What qualities make Connie attractive?
Explain how Connie's culture and societal perspectives about beauty and sexuality contribute to the practice of victim blaming. Has society today changed or is this belief still relevant? Explain.
Has modern society better equipped young girls today to resist a predator like A. Friend? How is Arnold Friend's name symbolic and ironic?
As Connie is lured out of the house, what motivates her to open the screen door and walk out to Arnold? Is it heroism or powerlessness or something else? Explain your answer and support it with information from the story. It might be helpful to think back to lesson 02.03 on critical approaches and consider the psychoanalytic approach, as this question is asking for an opinion of Connie's psychological reasoning for surrendering to Friend.
Lesson 02.03 presented information about different critical approaches or ways of interpreting and analyzing a piece of literature. Applying a feminist approach to this story helps reveal the allegorical meaning. What could this story be pointing out about women and their place in a still patriarchal society? Consider the title: where have women been with regard to men in the past and where are they going with regard to men in the future? Is society changing, or is our society perpetuating mistakes of the past?