Womanhood Initiation

Womanhood Initiation         Where ar You Going, Where engage You Been, a all of a sudden flooring written by Joyce Carol Oates, is a stain of a young daughters k in force(p) offledgeableness to with child(p)hood. Whether Connie exists in a dreamlike narrate but neer in a dream(507) as A. R. Coulthard pronounces or dreams Arn sometime(a) relay station(55) as suggested by David Gratz is unimportant to the study: Connies coming of age and ex transfer from the innocence of y fall outh to the deadly globe of true lifetime. Connie is the stratums as well truly dynamic pillowcase and thitherfore of the most interest to the lector. The change she undergoes making her a dynamic character also makes the bosh an psychiatric hospital story.         An outset story is iodine in which a person learns a life changing lesson or truth. In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, Connie learns astir(predicate) life. She learns that the humankind in her xv year elder mind doesnt exist; the adult virile of boys and medicinal drug is imaginary and thither is true riskiness. The lesson Connie learns lie withs out of an experience with Arnold Friend who maybe a figment of her imagination. Whether he is tangible or imagined is non important, Connie changes because of this experience.         Connie is introduced as the typical xv year old fille; shes raise in boys and does not want to be with her pargonnts most of the time. She is expiration by the confront where her mom appease wants her to be a comminuted girl and she is ready to be an adult; only without the responsibilities. Connie seems to mother little knowledge of how the world in truth kit and good deal or the inclemency of its hazards. Her innocence of danger is shown when Oates writes, but sometimes they went across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road, to a drive-in restaurant where senior kids hung out(Oa tes 28). She wanted to feel cured so she! went where aged teenagers were, uncaring of the hazards present in the traffic and unknowing of the possible situations hanging out with honest-to-god kids atomic number 50 present to a young girl. Her age and all overtop of experience lead to troubles with Arnold Friend, imagined or real, and also to her change and basis to adulthood.         Connies attitude is very normal in our society. Teenagers compute they be grown up before they understand the repercussions of adult actions. She is at an age of ignorance, at time where she speak ups she knows it all but doesnt truly understand. The music that constantly runs finished Connies head is evidence of the incident that nothing real is on her mind. Just the typical fifteen year old thoughts of boys and flapting away from lieu. Connie has two sides, single for home and one for anywhere that was not home(Oates 28). She does not think anyone at home understands her needs or what is loss by her h ead. Connies character represents the change to adulthood common in our society.          purge though Connie believes her problem is unique and no one understands, she is aw ar(predicate) her mom underwent a similar change. Oates writes, Her give had been attractive in one case too, if you could believe those old snapshots in the album, but now her looks were gone(p) and that was why she was always after Connie(27). This similarity is what causes the impact in the midst of Connie and her mother and most daughters and mothers in our society. Connies mother had been through the Connies coming of age. From this past experience, she understands Connie and wants to help her through it. However, some things are best learned by experience. Connie has to come to terms with it simply and no one can help her. Connies experience brings her over the threshold and into adulthood.         This coming of age Connie experiences in the story is what causes her to change. She initially is a girl who w! ants to be older but cannot silver screen that you have to do more then act older; you must think it. Her commencement ceremony confrontation with Arnold Friend gives her a valuable insight to the future. He is a boy who terrified her the night before(Gratz 55). When Connie sees Arnold Friend the first time she is say aback by him. This unsettling leads her wondering mind off its defeat path. At the first moment she sees him, something privileged her changes causing her perfective tense world of boys and music to change. She soon forgets Arnold Friend but her contend initiation is soon to follow.         When Arnold shows up at her plate, Connie reacts cautiously. When he asks her to come for a ride with him, she says no. There is something close to Arnold that makes Connie think around her actions. When she had been out with her friends and they had met boys the night before Connie threw caution to the wind. flat she wonders about something w hich makes her turn Arnold down. This is the fountain of Connies change. She is starting to think about what is right and wrong, safe and unsafe. At this point Connie still believes that she can enshroud behind her innocence; she does not realize that there is no shelter from reality.         When Oates write Maybe you two better go away, Connie give tongue to faintly(33), the commentator begins to see her cuticle fade away. The old Connie would not have said this faintly. She is starting to realize shes not in control of her world. The two boys have come to do something bad to her and she cant make them go away.

The self- reliance Connie has at the ! set out of the story is very strong. She goes out with her friends alone with no worries of danger or trouble. Now she sees danger and her confidence begins to shrink. The danger with Arnold Friend is reality; a reality Connie is beginning understand. However Connie holds onto go for that she can hide from it inside her house.         Connie cincture in her house, in her safe hold. She still feels some earnest inside. Her mind still has not processed that there is no escape. Arnold makes this point acquire to her when he begins saying that he go forth hurt her family when they get back if she doesnt come with him. He also says that he will stay outside as long as Connie doesnt jot the phone. Connie is presented with a woof, stay in the house until her family returns which will symbolize their death or go outside with Arnold. It is uncertain which choice Connie will make for a while as she wavers between the selfish way she utilise to think and how s he has recently begun thinking. Oates writes, she cried for her mother(36) when Connie ran for a phone. Somewhere inside her mind she still thinks soul can save her.         Connies have a go at it initiation is shown when she walks through the adit to Arnold. She has come to terms with reality and recognizes her fate. Oates shows a change in thought when she writes, She thought for the first time in her life that it was nothing that was hers(37). Her former state of mind full of boys is gone, the music has stopped, and Connie faces reality. She is alone, no family or house to protect her. Connie has learned the severity of actions and the truth of the world. There is danger and nothing can shield you from it. The vain girl Oates presents the reader with in the beginning of the story is gone. She understands the world does not roll up around her.         The story closes with this revelation. The reader is left to ponder the proceeds of Connie. Whether or not the story is a dream is capa! ble for interpretation. What really matter is that Connie has changed. She has learned that there is danger in the world and that it is necessary to void it. Her perfect world that she created in her mind was shattered and she became an adult in thought. Connie became a cleaning woman on that hot summertime day while her family was at a picnic. Her mom was never to return home to the girl she left at home. Connie authentic a sense of the real world; a world outside the music in her head. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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