The way Connie behaved with friends showed how she longed to grow up and have adult relations. When Connie went out with friends, they would run "across the highway, ducking fast across the busy road, to a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out" (2). The continual music in these circumstances represents how they try to act older. When she went out, "her walk [could be] languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head" (2). Music always played at their hangout, the local restaurant. They "listened to the music that made everything so good; the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon" (2). In these instances, the music is enjoyable and well-liked by Conni

Connie's sexual desires are once again revealed through the music one morning when she is home alone. Her family has gone to a barbecue, and Connie "turns on the radio to drown out the quiet" (3). She sat in the sun with her eyes closed and "her mind slipped over onto thoughts of boys . . . and how sweet it always was . . . the way it was in movies and promised in songs" (3). The music is relevant here because Connie is thinking maturely about boys. Her thoughts are sexual and she takes pleasure from them. As Connie listened to the radio, she was "bathed in a glow of slow-pulsed joy that seemed to rise mysteriously out of the music itself" (3). This again shows the familiarity of the music and how it brings Connie joy to act grown-up. She longs to grow older and enjoys every opportunity possible where she has the chance to act with a new and different manner, especially with boys.

But all of Connie's fantasies and dreams change just moments later when a car with two older guys pulls into Connie's driveway. They are strangers to Connie, yet the driver, Arnold Friend, openly expresses his strong feelings for Connie. At first, she is flattered by the stranger's interest in her and his compliments, flirting back and noticing "the way he was dressed . . . and the hard small muscles of his arms and shoulders" (5). But she soon becomes nervous and uneasy, not sure whether the situation is fun or dangerous. The passenger, Ellie, has a little transistor radio with him and it happens to be playing the same program Connie is listening to in her

Some common words found in the essay are:
Carol Oates, Arnold Friend, Connie Friend, Connie Oates, adult world, , Connie Trying, joyce carol oates, Joyce Carol, carol oates, return innocence, perpetual music, connie moved, grown-up situations, feelings connie, arnold friend, music fades, innocence connie,
Approximate Word count = 1051
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)