He didn't bother talking much to them, but around his bent headConnie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and sheherself was dead and it was all over.
It is surprising that a teenage girl would wish for both her mother and herself to die just because of family arguments.
she knewshe was pretty and that was everything
It shows that Connie’s entire sense of identity is based on her appearance.
How do you know what my name is?" she said suspiciously
It’s troubling because she never said her name but he knew it.
I toldja shut up, Ellie," Arnold Friend said,
The way the author uses "toldja" is weird, is the author emphasize Anrold's friend talking voice.
She stood
I am surprised that Connie is so brave and confident to refuse Anrold's friend
with charm braceletsjingling on their thin wrists; they would lean together to whisper and laugh secretly ifsomeone passed who amused or interested them. Connie had long dark blond hair thatdrew anyone's eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out andthe rest of it she let fall down her back. She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked oneway when she was at home and another way when she was away from home
This sentenceis interesting because the author writes out the scene which Connie is free and happy with her friends.
Her heart was almost too bignow for her chest and its pumping made sweat break out all over her. She looked out tosee Arnold Friend pause and then take a step toward the porch, lurching. He almost fell.But, like a clever drunken man, he managed to catch his balance. He wobbled in his highboots and grabbed hold of one of the porch posts.
This passage is interesting because Arnold Friend seems both clumsy and in control. His strange movements make him look unpredictable and threatening, which makes me feel tense.
Maybe you two better go away," Connie said faintly."What? How come?" Arnold Friend cried. "We come out here to take you for a ride.
This is troubling because Arnold’s words sound friendly at first, but they actually suggest danger and coercion. It shows that Connie is being lured into a situation she can’t control, creating fear and suspense.
she knewshe was pretty and that was everything.
It is surprising that, at only fifteen, she already believes beauty is the most important thing in life.
DONEBY CRAZY WOMAN DRIVE
We done really know who made the bump but the language, I think, suggests a deeply rooted Misogyny.
He didn't bother talking much to them, but around his bent headConnie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and sheherself was dead and it was all over.
I'm surprised that Connie and I have the same feeling because of Mom's constant nagging.
mother's tone was approving, and if Connie's name was mentioned it was disapproving.This did not really mean she disliked Connie, and actually Connie thought that hermother preferred her to June just because she was prettier, but the two of them kept up apretense of exasperation, a sense that they were tugging and struggling over something oflittle value to either of them. Sometimes, over coffee, they were almost friends, butsomething would come up—some vexation that was like a fly buzzing suddenly aroundtheir heads—and their faces went hard with contempt.
Initially, Connie clearly expresses that her mom doesn't like her, but in this paragraph, she says her mom prefers her to June, and sometimes they act like friends. However, they seem to pretend to argue. That is interesting to me.
I took a special interest in you, such a pretty girl, and found out all about you—like I know your parents and sister are gone somewheres and I know where and how longthey're going to be gone, and I know who you were with last night, and your best girlfriend's name is Betty. Right?"
In the beginning, I think the boy only knows Connie's name, but in this paragraph, he tells her that he knows where her family goes, how long they will be gone, and even the name of her best friend. It makes me feel uncomfortable.
"Connie, you ain't telling the truth. This is your day set aside for a ride with me andyou know it," he said, still laughing. The way he straightened and recovered from his fit oflaughing showed that it had been all fak
That part where Arnold pretends Connie already agreed to go with him is troubling because it feels manipulative and fake.
n. Ellie turned for the first time and Connie saw withshock that he wasn't a kid either—he had a fair, hairless face, cheeks reddened slightly asif the veins grew too close to the surface of his skin, the face of a forty-year-old ba
I didn't find that Arnold's friend was even older than him.
He looked at her. He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around hiseyes was, like holes that were not in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were like chipsof broken glass that catch the light in an amiable w
This paragraph vividly portrays Arnold’s image and makes readers sense that something is off about him.
This here is my name, to begin with, he said. ARNOLD FRIENDwas written in tarlike black letters on the side,
The way he introduced his name was strange, and he even marked numbers on his car, which makes people question his identity and purpose.
They must have been familiar sights, walking around the shopping plaza in theirshorts and flat ballerina slippers that always scuffed the sidewalk,
This is interesting because it reminds me that teenage girls often pay close attention to their appearance.
"Gonna get you, baby,
This really surprised me,why would someone use such a flirtatious tone when meeting a person for the first time??
"Aunt Tillie's. Right now they're uh—they're drinking. Sitting around," he saidvaguely, squinting as if he were staring all the way to town and over to Aunt Tillie's backyard. Then the vision seemed to get clear and he nodded energetically.
The stutter gave it away that he's attempting to fabricate a lie. Or that he really had seen them before. It's vaguely put. Either way, it's extremely alarming.
June did this, June did that, she savedmoney and helped clean the house and cookedand Connie couldn't do a thing, her mindwas all filled with trashy daydreams.
Her mother, to add salt to the wound, would praise her sister, June. Whatever June is Connie isn’t. A distraught favoritism at play.
She stood
In two words, it shows the eventual submission, a quiet sacrifice. Extremely powerful.
He looked at her. He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around hiseyes was, like holes that were not in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were like chipsof broken glass that catch the light in an amiable way.
The sharp contrast between his skin suggests he had been chronically predatory.
"Oh, her. That dope."
It's interesting to see how she downplays her friendship with Pettinger, an attempt to have it fly under her mother's radar, preserving her social life.
so much land that Connie had never seen before anddid not recognize except to know that she was going to it.
An uncertain fate awaits Connie as she is taken away. Whether she really recognize the place or not, the landscape here represents uncertainty, vast and unknown.
Everythingabout her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home:
I think this sentence was very interesting is because it shows that Connie is two different people at home and outside. It feels like the common phenomenon among teenagers: "one way in front of parents, another way outside."
Weare a species that needs and wants to understand who we are
Human beings eager to acknowledge how the world works and who we are .