The End

Joyce Carol Oates uses characterization to show how Connie acts throughout the story. Connie at the beginning is the girl who doesn’t care about anything but tries to look good for the boys and wants to fit in. Connie at the end becomes this frightened little girl, who doesn’t know what to do in that situation.   Connie was torn between two different lifestyles. The first was her home life that consists of a materialistic mother, a plain jane sister, and an unemotional father. Her second lifestyle was with her friends in a rebellious life. Was her downfall the fault of her arrogance or her unsupportive family?
At the beginning Connie is nonchalant. She is a typical teenager. She hides her feelings from her family. At the end of the story the real comes out. She shows who she really is when she is put in a bad situation. At the beginning of the story Connie is not a family person at all. She doesn’t really care to be around her mother. She doesn’t like her sister because her mother sees highly about her sister, but does not see highly about her. Connie is very beautiful, and she knew she was beautiful. She is also very flirtatious. What draws Connie away from her family the most is her mother. Every time her mother talks about her sister, June, then her voice approving and reassuring, but when her mother talks about Connie then her mother’s voice get disapproving. Connie does what a typical teenager does. She likes to go out with friends and doesn’t like to be at home. Connie is at the point that she wants her mother to die and for everything to go away. Connie wanted to do her best to look good for the boys. Connie didn’t have to any good things going for her, but being beautiful so she had to use that to her advantage. She was so worried about impressing boys that the messed around and impressed to wrong one. Connie is materialistic. She knows that she has nothing going for her, but she tries to hide it from every one. You can tell that she doesn’t have high...