Toni Cade Bambara reveals the many different labels a 1970s Brooklyn community unconsciously gives an older African-American woman. Throughout the short story, My Man Bovanne, a woman by the name of Ms. Hazel stresses that her main focus is to give back to her community. Ms. Hazel is also a mother of three and although she seems to always have good intentions, her children seem to think otherwise. The conflicting representation of Ms. Hazel through her clothes, nurturing tactics, and form of dance is evident through the way her children view her actions and the way Ms. Hazel intends to be viewed. Ms. Hazel’s children do not approve of her fashion because they do not think it is appropriate for a woman her age.
One begins to understand that his mom is pushing him for his own good and it is what is best for him. The other is pushed too hard and loses her self-confidence. Their mothers just want them to be able to succeed in life, because as children, Amy and Mark’s moms were uneducated and unhappy. In “Kaffir Boy” and “Two Kinds”, children are faced with high expectations to become educated and become something great, which challenge their relationships with their respected mothers. Throughout the stories the children are faced with the expectation to succeed.
For example, Like any other female adolescent, she is preoccupied with make up, boys and music. Connie's first experience is when she meets Arnold Friend - described by Oates as one who appears at first glace as "a boy with shaggy, black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold"(427) – He tricks her by luring her in with his sly words. He even changes his look in order to draw Connie to himself. Connie is a girl whose perception of the world has been shaped by her family and "culture," causing her life to be literally split into two. At home, she acts as if she were an innocent child that is not concerned with the dynamics of the opposite sex.
Edie is a fifteen year old girl that did not fare very well in school, so her parents decided to take her out of school after she finished the last in the class. Edie went to for Dr. and Mrs. Pebbles where she took care of the two children and cared for the home and the cooking. The plot is the dynamic element in fiction, a sequence if interrelated, conflicting actions and events that typically build to a climax and bring about a resolution (Clugston, 2010). The plot in “How I Meet My Husband” is how a young innocent farm girl waiting for a gypsy pilot to write her a letter. She never hears from him again but still manages to find love while maturing and learning a life lesson.
Where are you going, where have you been? The story, “Where are you going, where have you been?” written by Joyce Carol Oates is a story about a 15-year old girl named Connie who is very naive, careless, and selfish. She wants to do whatever it is she wants to do and just be her own person, but her mom never seems to fail to get on her case about her being selfish and conceited. “Stop gawking at yourself! Who are you?
In other case, she was raised by her father and brother because her mom died when she was two. When Scout was a narrator this is what she said to the reader “’ Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence”’ (7). This quote shows that she is tomboyish because her dad been in her life and she don’t really miss her mother that much and there really no female in her house except the maid. This is interesting because back then you see girls that are very girly and wear dresses and make up. Another reason that Scout is so interesting is because she is smart.
It’s not easy for Connie to live with her mother, who constantly harps on the way Connie looks and how she doesn’t live up to her sister reputation. “If Connie’s name was mentioned it was in a disapproving tone.”[453]. Every time Connie’s mother comments anything about June’s profile, it pushed Connie unconsciously to be nothing like her sister. Mother usually complained about her about habit of looking into a mirror. The narrator states the mother’s resentment of Connie’s beauty because “her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie.”[451].
Symbol and Theme in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” tells a simple story about a girl, fifteen, who is all about her appearance and of her awakening from the daydreaming. However, Oates tell the out the story with element of real or illusions, motif, or symbolism. The symbolic element of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” insinuate that the fear the narrator has near the end of the story is maybe more than the response of a young girl wanting to grow up so fast. The theme of the story effectively status on the girl harsh realities of adulthood, which bear little resemblance to her fantasies. The most important symbol has to do with vision and questioning.
As Hannah becomes a mother herself and a mother being the first model of love that the children experiences, she emotionally detaches herself from Sula as she was detached from her mother. Sula is able to shape her ego and separate herself from her family after she overhears her mother’s conversation: "You love her, like I love Sula. I just don't like her". Hannah not representing an admirable empathetic mother figure makes Sula assert control over her identity through the inability of connecting with other people as an adult. She is able to find her autonomy and independence denying responsibilities and attachment to anything.
She is simply a pathetic teen-ager who isn’t being raised very well. Her church is a ‘bright-lit, fly-infested’ drive-in restaurant, and her inspirational music is mind-numbing rock-and-roll, both middle-class cliches of the early sixties.” (Joyce Carol Oates’s ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ as Pure Realism p. 506-507) Connie was a reflection of the times. She did not have much to fill her mind with from her family so she seemed to need music to fill the void. Music seemed to have a hypnotic effect that could put Connie into a dream like state even though she was awake. Music actually seems to be a