that her family has