Character Analysis: Connie, in "Where Are Going, Where Have You Been?

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The main character, Connie, in "Where Are Going, Where Have You Been?" is best described as the rebellious, stereotypical American teen girl. She is obsessed with fashion, hair, and external appearances; she is quite shallow and narcissistic as she worries merely about herself and looks: "She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right."

Connie's arrogance is further depicted as "Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything." Her lack of respect and rudeness toward her family, especially her mother and sister, is denoted with her attitude, "...Connie wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over. "She makes me want to throw up sometimes," she complained to her friends. She had a high, breathless, amused voice that made everything she said sound a little forced, whether it was sincere or not."

She is also quite flirty with boys and a bit of a "tease." Her wild side is shown with "Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out; her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home-"Ha, ha, very funny,"-but highpitched and nervous anywhere else, like the jingling of the charms on her bracelet."

Since Connie is lured from her life of innocence and teenage games into realizing that flirting with men/boys can have dire consequences, this learning curve harshly proves that Connie is a round character. Her maturity occurs from the realization that Arnold's intentions are not innocent but sadist as "Connie felt a wave of dizziness rise in her at this sight and she stared at him as if waiting for something to change the shock of the moment, make it all right again. Ellie's lips kept shaping words, mumbling along with the words blasting in his ear."

As she is lured (and allegedly later victimized) by Arnold Friend, she changes from a selfish brat to more humbled as "Connie saw with shock that he wasn't a kid either-he had a fair, hairless face, cheeks reddened slightly as if the veins grew too close to the surface of his skin, the face of a forty-year-old ...