I am surprised because I found a connection between two things that seem far apart: the strict American parents in the 1960s and 70s and the Old testament laws. Connie‘s mom only focuses on laws and criticisms, just like the laws in Bible. This might lead to some misunderstanding between parents and their children, similar to how God and humans sometimes feel seperated in the Old Testament.

He tells Connie to put the phone back because he wants to cut off her ways to ask for help. This reminds me of the Old Testament in Genesis, where Satan tempted Eve with gentle words and forbidden fruit. Similarly, Arnold Friend is pretending to care for her by saying “That′s a good girl”, while actually making her drop her free will.

That moment troubles me a lot because I linked Arnold Friend to Lucifer. This is not only my intuition, but also supported by evidence in the text. He is threatening Connie while pretending to care for her family, which is a manipulative way to control her. The mixture of sweetness and violence makes him feel like an evil figure.

The stutter gave it away that he's attempting to fabricate a lie. Or that he really had seen them before. It's vaguely put. Either way, it's extremely alarming.

Her mother, to add salt to the wound, would praise her sister, June. Whatever June is Connie isn’t. A distraught favoritism at play.

In two words, it shows the eventual submission, a quiet sacrifice. Extremely powerful.

The sharp contrast between his skin suggests he had been chronically predatory.

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.

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.

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."

I think that if we can also recall classmates in elementary school maybe we can't remember all my classmates.

He remember when he was a kid, he got a gift from my parents and he was so surprised to it.

Yes, we sometimes really want to do something but we usually can't stick with anything.

Human beings eager to acknowledge how the world works and who we are .