Connie Character Development

Connie never seemed to accept the role of daughter, sister and "nice" girl, instead she chose to feed into her sexual identity, which is only alive and well away from her home and family. She pokes fun at her older sister June and always finds constant conflict with her family.Her concerns are those of the typical adolescent, she obsesses about her looks, listens to music, hangs out with her friends, flirts with boys, and explores her sexuality.Connie takes great pride in knowing that boys and often older men find her beautiful. Connie has created a certain manner of dressing, laughing, walking, really everything centered around her appearence towards the opposite sex. She has a duality in personality in that she acts. "She wore a pulover jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home. Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk that could be childlike and bobing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head.... "

This all changes when Arnold Friend arrives at her house. This event caused the dualities of her personality to meet one another violently. Until this point her sexuality was less of her true persona and more an act for the attention she so craves.

No matter how hard Connie may try to substantiate her maturity with boys and clothes, she is not as mature as she would like to tell herself. She desperatley wants to take on the role of an attractive women but can't seem to drop the bonds of being a teenager. At her first taste of the real world and its sexual deviance she is mortified. As a girl she knows little about the reality of life and what it entails and prefered to lose herself in her juvenile ideas about love adopted from pop love songs. When Arnold appears at her house, she tries to seem in control and unfazed, but she eventually breaks down and is overpowered by him. In her moments of terror, she proves herself to be childlike: she calls out for her mother.

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