Peruvian Artist Shares Why Preservation of Culture and Rituals Sacred To His Art

My artistic endeavor have led me towards a personal sense of mission, because the visual arts are more than a passive representation of the life style and Culture of the Incas, Aztecs, Mayas and Chinese of the Asian-pacific.

Through my work, I seek to preserve and stimulate an alternative vision to the modern industrialized twenty-first Century. Western Culture has moved away from the serene life style that my ancestors lived. It is more important to recognize that we indigenous hold on to a distinct Culture with other values other ways of seeking the world.

I am forty-nine years old and was born in the Peruvian altiplano of Puno. The traditional indigenous highlands of the Andean Mountain are portrayed in my art. My parents had been driven there from their home near the ancient Andean rui ns of the Incas. This was the result of their families disapproved of their relationship. I returned my home village at the age of seven and since then I have committed my art to indigenous roots, my art expresses my indigenous roots and Asian influences.

My mother has always said that in our Culture, we use choose to use strong colors to appease the spirits so that they are happy and will not bring about darkness. It was not expected for the son of an Andean Mountain family to attend in fine arts school, because it is very expensive.

I began to paint at the age of seven and at seventeen studied fine arts in Peru. Afterwards I went to France, China and Mexico. I am presently studying in Salt Lake City and I am also Painting full time. Through my formal training, I have been able to explore more than one theme. These themes are within Peruvian, Chinese and Mexican Cultures.

In Peru, it is not common for Peruvian artist to step out of the European style taught to them in college.

I choose to emphasize in Incan, Aztecs and Mayan organic Cultures of our ancestors. Rather than naming old masters and legends as my inspiration, style, and subjects I choose to name my mother as my true inspiration.

My mother Ceferina has lived a tranquil life until now. I pay direct tribute to women such as my mother. She gave me tenderness care, dedication and guidance to pursue my career.

I paint Mother Nature as the Creator of All Cultures. His is a tribute to Incan Indian women because they often work harder than men. Most of them spend all day working in the fields with three to five c hildren to care for, and often carrying one of them on their backs.

They are willing to fight for a better life. I render an emotional tone of every rhythm of the Andean life through my vibrant use of color. I also use bright and radiant

Combinations of reds, turquoises, purples, and oranges characterize the textiles and ceramics of the Peruvian Andean Mountain.

I use many colors of the Andean Mountains. When I asked my mother why the Andean Mountains have such vivid colors, she once again replied that it is to appease the spirits so that they will be happy and will not bring forth darkness. I employ simple swirling patterns to transmit a sense of the peace and harmony that radiates from the Incan Indian close interrelation to the land. It is this sense of the sacredness in nature t hat comes from deep within my works. I think art is the mother earth. Since in Peru, there are few artists who step out of the European style; there is no a vision of our own way of seeing things. It is the same with mother earth. In expressing this relationship with the land, my Paintings have a profound ecological message. In Incan Indian Culture, there is always a close relationship between man and his environment. There is a connection with the ecosystem in the Incan Indian world. The people are dependent on it for their very existence. !

For this reason we give thanks to the mother earth.

There are repeated historical themes in my work related to festivals. My Paintings represent festivals of the countryside that originated before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. One Painting depicts a traditional Andean ritual known as the festival of blood, in which a condor is attached to the neck of a bull. The condor pecks at the bulls head until the bull dies. The image from this ritual is very strong. The condor represents the people of the Andes and the bull represents Spain.

This festival signifies the recovery of the Andean dignity and religious imagery. The imposition of Christianity in the Incan world was never completed. Indigenous Cultures of Peru have mixed their beliefs and practices with the icons and lithography of the Catholic Church. I blend indigenous and European religious symbols to show this cultural mixture, also know as mestizo.

Another strong Incan ritual still strongly practiced is to give offerings to mother earth. A type of drink is thrown to all four corner of a room before an event or before eating and drinking. This ritual is done to give thanks to the fruits of the earth that mother earth provides that we may live.

For example, the square cross was a sacred symbol for the indigenous people across the Americas before the arrival of the Spanish. The cross was found in Machu-Picchu, in the ancient civilization of the Incas as well as in the ceramics of the North American Indians and is considered part of a cultural Christ. I see synchronicity between these religions. There is a blend of pre-post Colombian religious symbols to create Andean Virgins, Christs and Arch Angels. I am returning them to a more indigenous theme, making them Indian with dark skin and traditional symbols such as the moon.

My Paintings are driven by a more ambitious goal that represents an Andean Mountain Incan Indian way of being. My work is a defense against the encroachment of Western values, because of a high level of migration of my people into the cities. Tribal people that come to the city do not want to speak the Incan Indian dialects and they forget their traditions and practices since now they rely on movies and television for self expression. My cause is to retain the cultural integrity of my people which I believe is a noble one. Through my work I seek to preserve and stimulate an alternative vision to the modern industrialized twenty first century. Western Culture has moved away from the serene life style that my ancestor lived. I am in a rare position to help promote the Andean indigenous cosmic vision of the world.

In Peru, we are 60% indigenous and outsiders are relatively few in our tribal villages. We want to have our Culture valued and that my people can feel proud of their cultural differences.

About The Author

Born and raised in Puno, Peru, Ernesto Apomayta was identified as an artistic prodigy at the tender age of five. As a boy, Apomayta was first influenced and inspired by the natural marvels surrounding the humble home he shared with his family. In close proximity to shimmering Lake Titicaca, the striking beauty of the Andes and the awe-inspiring Incan ruins of his ancestors, Apomayta was spiritually compelled to express his wonder visually through his paintbrush. A direct ances tor of the legendary photographer, Martin Chambi, Apomayta derived inspiration from the same native influences and his legacy that encouraged Apomayta to fulfill his own artistic destiny.

To view many of Ernesto Apomaytas pieces of artwork please visit www.apomaytaart.com for full information on Mr. Apomayta.

apomayta@hotmail.com

Author:: Ernesto Apomayta
Keywords:: Painting, art Painting, Culture, Peruvian
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Lawrence Durrell An Introduction

Lawrence George Durrell was the son of British parents who had spent all their lives in India and who were themselves the children of British imperial administrators. His grandparents had been stationed in India and his mother claimed that her nationality was Indian by upbringing rather than British by descent.

Durrell was to take a similar view of his origins, regarding himself as a cosmopolitan who was British only by passport. He stayed in England for just over five years, attending a number of boarding schools which he loathed, and felt no attachment to England or the English.

Subsequently he lived in France, Greece, - on the island of Corfu, - then in Egypt, Yugoslavia, Argentina, Cyprus, and, finally, in France again. His first published works were poetry, though he is best-known for his novels which are written in highly poetic prose. The Alexandria Quartet received critical acclaim, though, perhaps, more appreciation in Europe than in Britain. It appeared as four loosely-connected novels Justine (1957), Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1959), and Clea (1960). Durrell was proposed as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, but, like Graham Greene who was also a contender, did not receive it.

The Alexandria Quartet is set in Egypt during the late 1930s and Durrells original sub-title for the group of four novels was The Book of the Dead (an ancient Egyptian collection of funeral texts placed in tombs to aid the deceased). Characters drift through the story giving their own viewpoints of the action: viewpoints which occasionally belie the narrator Darleys account of what has truly occurred to Justine and her Coptic husband, Melissa who is Darleys mistress, Clea the artist, Mountolive the British ambassador and Pursewarden the intelligence officer.

Durrell wanted to show that individual perceptions are subjectively true to themselves but only when taken together can these relative views amount to veracity, or, at least point towards the overall truth. The novels are composed in poetic language which twenty-first century readers may find overwritten.

The city of Alexandria itself is a character in the books and acts as a backdrop and world pool of memory; though there was nothing ancient about the city that Durrell knew. He worked as a press attach in Cairo and Alexandria during the Second World War and saw the nineteenth-century Ottoman Alexandria with its European faades and elegant seafront, but these constructions were less than a hundred years old.

Ancient Alexandria had indeed been a great city and boasted one of the Wonders of the World the Lighthouse or Pharos together with the Great Library. Yet, this huge cosmopolis fell into such dilapidation that Napoleons troops found only a small fishing v illage on the site in 1798. The archaeological rediscoveries of Alexandria of the Ptolemies were not made until the 1990s when the harbour was dredged and extended. Old Alexandria was under the sea.

Durrell saw a port city that hosted a large expatriate community where French and Italian and Greek and English were spoken more than Arabic. The Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis 1863-1933) lived here all his life and his poetry is much quoted in The Alexandria Quartet. The city was a target of the Egyptian Revolution and most foreigners left or were expelled in the 1950s.

Durrell wrote poetry and non-fiction as well as imaginative prose. His description of Northern Cyprus in Bitter Lemons (1957) is an historical record and a travelogue written before partition of the is land and the advent of mass tourism; though, again, modern sensibility may not accord with Durrells notions of local colour and quaint characters.

He held various diplomatic and teaching posts, including British Council Director in Buenos Aires and Director of Public Relations for the British Government in Cyprus. His writings include light anecdotal sketches as well as an attempt to encapsulate his philosophical ideas in A Key To Modern British Poetry (1952) wherein he lays out the effects of Freud and Einstein on literature. He also kept up a correspondence with the American writer Henry Miller (1891-1980) for forty five years.

Lawrence Durrell died of a stroke in Provence after several years of poor health. His brother Gerald was famous as a naturalist and wrote a number of zoological book s including the well known My Family and Other Animals (1956) which was used as a set text in British schools.

Read the full version of this essay at: http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/durrell.html

Stephen Colbourn has published many articles about literature on Literature-study-online at http://www.literature-study-online.com. He is a freelance writer. He has written widely on English Language Teaching and has published articles on literature, linguistics, and computers in various journals together with many Readers for Heinemann and Macmillan Education. He has contributed articles on literature to The Essentials of Literature in English post-1914, published by Hodder Arnold in 2005.

Author:: Stephen Colbourn
Keywords:: Lawrence Durrell,The Alexandria Quartet,English Literature,Justine,Balthazar,Mountolive,Clea,Cyprus,
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English Literature William Shakespeare Coriolanus

Who is to blame for Coriolanus's banishment?

In William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Coriolanus's banishment is the climax of a series of events in which several forces Play a part, all pushing him towards his inevitable downfall. As is usual in Shakespearean Tragedy, the hero, at the peak of his achievements, falls, due to a fatal flaw in his character. Coriolanus 's flaw is his arrogant pride and lack of temperance, and his fall is great, from national hero to outcast.

A particular feature of this Play is that Shakespeare has shown us how the hero's character came to be flawed. We see that the flaw has its roots in the family and society which moulded his personality. This insight does not enable us to excuse Coriolanus for his behaviour, but it does prevent us from presenting a simple black and white case on the question of who is to blame for his downfall.

In Coriolanus's Rome the citizens fall roughly into two categories, the patricians and the plebe ians. The two factions are seen to coexist in a state of more or less mutual antagonism, with stability being maintained by a willingness to compromise on both sides.

Coriolanus does not fit in with his society. His valour places him above the plebeians, and his lack of politic sense places him outside to the circle of patricians. He cannot understand the concepts of expediency and respect necessary for the maintenance of a stable society by its authorities. He naively sees society in simplistic terms of good patricians, and bad plebeians.

In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scattered. (111.1.68)

Coriolanus's flaw is his pride, his insistence on voicing his opinions regardless of the consequences, and the narrow-mindedness which makes him immune to change. He firmly believes that the duty of every Roman male is to achieve valour, and valour is the o nly virtue he recognises. It is his single-minded determination that has led to his success, but it also leads him to hate and despise all those who, in his view, fail to live up to their duty:

The idea of 'countrymen' means little or nothing to him. Though he seems to be fighting for Rome, it is as a personal ideal, or symbol, and he holds his fellow Romans in utter contempt. They are an insignificant rabble to him, and he makes little distinction between them and the enemy.

It is not the fact that he holds these opinions, however, that seals his doom, it is the fact that he cannot refrain from voicing them vehemently in public on every possible occasion. He insists on acting in this way, against the good advice, to dissemble, from Menenius and his mother, even when his life is at stake.

From the point of view of Roman society there is no one to blame but Coriolanus himself. As illustrated by Menenius's story of the body and its parts (1.1.95 - ), the mot if of the Play, the harmonious operation of the community is the criterion by which the actions of its individuals must be judged. By this criterion, although the military service Coriolanus has done for Rome is undeniably great, it is also undeniable that he is likely to do a great deal of harm to the living fabric of the society. On this point, Sicinius and Menenius, representatives of the two factions of society, cannot help but agree:

Sicinius: He's a disease that must be cut away.

Menenius: Oh, he's a limb that has but a disease. (111.1.292)

In terms of the action of the Play, therefore, we must appoint blame primarily to Coriolanus himself for his arrogance and open disPlay of hatred, and secondarily to the spiteful jealousy of the tribunes, and the indecision and gullibility of the plebeians.

The Play gives us, however, evidence of the causes behind human character. Through the character of Coriolanus's mother, and the nature of Roman society itself, we can see why Coriolanus is the way he is. We can note the influence of Roman society itself in its upholding valour as a high virtue. This is seen in the eagerness of the patricians to praise him for his supreme soldiership.

If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work,

Thou't not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it,

Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles

. . . ladies shall be frighted . . . the dull tribunes

That with the fusty plebeians hate thine honours,

Shall say against their hearts, 'We thank the gods

Our Rome hath such a soldier'. (1.1X.1)

But this social influence will be common to all Roman families and sons, and cannot be responsible for the extreme nature of Coriolanus's character. Far more important an influence has been his mother. Volumina has brought him up of with only one aim in mind; to make him a great soldier:

When yet he was but tender bodied . . . when for a day of Kings' entre aties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding . . . To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee daughter, I sprang of not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.

Virgilia: But had he died in the business, madam, how then?

Volumina: Then his good report should have been my son. (1.111.5)

We have a further insight into the way Coriolanus's character has been formed from an early age through Valeria's report of young Martius, Coriolanus's son, over whom, no doubt, Volumina has had huge influence.

Valeria: I saw him run after a gilded butterfly, and when he caught it, he let it go again, and after it again, and over and over he comes, and up again, catched it again . . . he did so set his teeth and tear it. Oh, I warrant how he mammocked it! (1.111.60)

We can feel sympathy for Coriolanus when he says:

I muse my mother< /p>

Does not approve me further, who was wont

To call them woollen vassals, things created

To buy and sell with the groats, . . .

Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me

False to my nature? Rather say I Play

The man I am. (111.11.7)

This insight makes the question of who is to blame much less clear-cut, and perhaps even meaningless.

The problem for Rome is essentially a practical one, of how to ensure self-preservation, and all the insight and understanding in the world would not lessen the necessity of taking steps against Coriolanus.

Copyright Ian Mackean. Read the full version of this essay at: http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/Coriolanus.html

Ian Mackean runs the sites http://www.literature-study-online.com, which features a substantial collection of Resources and Essays, (and where his site on Short Story Writing can also be found,) and http://www.Booksmadeintomovies.com. He is the editor of Th e Essentials of Literature in English post-1914, ISBN 0340882689, which was published by Hodder Arnold in 2005. When not writing about literature or short story writing he is a keen amateur photographer, and has made a site of his photography at http://www.photo-zen.com

Author:: Ian Mackean
Keywords:: English literature,William Shakespeare,Coriolanus,Play,Tragedy,Drama
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Peter and Paul Fortress and the Birthday of St. Petersburg Russia

The city of St. Petersburg is celebrating its 303 anniversary this year. Nowadays it is a megapolis with a population of more that 5 million people, a city with a fascinating history and culture.

However, if we could look at these lands back in the year 1703, we would find vast marshy lands and small villages scattered here and there. The foundation of the city dates to the time of the first construction at this place - Peter and Paul Fortress.

Peter and Paul Fortress was founded in May 1703. After the series of successful military actions against Sweden, Russian troops pushed the border far northwest, thus reconstructing the original boundaries of 1613 and gaining the outlet to the Baltic sea.

Peter the Great, then 31-year-old Russian emperor, had decided to protect the new conquered lands by constructing a fortress and by building a city - port, which very soon has become known as St. Petersburg.

The Fortress was named after St. Peter and St. Paul , two highly worshiped saints in Russia. The place that was chosen for the fortress was a small island in the delta of the Neva river called the Hare island. The construction works stArted on May 28, 1703 and this date is considered to be the birthday of St. Petersburg.

The hexagonal shape of the Fortress made it possible to build in the whole territory of the island. First constructions were made of eArth and wood, but already by 1706 all wooden pArts were replaced with stone. Altho ugh the Peter and Paul Fortress was built as a fortification construction, it was never used as such: never since the 1704 St. Petersburg lands were under the threat of Swedish invasion.

For almost two centuries it served as a main political prison of the country. One of the first convicts became Tsarevitch Alexey, the son of Peter I, who was against the politics of his father.

Among the famous prisoners of Peter and Paul Fortress were Dostoevsky, Gorky, Trotsky and Lenin's older brother Alexander.

The special place in the fortress ensemble belongs to the Cathedral of Peter and Paul. It was built in 1713-1733 by architect Tresini on the place of a wooden church, founded in honor of apostles Peter and Paul. The cathedral is decorated with gilded spire about 404 ft high, topped with the weather vane shaped as an Angel, who is said to watch over and protect the city. The Cathedral of Peter and Paul served as a royal burial-vault. The founder of the city, Peter the Great died, while this cathedral was still unfinished. His body was temporally placed in the specially constructed chapel and then reburied in the new cathedral.

The last burial ceremony in the Cathedral of Peter and Paul took place in the summer of 1998, on the eightieth anniversary of the execution of Nicolas II, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, their children, and servants. The last Russian Emperor and his family are buried in the St. Catherine chapel of the cathedral.

Anastasia Dukhnina Find more about Russian culture and history at http://www.mmArttravel.com

Author:: Anastasia Dukhnina
Keywords:: St. petersburg, russian peter and paulfortress, russian history, st. petersburg history
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Native American Life After Prophetstown

My name is Luksi Humma, I am Choctaw or, Chahta, our name in reality. I am a builder of people and log cabins. Although, I live in our present time, I talk to many people who come to Historic Prophetstown, in Battle Ground, Indiana, about the way the Old Ones lived, and died.

Misconceptions, are a part of most Americans ideal in regards to Native American People. It is my job to inform the uninformed, about the Love, Respect, Honor, and Dignity the American Indians had for their Families, Lives and the Land.

How did the People live along the Wabash? They lived well, commerce continued to flow throughout the region as our People moved forward into an age that would eventually swallow them up, swirling them into the Great Melting Pot of these United States. This motion inexorably changed the Ways of our People, both, in their thought processess, and in their Hearts.

The Europeans who lived with the Indian People would change significantly, daily movements , personal contacts, language, lifestyles and much more. Pressures of being humans, finding a much easier way to cook, kill, stay warm, communicate, travel and live, ate away at the Traditions of ten thousand generations.

Robust in their spirits, Native People adapted rapidly, and found value in their trapping of Beaver, and other furbearing animals. Trading these hides, for durable goods, gave the Indian People an opportunity to live more comfortably, amidst the French, English, and some Americans, who became their Trading partners in this region, for many years.

Log Cabins were abundant in the Village of Kethtipikanuck, about 120 log structures as some writers saw it. Shake roof shingles adorned the cabins, of those lucky folks who knew how to, and, had the man power to build these brutish str uctures. Forged from the wilderness, these people were powerful and relentless in their will to make life come forth, from a forboding entity, that the wilderness posed. This was, after all, the Northwest Territories. The end of the continent for most people who struck out on their own.

This wonderous village had many Wigwams, smoke filling the air on the flats at the mouth of that River. Trade items coming in, and leaving, in boats of every description, dugouts, birchbark, heavy River tugs. One should try to imagine this commerce, it is pleasing to see it in the mind.

Eleven years of good life came to an end, as the wood of their cabins and wigwams lost their battle with the crucible of fire, which the American Army brought with them, to eradicate their way of life forever.

This is but the beginning of their story, I will write more of this facinating historical drama, played out on the banks of the Wabash. Prophetstown, looming in the future awaits the te lling of its story in another time, but now I am tired and must rest.

Luksi Humma messenger of the People.

I am a humble teacher of Indian People, travelling to bring the Ways of our Ancestors to those who can least afford it, and desire it the most. My hands and mind belong to the People who came before us, and it is they whom I serve.

Author:: Luksi Humma
Keywords:: Native American, Indian, River, Trading, Indiana, Wabash River, Love of their People, French, Englis
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Bestselling Author Barbara Winter Coming Up!

As an entrepreneur, fledgling creative person and Travel enthusiast myself, I always keep learning from other entrepreneurs who have successfully combined business, creativity and Travel in their own way. Last fall I took a seminar at the Learning Annex in Toronto with the title How To Support Your Wanderlust, which ended up being a very entertaining and informative seminar.

Barbara Winter is a Minneapolis-based entrepreneur, writer and speaker who has spent the past 17 years helping people discover their passions and turn them into profitable businesses. She is the author of the best-selling book, Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love (Bantam, 1993), and the publisher of Winning Ways, the newsletter for people living and working with passion.

In addition, Barbara teaches seminars and teleclasses on Establish Yourself as an Expert, Making a Living Without a Job, and How To Support Your Wanderlust. Barbaras most recent endea vour, her book Jumpstart Your Entrepreneurial Spirit is hot off the press and just came out last month.

One of Barbaras mantras is to turn artists into entrepreneurs and to turn entrepreneurs into artists. This is incidentally exactly where I am at in my life right now: after 2 business degrees and 15 years in business as an independent entrepreneur, the time has come for me now to reintegrate creative passion back into my life, which the website and my Travels will offer me to do.

Barbara likes to turn people into inspired entrepreneurs who expand their horizons. I knew that Barbara would be a great candidate for an interview, she is funny, creative and full of great ideas and energy. I am sure that her seminars and books have inspired thousands of individuals to get up and pursue their passion and create their own businesses.

What I like to do in my interviews is I like to talk to the person, get to know them a bit better on the phone so I can compile wri tten questions (hopefully semi-intelligent ones..;) for them that they can answer in their own words. The hour I spent on the phone with Barbara has been very entertaining and informative for me at the same time and I felt totally energized after talking to her.

As a novice writer myself, just listening to Barbara gave me lots of ideas for my own writing and publishing endeavours. Barbara really knows how to capture her audience and I am actually planning to take her upcoming teleclass A Beginners Guide to Getting Published.

Barbara is an interesting, inspiring individual that many of us can learn from. Stay tuned for my first interview!

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.Travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional Travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life Travel experiences, interviews with Travellers and Travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural is sues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own Travel stories in our first Travel story contest (http://www.Travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

Life is a Journey Explore New Horizons.

The interview with photos is published at Travel and Transitions - Interviews

Author:: Susanne Pacher
Keywords:: Travel, adventure Travel, eco tourism, hippo Travel,women Travel, family Travel, Toronto, Canada
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The Story "Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

The story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates is based on real events which took place in the beginning of 1960s.

Its a short fiction story about the young girl Connie and her teenager world which is so roughly disturbed by one tragic event one summer morning. Connie is a teenager preoccupied with her appearance, music and young guys. She has difficult relationship with her family. What she really enjoys is spending time with her friends and dating. She deceives her parents to get to the city and get some freedom to spend the time the way she likes it. Her attention was attracted by the very strange gaze of an unknown dark-haired stylish guy at the street. She didnt expect to meet him once again but one sunny Sunday his car stopped next to her house when she stayed home alone doing nothing. Connie is in a great surprise when she recognizes that stranger from the street in the driver of the car. Strangers name is Alfred and he came there wi th his friend to pick Connie up for a ride. Connie is enchanted and embarrassed with his attention in the beginning. Friendly talk of Alfred changes gradually to threats and promises to hurt Connies family if she refuses to join them for a ride. The story ends with Connies slow walking towards Alfred and we never know that follows afterwards. The story is full of symbolism and has the elements of mystics and irony.

Ive chosen the main character Connie for analyzing. She is described as a typical teenager in the beginning of the story. She lives in her own world and doesnt bother herself much with the problems of the others. At least we see it in the beginning of the story. She is described like a pretty, fair-haired girl of fifteen years old. There is one more noticeable thing in her description Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyon e think she was hearing music in her head ... The author shows us how much she was interested in the opinion of others and how much she wanted to be noticed and appreciated by them. And how indifferent she could be sometimes to her family. The way she thinks about her mother and sister shows us that they were not very close and Connie looked down at them for their uninteresting style and colorless appearance. Self-centered as most of the teenagers are, Connie doesnt try to get to the inner world of the other people, even the closest members of the family. In her wish to express herself she chooses childish ways and works for public.

Being sensitive and romantic as we can see from the music she likes she still cares more about the prestige of having a boyfriend than about finding a true love. In her search of new impressions she is ready to deceive her parents not telling them about the places she visits and doesnt think much about the possible consequences. The wish to have a boy-friend is more important for her than to have a close person near and she tries to find the proof of her social status and her attractive appearance in others.

That is the way we see Connie in the beginning of the story. She is a typical girl of her age and there is nothing noticeable about her. New trait of character oozes in the end of the story when threatened by Alfred Friend - a mysterious stranger who promises to hurt the member of her family if she doesnt obey him she finds the strength to stand up and go with him realizing that that could be the end for her. She thought, Im not going to see my mother again. She thought, Im not going to sleep in my bed again. I think that is a very brave gesture for terrified young girl nobody could expect of her in the beginning of the story. Even the stale heAr t of Alfred was touched with the sincerity and nobility of her action: now theyre eating corn and hot dogs cooked to bursting over an outdoor fire, and they dont know one thing about you and never did and honey, youre better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you. The story and this character pArticularly made me think about the depth of human soul, generosity and love.

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Author:: Aaron SchwArtz
Keywords:: The story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
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