|
Post by keelycorrigan on Dec 19, 2013 13:54:50 GMT
I’d like to cha-cha right alongside Jessie’s point because I agree that Connie is not missing guidance, but accepting the wrong kind of guidance. Connie is the typical lonely American girl who listens to the radio—but not her mother—and her friends—but not her father—or anyone else that will advise her.
I believe that this is why she turns to outside sources for attention. I know that this sounds like a typical “daddy issues” comment, but to me Connie represents the archetypal rebellious teenager—“daddy issues” and all. Her commonality and archetypal quality makes this story even more frightening than it would be than if it were an isolated case. In this world there are Arnold Friends taking advantage of and hurting the Connies. This kind of crime, nightmare—as Gary insinuated—happens everyday. To me, though I can see the idea of the incident being a dream, I do not see it as a dream because of the prevalence of such crimes in the society from which this story comes from.
|
|
|
Post by billfeng on Dec 19, 2013 14:50:30 GMT
It's all about wandering aimlessly, man.
The 1960's: a decade of love, sex, and drugs. Hipsters are everywhere. "American morals are in decline".
Connie is a energetic youth living in an era where morality seems to be little more than a burden in a society that has become drastically more liberalized. I like what David has to say about Connie's wandering as a mechanism to find guidance. The two places where moral guidance is most often set in stone, the home and the church, are completely absent in Connie's life. Connie's mother, who mentally abuses Connie for being carefree and self-absorbed, does not provide Connie with a familial safe haven. With none of the normal resources available to her, Connie tries to craft a sense of morality through the music of her time period. I find her "music morality" to be rather superficial and flimsy, for it causes her to wander aimlessly without a moral anchor. I believe that her hypothetical demise at the hands of Arnold Friend may be a direct result of her wandering.
Connie believes that the purpose of her identity is to become as antithetical to her sister as possible. Since her sister, June, lives a clearly boring and modest life, Connie attempts to avoid a similar fate by wandering the nightlife of her town and being promiscuous. Her identity is horrifically unrealistic and a little sad, since Connie believes the purpose of it is to be counter-intuitive to June's identity instead of using it to define her own selfhood.
|
|
|
Post by hannahboe on Dec 19, 2013 20:29:43 GMT
As this question pertains to morals, I would like to approach this question from my Critical Lens….Moral! Hooray! Not for Connie though. The poor girl was losing the moral race before she even crossed the starting line. We have discussed that Connie’s parents, her community (or lack thereof), the time, etc. are all possibly to blame for how she turned out. She is troubled and her lack of guidance pushes her towards some very immoral situations (sex with random guys in dark alleyways…) and ultimately a miserable end brought upon her by another immoral soul. In many respects this story is great. It is terrifying and complicated and thought-provoking, altogether an exceptional piece of literature. Connie’s undeveloped morals pose some interesting questions: why are Connie’s morals as warped and unhealthy as they are? What does she do to make up for that? These are good questions in general, and from the perspective of moral criticism, they make the story “good.” Connie’s complicated moral life does, “enlarge our moral imagination” (Gillespie) in a very effective way, but it does not provide us with a moral dilemma which we can identify with. Another aspect of a “good” story from a moral perspective is the moral questions it poses which the reader must grapple with in the context of their own life and morals. More than the creepiness of Arnold Friend or the fact that he might be the devil, Connie’s moral complications are what make this story great.
|
|