I really liked "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" I felt like the idea behind the whole thing was taking how we treat and think about ourselves and applying it to the rest of the world. Kind of a "we reap what we sow" thing (just a little). Connie is a really conceited main character. She stares at herself in the mirror, she not only has an attitude that makes her feel like she gets to choose who is and who isn't in her league, but is proud to be able to disgustedly turn down boys who she feels are below her. She's incredibly vain. She even thinks her mother holds the fact that Connie is so pretty against her, and that's why they have confrontations. But I think the best piece of character work is how Connie spends all her free time at home thinking about the boys she meets, but doesn't really think of them individually as much as she thinks of them as an idea. It's the idea that these are all boys she considers worthy that find her attractive that she's so concerned with, this vain notion that this is what gives her value and takes pride in it.
"But all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July." (3124)
But to be fair, she's only looking for love where she can find it. She has issues with her mother since she feels her mother loves June more than her for being responsible and caring, so gets wrapped up in the love and affection she actually does get in her life: boys.
Connie just wants to feel as loved by the rest of the world as much as she loves herself. But when she gets that it isn't quite what she wanted. Arnold is pretty much as obsessed with Connie as Connie is with herself and for the same reasons, which turns into an incredibly violent situation. Arnold pretty much stalks Connie back to her house and takes her. But you knew that part, you read the story. All I'm saying is I love how the whole turn worked out, even as morbid as it was. The idea of taking the way you see yourself and turning it back onto yourself from the outside world is a really interesting idea to me. How would I feel about people treating me exactly the way I treat myself? How would that work out? Would I like it or would I regret it. I just think it's a really interesting question to ask.