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Character Analysis on "Connie" in "Where are you going, Where have you been?"
"Where are you going, Where have you been" is a famous story that was written by Joyce Carol Oates. In this story, Connie is fifteen years old girl and the main character. She seems to have always lived in her sister's shadow, June, who was apparently better all-around. Connie seems to be the more attractive of the two due to which she felt that her attractive personality would succumb to pleasure in the arms of a random boy. One day, she decided to stay home as opposed to going to a barbecue with her family. At that time, Arnold Friend, the antagonist in Oates' story drives up to Connie's house. Connie is a character that represents the nature of epiphany in literature. Through Connie, we learn how a character can have a highly significant impact on an important work of literature and the person reading the story.
Joyce Carol Oates, 2006
Connie's Country
Black Water (novella)Connie's naïve understanding of the world and her immaturity led to her downfall in "Where are you Going, Where Have You Been?"
In this classic tale, Connie is very young and naïve and it certainly doesn't help matters that she has negative influences in her life. Her own mother was a negative influence who corrupted her and led her to the path of the dark side, which would lead to her downfall. Considering the circumstance that "her mother had been pretty once too, if you could believe those old snapshots in the album, but now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie." (Oates, 312) It has been demonstrated that Connie reminded her mother of herself when she was young, which made her own mother dislike her and favor the...