1. 10-Minute Journal Prompt
Bridging the Gap between literature and life

2. Choose one Prompt and Write – 10 min.
What kind of music do you find most appealing? How does this music represent you and your peers?
Is there a difference between how you identify yourself and how others see you? Which is the truth?
Write about a time when you found yourself in a situation that you thought you could manage only to learn later that you couldn't. In retrospect, how would you handle yourself differently?
In your opinion, how important is outward appearance? Have you ever been judged based solely on your looks or how you dress?
Write about a time when regret/guilt was your best teacher.

3. Read and annotate Create a Master Data Sheet (each Create Your Own)
Bridging the Gap between literature and life

4. Discuss the following - Journal Prompt Response – Write on Binder paper
What was the topic of your journal? Read a portion of your journal to your group. Discuss how this topic relates to Joyce Carol Oates's story. Explain with two text references.
What message do you think Oates sought to convey to the audience through this story? What questions does she pose to the audience? List at lease three questions.
Compare Oates's style of writing with other authors you've read. Discuss patterns of symbols, images, and allusions in your analysis.

5. Background
The story itself moves from intense psychological realism to surreal myth.
The story opens with a young girls and a description.
The girl seems to be sleepwalking through life.
She seems to hear music, but not much else.
You see her experiment with life – she wants life to be like the movies and how it is promised in songs.
The world in which Connie lives is dominated by Hollywood, popular music, shopping plazas, and fast-food stands.

6. Background
The author seems to be blaming Connie for her fate because of her shallow and self-centeredness.
It seems as if the author is almost criticizing young people for allowing themselves to be seduced by mass culture, especially music and teenage love.

7. Setting Realistic setting Realistic characters
Subjects to terror and psychological tragedy.
Illusion versus Reality.

8. Symbolism Arnold Friend "An Old Fiend" What is a Fiend?
The devil, the Antichrist, or even death.
Symbolic tempter.
Notice how he draws and X in the air (sideways cross) and both he and Connie remark "Christ!"
The theme of "Death and the Maiden" - that of a young girl seduced not toward sex but toward extinction, "runs beneath this powerful and disturbing story".
"Beneath this superficial strains of popular music and adolescent culture, Oats warns, lurks the sexuality that leads, if not to death, then to a violent end of innocence.
Arnold Friend represents evil. He misrepresents himself and deceives Connie, which leads to her downfall.

9. Identity
The role of identity is prominent throughout this story as Connie, like most teenagers, tries to define herself by testing parental and societal boundries.

10. The story is told in third person point of view.
This point of view is used to reveal Connie's point of view.
From the narrator we learn Connie's thoughts and feelings without additional commentary or judgement.
This allows the reader to feel Connie's fears and eventual victimization.

11. Bridging the gap Between Life and Literature
How Connie's behavior typical of most teens?
How does it differ?

12. Bridging the gap Between Life and Literature
Connie establishes a different identity at home than she does with her peers. She identifies her worth with her physical attractiveness.

13. Why do you think Oates Wrote this Story
Why do you think Oates Wrote this Story? What message might she want to relay to the audience?

14. "Connie fulfills the role of a typical, pretty teenage girl
"Connie fulfills the role of a typical, pretty teenage girl. Oates created this fragile persona to show how unstable one is when on relies on looks alone. Teenage girls may be especially susceptible and easier to exploit. Oates originally title the story "Death and maiden," which she said was meant to show the "fatal attractions of death" for a girl "seduced by her own vanity."""

15. Why is the setting of the story significant
Why is the setting of the story significant? How does oates create tension throughout The Story?

16. The setting of the story is purposely vague and uneventful
The setting of the story is purposely vague and uneventful. The unexpected violence is juxtaposed with the boring, generic suburban life. This creates additional tension.

17. How does Connie view the idea of love. Is it a realistic portrayal
How does Connie view the idea of love? Is it a realistic portrayal? Why or Why not?

18. Connie's view of love reveals her naivety
Connie's view of love reveals her naivety. She considers herself a talented flirt and enjoys the power that comes from gaining a boy's attention.

19. How is Arnold Friend Characterized
How is Arnold Friend Characterized? Describe the relationship between Arnold and Connie.

20. Oates's descriptions show us that Arnold is not as he seems
Oates's descriptions show us that Arnold is not as he seems. He is clearly much older than Connie. She flirts and banters with him as if he were a peer. Arnold's character is not genuine, but he is skillful at manipulating Connie. She is not experienced enough to realize what she is dealing with.

21. Answer the following questions:
What is the role of identity within the story? How should identity be formed in adolescence?
How does Connie's home life lack a male role model contribute to her alienation? Why does she seek approval from Arnold Friend?
Connie believes that life and love will be "the way it was in movies and promised in songs." What impact does Connie's version of reality have on her actions?
What kind of mood is created by the lack of resolution in the story? How might readers react to the ambivalent ending?
Does beauty buy power? Should it?

22. I want to bridge the gap between life and literature
I want to bridge the gap between life and literature. Young adults understand the pressure to conform, to please, and to sort out one's identity.
As a teenager most of you can relate to peer pressure and self-absorbed tendency of people around you.
I wanted to show you that there are universal themes in literature which are applicable to your own personal experiences on various levels.
While this short story was written in 1966 – many of the same issues dealt with then in young adults are still being dealt with today.