Perhaps one of the great hallmarks of a great work of fiction is its
ability to appear to have been written for the age during which it is being
read, regardless of how far back in time it was written. In other words,
Joyce Carol Oates' story might strike a contemporary adolescent or young
adult reader as something timeless. Or rather, although it was written
during the 1960's, it seems as if it is quintessentially about today's
average fifteen-year-old teenage girl. Connie seems to be a perfect
Britney Spears wanna-be, disdaining her slightly tubby older sister,
refusing to listen to her mother, and glutting herself at the mall in acts
conspicuous consumption, and conspicuous, revealing outfits.
Yet, incongruously to the modern eye, the background "Story of
Origins" to Oates' tale locates the short story squarely back in the era
when it was written, the periods of teenage rebellion of the Beat and
hippie generations. (Moser & Johnson 164-165) In such a view, Connie's
sexuality is repressed by her prudish society. Adults like her mother
attempt to repress her budding interest in sex, but such an interest is
brought forth by the appearance of the strange Mr. Arnold Friend in his
even stranger car. Of the critics catalogued in excerpts after the story,
Mark Tierce and John Michael Crafton argue most explicitly for such a
reading, and as such they go most explicitly awry in their view of Connie.
Far from seeking a "Mr. Tambourine Man," as Crafton and Tierce allege,
Connie is not a repressed sexual being in a society that refuses to
acknowledge female longing, rather she is a child in woman's clothing in a
society that sees, and than hypocritically ignores female sexuality and the
dangers it lays women open to. (Tierce & Crafton 167) She is playing a
role just as much as Arnold Friend, as Friend is an adult aping the
Tierce and Crafton make much of the sto
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