0;she sat on the edge of her bed…for an hour and a half…and lay languidly about in the airless little room, [she] breathed in and breathed out with each gentle rise and fall of her chest” (29). Deep, rhythmic breaths are a strong characteristic of sleep. Hurley believes that Oates uses “enough liquid consonants to furnish a lullaby” in her description of Connie’s rest (374). Shortly after this description, Oates jumps to Connie’s encounter with Arnold Friend. The first read of their encounter leads the reader to follow the story as if it is reality. However, the more the story is read, the easier it becomes for the reader to see Connie’s entangling of reality through her daydreams. This also leads the reader to question whether this encounter was actually reality, and to begin thinking that the experience is actually just a nightmare. On the surface, Connie thinks about the boys she meets, the music she hears, and how beautiful she is. However, her subconscious thoughts could include fears she has of the consequences of her behavior. The possibilities of consequences she may suffer are virtually endless, ranging from getting caught in a lie, to being taken advantage of and possibly killed. The worst case scenario is the latter of the two options provided, and perhaps that is why the story twists into a nightmare of a similar nature. Connie needs to awaken herself to the realities behind her careless actions. This nightmare could be a culmination of these subconscious thoughts along with feelings of guilt that she may have overlooked. Arnold Friend seems to know quite a lot about Connie, especially for someone she has never even met. Connie’s whole encounter with Arnold Friend is “patched together, as dreams are, of people she has seen (Arnold Friend looks like the boy who frightened her the night before), familiar sounds (his voice is the voice on the radio),...
