Superficiality of appearances in oates vs
Excerpt via Essay:
superficiality of appearances in Oates or Hawthorne
Remember: This is just a sample from a fellow student. Your time is important. Let us write you an essay from scratch
The two protagonists of Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? ” And Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” encounter revelations during the period of their individual tales regarding the societies in which they will inhabit. Connie, Oates’ heroine, learns which the image of young sexuality which usually she believes to be quite powerful is actually very prone and leaves her open to assault coming from men just like Arnold Good friend. The hero of Hawthorne’s tale learns that the evidently pious occupants of the city where he lives are in fact in league with the devil, and the exterior looks hide an immoral key. The designs of the two stories indicate the notion that appearances are generally not what they appear and what is sexual is often innocent within just; while what seems safe has a basically dark and rotten core.
At the beginning of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? ” Oates at first seduces the reader into believing that Connie is actually a powerful youthful woman, certain of her own lives. Unlike her unattractive old sister, fifteen-year-old Connie seems in control of her appearance and her libido. However , Connie’s physical appearance of beauty is usually entirely dependent upon the validation of men. Early on inside the story Oates hints at the fragility of basing one’s sense of self-worth entirely on cultural constructions of femininity. “She knew she was pretty and that was everything. Her mother had been pretty when too, should you could believe those aged snapshots in the album, great her looks were absent and that was why the girl was always after Connie. ” Natural beauty fades and thus does the electric power beauty offers over men – if it has any kind of real electricity at all. Nevertheless , the teenage Connie feels immortal and ignores her mother.
Connie uses her beauty to flirt with boys with the shopping mall. She does not desire them, somewhat she wishes the feeling of power that they seem to offer her: “All the young boys fell as well as dissolved into a single face that was not even a face but the idea, a feeling, mixed up together with the urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July. inch She examines and acts much over the age of she is, and projects an aura of confident sexuality. She would not want to be just like her sibling at university and the lady projects an actual appearance that is very sexualized. But Connie is very innocent. Her splendor is a thing that has simply ‘happened’ to her, and while the girl recognizes that society sees it valuable, the girl does not completely understand what it means, and she overestimates the value of her exterior overall look to protect her from harm. Like a ‘good’ girl, Connie can be the reflection of whatsoever people need her being: “Everything regarding her got two attributes to that, one for property and a single for everywhere that had not been home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to generate anyone think she was hearing music in her head; her mouth, that was pale and smirking usually, but bright and lilac on
