alice
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Post by alice on Dec 9, 2013 3:37:05 GMT
The way I read it, Bonnie's music didn't seem to be a reflection of her life but rather an escape from the semi-good life she was living. I got the feeling that she was not living all she wanted to and through the music she could live more of her dream life. Even with her friends she seemed to be living with an emptiness in her life that she attempted to fill with the screaming, upbeat music that she blasted throughout her house when she finally got alone. I think the dedication to Bob Dylan ties into this gap filling music fix since his music inspired filling your life with bigger and greater things. Bob Dylan provided the extra oomph that many young people thought was lacking in their unfulfilled lives, much like Connie found in the power of music.
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Post by mitralebuhn on Dec 9, 2013 4:09:40 GMT
I, as do many of us, agree that Connie's world is fragile. I completely agree with Arnold Friend when he brings up the notion that her house is like a cardboard box, and he can shatter it if he wants. This statement really resonated with me as it showed how delicate our lives are. On one end, it made me feel very vulnerable, it took away my sense of safety. But at the same time it made me question what it is that we ground ourselves with? We really are never truly safe, we can only perceive a sense of safety based off of false layers. For example, Connie finds safety in music and the escape it provides. Music allows her to let go, as well as to search for the love and attention she secretly desires from her mother and family. She dreams of being recognized, as indirectly mentioned with the words, "but around his bent head Connie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over," (614). But, in the end we learn music was an insufficient form of protection and she ends up feeling lost and hurt when the context of her music is altered. By context I mean she was no longer listening to it in a safe environment, and the music was not enough to help remove her from the situation and take her some place else that was safe. Had Connie felt she had a strong base of love and support in her life, she would not have given in to Arnold Friends manipulative ways and could have kept more level headed in the heat of the moment because familial love and support cannot be twisted in an altered context like music can. Without a moral base and love to guide us, everything is a lot scarier in life. To connect this concept on a more personal scale, I was thinking about life and death a lot this weekend and had a realization. I think that when we are not living the life we want to live in the moment, death become a very scary idea because it seems there is no time to figure out how to live and to live that way. But, when we live when our personalized ideal mentality, death can't be scary because we have nothing to worry about missing out on and there is no concern over time because we are living just how we wish to. This makes me think about how Connie must feel, in that she is scared and confused because she is not swaddled and cared for by her family in the way she subconsciously wishes to be, but if she was to feel that love and support without relying on anything tangible or fleeting, like music or material objects, she could live without fear as she would have a fulfilled mentality and way of living. This connection is a little vague and confusing, I admit, and I'm not entirely sure how to put the right words to describe it eloquently. But hey, I tried hopefully you get my idea!
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Post by Lauren on Dec 9, 2013 4:33:28 GMT
Music is something that is very unique and individual for each generation. There's always that rock n roll, rap, hip hop etc "that those youngsters listen to these days". Teenagers who are growing up into their adulthood tend to want to drift from what they parents are. They love being rebellious and coming up with their own identity. Music is a great (and extremely common) way for them to do that. By Arnold playing the same music as Connie when he goes to her, he's trying to connect and relate to her on a level she would understand. She is distracted by this, and lets herself believe for a minute that he's just another teenage boy interested in her. Another thing about music is that each generation of new "youngster music" tends to be more sexually promiscuous. Connie listening to the new "immoral" (as compared to the music of her grandparent's generation) music, shows how she's wanting to break off the preset path laid before her. Hearing the music in Arnold's car reminds her that she's trying to be herself, and become a independent, sexual woman, making it easier for her to justify staying to talk to Arnold.
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Post by shannonfender on Dec 9, 2013 5:00:12 GMT
"It's All Over Now Baby Blue" Popular in the 1960’s, Bob Dylans music represented a time that was truly a-changing, and this, along with the author’s inspiration from the song “ It’s All Over Now Baby Blue”, is evident throughout the text. Music in this sense embodies Connie's attitude and feelings towards her family and her conservative life. The 60's was a time of social upheaval... Children were becoming more rebellious, minorities were beginning to speak out, and music in itself was riskier, confrontational, and a means of addressing social ills. Connie's feels isolated from the vibrant and changing world that exists just beyond her bubble, and because of this she is eager to detach herself. Thus, music takes on the role of an escape.
Arnold Friend is in this way the embodiment of the music. He is flashy, daring, and dangerous. He essentially kidnaps Connie from her innocence . Connie is thus uprooted from her life and about to set out in a world she had only heard through song.
Music created an alluring depiction of the world, and now Connie is about to go experience it for herself. Sadly, it may turn out to be drastically different from what she originally imagined.
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Kasey
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Post by Kasey on Dec 9, 2013 5:59:13 GMT
As far as music goes, the thing that most caught my attention was that the radio Ellie was holding and the radio playing in Connie's house were synced. I thought this was interesting because, at least in my experience, it's hard to hear two radios at once without one being a little behind the other. I'm not a scientist, but I think that has to do with your position between the two radios, and because Connie heard them both synced, this suggests that she was the same distance to each radio, or caught in the middle. It also suggests a tie between her and Arnold Friend.
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Post by danyhong55 on Dec 9, 2013 6:11:30 GMT
It seems that music represents Connie's pseudo-maturity. At age fifteen, her head is filled with copious amounts of hormones that make her crave the sexuality that comes with maturing and growing older, and to a certain point, she gets it. But what she wants isn't what many would call an unrealistic manifestation of relationship that occur in the "real" and "adult" world. It seems that the music Connie listens to actually propagates these unrealistic thoughts of romance and courtships. The contents of the songs she listens to can be liken to this generation's Taylor Swift's relationship conquests. Like fifteen year old girls today have day dreams similar to story in the music video of "You Belong with Me" (On a side note, this story was published when MTV still aired music videos), Connie probably had the same types of dreams, simply with attire apropos of her time (Namely with Neon-color, poofy jackets, belly-high jeans, and head-bands). This can be seen in her listening music and trashily daydreaming (presumably about boys). Her fulfillment of her dreams bring her excess pleasure as seen in pg. 615: she had a face gleaming with joy that was connected with the music, and infer-ably, her daydreams.
However, these unrealistic expectations of adulthood is suddenly and irrevocably torn away from her when Arnold Friend comes into the picture. In my first read-through, I thought that his physique, for the most part, was desirable. Of course he has a few quirks that make his seem weird. To Connie, who wanted the attention of older men, this was her moment. But now that she had his attention, she was unsure of what next to do. When Arnold approaches the house, Connie is listening to "Bobby King" (pg. 617) and the like, most romanticizing, well, romance. They are almost juvenile in the way that they don't expose the darker sides of sexuality that she is about to experience. When Arnold starts to become apparent that he is at her house to not only give Connie a ride but give her a "ride," the story takes a dark turn and the music disappears, replaced with "Something roaring" (pg. 623). As that music was torn away, she lost her misguided perception of what "adult" sexuality really is, the one that her music said it was.
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Post by adamgrace on Dec 9, 2013 6:47:15 GMT
Starting with the most obvious connection, Bob Dylan's song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is primarily about a Jewish girl living in Nazi Germany according to Dylan himself. Now, this may not seem like a very obvious connection but bear with me. While this analogy may be slightly exaggerated it still stands as a valid point. Connie lives in a society where she feels that to fit in she must do whatever the society believes is right. She's essentially imprisoned by her own longing to be accepted. But when she listens to music she feels as though her shackles have been broken. "The music was always in the background like music as a church service, it was something to depend upon," (615) Connie falls back on music to help her regain her humanity and sense of individuality as it slowly slips from her grasp into the murky depths of societal servitude.
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steph
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Posts: 13
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Post by steph on Dec 9, 2013 7:45:17 GMT
Music has a uniquely powerful ability to provide a sense of reality through the vicarious nature of art, while it contains an almost paradoxical quality in being able to give an intoxicating sense of hope, the kind that Bobby King makes you dance about. Connie receives these two effects on different levels; the hope is consciously received, it influences her actions so that she becomes trusting, uplifted, and happy in her own independence. The facts in the music, however, are inspired by the artists’ realizations that her independence is, at the current social status, hardly able to support her. Her independence can be knocked down like a card board box. I believe that the music, while providing her a fantasy world, also made her recognize why that music was being sung, albeit she recognized it subconsciously. Her subconscious found the reality embedded in the music, and applied the reality being sung about, the limitations existing in the world, to her own narrowed potential. When she left her house I believe it was because the music had sung into her that she hadn’t any choice. Friend’s lilting voice blended with the music from XYZ radio, and the songs that had filled her were twisted and paralleled with evil. In several instances with Connie’s encounter with Friend she associates his words with ideas found in songs, about the girl running into her boyfriend’s arms for instance. When the words stop, when the hope that had propelled her is disassociated from the music that had let her create herself, she is empty. The music in WAYGWHYB? explores how music can create a person, but the self-reflective nature of how one interprets that music can destroy them.
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Post by yongkim on Dec 9, 2013 9:44:21 GMT
Often times, we utilize music as a complement to our life. Especially in movies or any type of film, music is always present to aid in expressing the mood of the scene. I listen to different kinds of music depending on the situation; however, the music I select will always make me feel good inside. I view music as something that allows us to be carefree in the situation we are stuck in. Connie in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is constantly rebuked by her own mother for caring for her looks too much, and she is consequently miserable with her life. Nevertheless, Connie is able to escape from her home to hang out with her friends at a restaurant to meet boys. While Connie and her friends are at the drive-in, Oates reveals, "They sat at the counter and crossed their legs at the ankles... and listened to the music that made everything so good" (615). As Natalie stated before, the music at the restaurant is a form of escape from reality for Connie and it makes her feel some sort of joy that would not be felt in her home with the rest of her family.
Arnold Friend is able to use Connie's pleasure against her. He pretends to be a lot younger than he really is as he uses references to teenage popular music. When Arnold plays Bobby King on the radio, Connie is temporarily tempted to fall into his trap. Bobby King is the type of music that transforms her into a carefree girl when she is away from her mother's nagging. Luckily, Connie snaps out of this trance and realizes Arnold is manipulating her through music and everything that comes along with it at the time: sexual desires and the vivacity of teenage life.
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Post by cassiecumberland on Dec 11, 2013 0:59:50 GMT
I want to comment that I DO think that Connie has a choice not to go with Arnold, but I don't think she knew it and that's what is hard to read in the story. The fact that she doesn't know what she could have and what she wants is so little when compared.
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Post by anaritter on Dec 19, 2013 0:45:25 GMT
My mom, who loves Bob Dylan and often reads along with our class, told me that she thought "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" might be based upon Bob Dylan's song, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". When I looked up the lyrics to it, I found lines like, "Whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast", "forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you", "the vagabond who's rapping at your door is standing in the clothes that you once wore", and most interestingly, "strike another match, go start anew". I think these lines from "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" are almost parallel to Connie's relationship with the music she listens to. She wants something different, though she doesn't know what it is or how she's going to get there. She listens to music to culturally connect with all the changes going on and identify where she feels she should be as a young woman and live vicariously through the lyrics. She doesn't really like the life she has, and she wants to go, but she doesn't know where or how. She wants to change but doesn't know what she wants to change into. To me, this story is full of uncertainty and guessing and wishing and it makes me sad. Connie takes the words she hears in music that she doesn't fully understand about a world that she definitely doesn't understand for fact and for ideal.
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Post by juliamoreland on Dec 19, 2013 2:45:49 GMT
The lasting impression that the class discussion left on me is the concept of evolving culture, and shifting morals and focus. Connie listens to music as if it is her religion. Instead of going to church, she listens to her music and falls deep into its trance. Many people see religion as a path of guidance and source of relief, and Connie finds the same in music. When Arnold comes along, he even replicates the voice that Connie has trained herself to love, “We come out here to take you for a ride. It’s Sunday.” He had the voice of the man on the radio now. It was the same voice, Connie thought” (620). Arnold manipulates any parallels to Connie’s life that he can, and that includes music. His voice is the voice she has trusted, and relied on to keep her out of the “boring” crowd and her family. Now, this SAME voice beckons and Connie does not hear a manipulative rapist, but instead the voice of rebellious culture, calling for her to leave her safe spot. Perhaps it is not even the same voice at all, but Connie sees everything in terms of pop culture.
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Post by Jake on May 10, 2021 23:48:54 GMT
word thanks guys
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