From the very beginning of the story through the description of Connie’s
laugh one may see her split personality: “…her
laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home—“Ha, ha, very funny,”—but
highpitched and nervous anywhere else, like the ringing of the charms on her
bracelet.” At home, with those people Connie actually can
trust and rely on, she tries to reveal her revolutionary femininity, to be an
independent grown-up instead of being a sincere and sinless child, while in
public she subconsciously is afraid of showing this desire probably feeling
some invisible danger, as her laugh is nervous. The author also ironically emphasizes
the values of American teenagers including Connie by naming a fast-food restaurant
a sacred building: “They went up through
the maze of parked and cruising cars to the bright-lit, fly-infested
restaurant, their faces pleased and expectant as if they were entering a sacred
building that loomed up out of the night to give them what haven and blessing
they yearned for.” This shows the exaggerated importance of
mediocre public places, which girls see as place where all their ridiculously
huge dreams come true, i.g. where they communicate with boys and show off. The poverty
of Connie’s thoughts is noted in the simile “her mind was filled with trashy daydreams”.
Describing Arnold Friend, Oates used a very accurate simile, comparing
him to a hawk. “And his face was a
familiar face, somehow: the jaw and chin and cheeks slightly darkened because
he hadn’t shaved for a day or two, and the nose long and hawklike, sniffing as
if she were a treat he was going to gobble up and it was all a joke.” This description shows Arnold as a beast of prey, driven by only
animal instincts, ready to eat his victim, sniffing at his food at first. That
is why Arnold Friend appears as particularly violent, like an animal hunter and
predator. Still, trying to pretend someone he is not, Arnold Friend
looks somewhat ridiculous in the eyes of Connie, and this implied simile is a proof:
“a round, grinning face that reminded
Connie of a pumpkin, except it wore sunglasses”. Arnold Friend has “the face
of a forty-year-old baby”, which makes him detestable and repugnant. He tries
to make himself closer to teenagers’ culture by using specific language, like
ellipsis and slang, which creates an effect that he is not quite intelligent,
in fact.
“This place you are now—inside
your daddy’s house—is nothing but a cardboard box I can knock down any time.” In this threat the house, which cannot protect Connie any more, is a
symbol of her childhood, of her family and traditional moral values, which are
all now on the verge of destruction. Once
she herself and the world in general have chosen the way to abandoning the
innocence of a child, the beauty of purity, they cannot come back and be safe
and sound anymore. Connie screamed for her mum, trying to get back to serenity
of her lost childhood, hoping to get some help from the one she has already
lost, but the “adult” life, full of pain, had reached her.
In the very end of the story Oates
uses allusion to Bob Dylan’s song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” in the words
of Arnold Friends: “My sweet little
blue-eyed girl”. It symbolized the end of many things: of kindness,
innocence, childhood, family, love, and probably of life.
