The Meaning of Connie’s Dream
Dreams are a mysterious phenomenon that has been happening for generations inside the human mind, both in the awake and asleep variation. Some say that dreams are a gateway into knowing the deepest desires of the human mind and that they can be found in the way that the brain creates these dreams. Although Oates does not say so directly in her short story, there is an assumption that can be made, that after a certain point in the story, Connie falls asleep and is dreaming for the rest of the story. After Connie goes outside to lie in the sun for a while, she started to daydream about love, while also slipping into a deep sleep. She tried to shake, “her head as if to get awake,” but she just slipped deeper into her slumber (Oates). Once she starts to dream, her deepest desires, truths, and feelings are revealed and a new side of Connie is shown.
Throughout the story, Oates utilizes the use of binaries to showcase that most of the story is actually…show more content… Since a male counterpart represents the evil, this could represent that Connie wants a better and deeper relationship with her very absent father. Connie never sees or talks with her father as all he does is be, “away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted supper and he read the newspaper at supper and after supper he went to bed” (Oates). In between work and not wanting to do anything at home, her father has lead Connie to have an absent relationship with him. This missing relationship has caused Connie to form the wrong impression of the boys and men in her life, as there was never a role model. So, within this dream that Connie has, it is revealed that, for the most part, she really does actually want a stronger and better relationship with her father and with boys/men in
