Analytical Essay About Connie's Connie

Connie was young and beautiful, working hard to show off her maturity and sexuality in spite of her mother’s disapproval. Her vivacity and charisma attracted boys and men alike, which gave her the attention she so desperately craved. Her thirst for attention was quenched by an unlikely and unwanted man who forced her to confront the harsh reality of the world, bearing no resemblance to what she daydreamed love and romance would be. It was no secret that Connie was beautiful. She knew it, her mother knew it, and this realization caused tension between the two. Her mother would catch Connie admiring her beauty, which led to criticizing questions such as “stop gawking at yourself, who are you?” “You think you’re so pretty” (Oates 451). Connie’s

In the beginning, she “wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over” (452). This is due to the fact that they bicker constantly and Connie is constantly criticized. Later, she expresses that she thought “her mother preferred her to June because she was prettier” even though whenever her mother talked about the two, “mother’s tone was approving” when June was discussed and “if Connie’s name was mentioned it was disapproving” (Oates 453). At the end of the story, when Connie was scared and in trouble, her feelings toward her mother shift. She “cried for her mother” and proved that she wasn’t as grown up as she thought (Oates 461). As a man coerced her out of her house, she began to think negative and fear based thoughts such as “I’m not going to see my mother again,” “I’m not going to sleep in my bed again” (Oates 461). These feelings are very different than those that were in the beginning. She now sees that the world is not at all similar to what she daydreams about. She felt her heart and felt as though it was not her own, “just a pounding, living thing inside this body that wasn’t really hers either” (Oates 161). As reality hits her, she becomes more and more frightened and fragile until she feels no feelings at all, only involuntary mechanical motions coming from her