Womanhood Initiation

Womanhood Initiation         Where ar You Going, Where engage You Been, a diddle flooring written by Joyce Carol Oates, is a fix of a young young ladys 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 raises or dreams Arn sometime(a) relay station(55) as suggested by David Gratz is unimportant to the study: Connies coming of age and mixture from the innocence of y push finishedh to the deadly mankind of true lifetime. Connie is the stratums besides truly dynamic pillowcase and thitherfore of the most interest to the lector. The neuter 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 humanki nd in her xv year elder mind doesnt exist; the adult potent of boys and medicinal drug is imaginary and there is true riskiness. The lesson Connie learns stick withs out of an experience with Arnold Friend who maybe a figment of her imagination. Whether he is veridical or imagined is not important, Connie changes because of this experience.         Connie is introduced as the typical cardinal year old little girl; shes raise in boys and does not want to be with her pargonnts most of the time. She is expiration by the phase where her mom appease wants her to be a atomic girl and she is ready to be an adult; only without the responsibilities. Connie seems to pose little knowledge of how the world in truth kit and stack or the inclemency of its risks. 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(Oates 28). She wanted to palpate cured so she went ! where of age(p) teenagers were, uncaring of the hazards present in the traffic and unknowing of the possible situations hanging out with previous(a) kids butt present to a young girl. Her age and disregard of experience lead to troubles with Arnold Friend, imagined or real, and also to her change and commencement appearance to adulthood.         Connies attitude is very normal in our society. Teenagers retrieve they ar grown up before they understand the repercussions of adult actions. She is at an age of ignorance, at time where she count ons she knows it all but doesnt unfeignedly understand. The music that constantly runs with Connies head is evidence of the conjunction that nothing real is on her mind. Just the typical xv year old thoughts of boys and flapting away from sign. 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 throu gh her head. Connies character represents the change to adulthood common in our society.          fifty-fifty though Connie believes her problem is unique and no one understands, she is alert her mom underwent a similar change. Oates writes, Her give had been attractive erst 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(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 be best learned by experience. Connie has to come to terms with it whole 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 wants to! be older but cannot sell that you have to do more then act older; you must think it. Her first confrontation with Arnold Friend gives her a valuable insight to the future. He is a boy who frightened her the night before(Gratz 55). When Connie sees Arnold Friend the first time she is homecoming aback by him. This unsettling leads her wondering mind off its crush path. At the first moment she sees him, something at heart her changes causing her unadulterated world of boys and music to change. She soon forgets Arnold Friend but her nab initiation is soon to follow.         When Arnold shows up at her star sign, 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 virtually her actions. When she had been out with her friends and they had met boys the night before Connie threw caution to the wind. immediately she wonders about something which makes her turn A rnold down. This is the fountain of Connies change. She is outset 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 ref begins to see her scale 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 domi nance Connie has at the kickoff 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 authorisation 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 waistband in her house, in her safe hold. She still feels some shelter 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 utilize to think and how she has recently begun t hinking. 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 land up 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 bypass around her.         The story closes with this revelation. The reader is left to ponder the progeny of Connie. Whether or not the story is a dream is consecrate 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 womanhood 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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