Response for two essays
1) Connie's actions are typical of a teenage girl especially during the 60's. Throughout the 60's it was a coming to age time for many different women and men especially regarding civil rights and such. Odds are that if Connie's parents weren't exactly the best parents or supportive of her she would most likely view it as easier to just up and run away from home. During the 60's many young girls ran away from home and went to areas like San Fransisco to experience a totally different way of life than what they may have been used to living in urban middle America. In part this song reminds me of Scott Mckenzie's, San Fransisco, where he entices his listeners with the idea of free living, peace, and love. While the journey to such a places was usually quite dangerous as most of the time teens such as Connie did not have the financial means to pay for their trips away from home. Just as Dylan says in his song "watch out the highway is full of gamblers" he mean't it as a warning for those trying to travel cross country away from whatever is going on at home. More importantly Connie's actions are typical of a teen in the 60's due to the large movement of the so called "coming of age" that the 60's was where many young people found whatever they were looking for on either side of the political spectrum from the conservative point of view and enlisting in the draft in Vietnam or the more liberal point of view protesting the war at home. Overall Connie's actions were typical behavior of that time period because odds are it's what she had been modeled at home.
2) Connie's appearance and actions embody the typical teenage girl in the 60's. Connie is fifteen and is discovering herself; she finds herself to be very pretty girl which creates her to become extremely vain. She uses hairspray which many other girls applied to their hair, following the trend and aggravating their parents. The music in the 60's, like rock and roll genres, acted as a catalyst towards Connie's rebellion; it was often prohibited from adolescents so there would be no distractions from the typical, dutiful wife and sister that Connie saw within her own family. Connie's actions represent what many teens did by having a separate life from home and outside of home. At home they were still kids in the eyes of their parents, but with their friends they forced themselves to act mature by expressing their sexuality at a young age. Her vanity and attitude she created from listening to music created conflict with her mother's demands. There was a sense of division between them; it represented the usual conflict that parents disliked about rock and roll music. The music romanticized adult life and sexuality which Connie and many other teens indulged over back then. Overall, the music expressing sexuality was new and groundbreaking, it made teen life follow the trend because it was an act of rebellion, whether they expressed that through their appearance or their actions-trying to seem more adult, but made them look even more naïve. From her appearance to her actions, it represents what teens were like in the 60's from their discovery of sexuality and adulthood.