personal information (the names of her friends), and her own attitudes” (Gillis 56). This familiarity that Connie experiences at first with Arnold does not last long. Connie’s house is a symbol of her childhood, and a place of safety for her to escape to. However, when Connie enters the kitchen, and it is “like a place she had never seen before” that “wasn’t going to help her” (Oates 34). It is through this description of the kitchen that Oates exhibits Connie’s realization that her family does not protect her actions. She is going to have to take responsibility for her own actions. This realization is enforced when Arnold Friend reminds Connie that her parents are not going to be coming to her rescue. He also deprives her from the security she had felt for her house when he told her that “‘The place where you came from ain’t there anymore, and the place where you had in mind to go is cancelled out’”(37). Friend does not hesitate in telling Connie that she is about to experience an awakening into a new world that he was going to bring her into. This new world is one that Connie had already flirted with. It involves maturity, and sexual encounters, which is what Arnold Friend wants to give Connie. He represents the transition Connie will have from the world of innocence into the world of experience. Arnold is also representative of Connie’s subconscious fears of this world of experience, but he is in her nightmare to reveal to her how her actions have consequences. Acting like you are older than you are can always get you in trouble. In Connie’s situation, her behavior could result in the robbing of her innocence as well as possible death. Although Connie knows that she can not be a child forever, her dream shows her that running away from childhood will result in terrible things. The transition between being a child and being an...
