He didn't bother talking much to them, but around his bent headConnie's mother kept picking at her until Connie wished her mother was dead and sheherself was dead and it was all over.
It is surprising that a teenage girl would wish for both her mother and herself to die just because of family arguments.
with charm braceletsjingling on their thin wrists; they would lean together to whisper and laugh secretly ifsomeone passed who amused or interested them. Connie had long dark blond hair thatdrew anyone's eye to it, and she wore part of it pulled up on her head and puffed out andthe rest of it she let fall down her back. She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked oneway when she was at home and another way when she was away from home
This sentenceis interesting because the author writes out the scene which Connie is free and happy with her friends.
Her heart was almost too bignow for her chest and its pumping made sweat break out all over her. She looked out tosee Arnold Friend pause and then take a step toward the porch, lurching. He almost fell.But, like a clever drunken man, he managed to catch his balance. He wobbled in his highboots and grabbed hold of one of the porch posts.
This passage is interesting because Arnold Friend seems both clumsy and in control. His strange movements make him look unpredictable and threatening, which makes me feel tense.
mother's tone was approving, and if Connie's name was mentioned it was disapproving.This did not really mean she disliked Connie, and actually Connie thought that hermother preferred her to June just because she was prettier, but the two of them kept up apretense of exasperation, a sense that they were tugging and struggling over something oflittle value to either of them. Sometimes, over coffee, they were almost friends, butsomething would come up—some vexation that was like a fly buzzing suddenly aroundtheir heads—and their faces went hard with contempt.
Initially, Connie clearly expresses that her mom doesn't like her, but in this paragraph, she says her mom prefers her to June, and sometimes they act like friends. However, they seem to pretend to argue. That is interesting to me.
He looked at her. He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around hiseyes was, like holes that were not in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were like chipsof broken glass that catch the light in an amiable w
This paragraph vividly portrays Arnold’s image and makes readers sense that something is off about him.
They must have been familiar sights, walking around the shopping plaza in theirshorts and flat ballerina slippers that always scuffed the sidewalk,
This is interesting because it reminds me that teenage girls often pay close attention to their appearance.
June did this, June did that, she savedmoney and helped clean the house and cookedand Connie couldn't do a thing, her mindwas all filled with trashy daydreams.
Her mother, to add salt to the wound, would praise her sister, June. Whatever June is Connie isn’t. A distraught favoritism at play.
"Oh, her. That dope."
It's interesting to see how she downplays her friendship with Pettinger, an attempt to have it fly under her mother's radar, preserving her social life.
so much land that Connie had never seen before anddid not recognize except to know that she was going to it.
An uncertain fate awaits Connie as she is taken away. Whether she really recognize the place or not, the landscape here represents uncertainty, vast and unknown.
Everythingabout her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home:
I think this sentence was very interesting is because it shows that Connie is two different people at home and outside. It feels like the common phenomenon among teenagers: "one way in front of parents, another way outside."
Weare a species that needs and wants to understand who we are
Human beings eager to acknowledge how the world works and who we are .