Donny and Connie--Two Unfortunate Teenagers

The character Connie in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been” reminds me of the character Donny in Anne Tyler’s “Teenage Wasteland.” Each of their stories is different, yet Donny and Connie are both troubled teenagers who do not get along with their parents, make poor choices, and end up in unfortunate situations.

Both characters have an unstable relationship with their parents, and, in each case, their siblings seem to be indirectly responsible for this poor relationship. Donny stops succeeding when his mother has his sister Amanda. His mother no longer gives him as much attention because she needs to focus on his then baby sister (Tyler, 14). Yet, without his mother’s praise and support, Donny starts doing poorly in school and falls into the wrong crowd of kids. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” we do not know much about Connie’s childhood, but we do find out that her parents favor her sister June. Although Connie is prettier and more popular than June, June seems to be more wholesome and to cause less trouble than Connie (Oates, 3). Even though Connie acts as if she is confident in herself, we get the sense that this confidence is merely a façade, one that her mother’s constant nagging (Oates, 1) can easily break down.

Donny and Connie both make poor choices in terms of whom they hang out with. Donny hangs out with kids who cut class, smoke, break into lockers, and sneak off campus to drink beer (Tyler, 7). These kids have a bad influence on Donny and cause him to make irresponsible choices. Connie spends her time with a group of conceited girls who think that they can simply ignore anyone who is not good enough for them (Oates, 6). Her friends also make unsafe choices, like choosing to run across the highway just to get to the restaurant where they can find older, “cooler” kids (Oates, 7). It’s just lucky for them that Connie’s girlfriend’s dad doesn’t “bother to ask what they [do] (Oates, 4)” on those evenings when he drops them off at the shopping plaza. Connie also goes off alone with Eddie, a boy who she only barely knows from school--probably not the safest or wisest choice (Oates, 8-9).

The most unfortunate similarity between Donny and Connie is that they both meet similar fates. Donny, after the disappointment of losing Calvin and getting kicked out of his private school, runs away from home and is never found (Tyler, 108-110). It’s too bad that his parents do not attempt to help him until it is too late. There was probably little Connie’s parents could have done to help her in her situation with Arnold. The choice to leave a teenager home alone for a few hours is common and not typically irresponsible. Yet, her parents still could have at least told her not to open the door for strangers when they weren’t home. She might not have listened, as Donny didn’t listen to his parents, but there is the chance that some advice could have been enough to save her. However, she is merely an ignorant girl who does not know how to handle herself and gets into a car with Arnold friend, a creepy, older stranger.

The last thing these characters have in common is that their ultimate fates are a mystery to the reader. Oates and Tyler both lead us to believe that their main characters’ fates are unpleasant; however, neither specifically states what that fate is. We just assume that Donny and Connie are merely two unfortunate teenagers who meet unhappy ends. (WC 606)