"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Rebel Without a Cause and "The Continued Myth of Adolescence" all address the thorny issue of the transition from childhood to adulthood.TASK ONE
Write a brief character analysis of Connie, Arnold Friend or Jim Stark.
TASK TWO
Underline all the references to music in Oates' story and consider at which points music is integrated into the story. How do these references help to create meaning?
TASK THREE
Nichols makes a number of hypotheses as to why youth has been devalued over time. To what extent are her arguments justified? Can you see any of the effects of this devaluation on Connie? On Jim Stark? Justify your answer with reference to the texts/film.
TASK FOUR
Compare and contrast the main points Nichols makes about adolescence with your observations and experience of Turkish society.
TASK FIVE
Write 2-3 possible final exam questions which synthesize 2-3 of these texts (Oates; the film; Nichols), just as we did before the midterm: evaluate; compare/contrast; discuss; argue, etc.
37 comments:
1) a) Jim Stark is a teenage boy who has enormous problems with his family. Especially the attitudes and behaviours of his father make him to feel worried and apprehensive at his childhood. Hence , he interferes with dangerous acts that would make him live with threats and hazards.
b) Connie challenges with possible problems of transition from girlhood to womanhood.So that she becomes a rebellious, selfish, cheater adolescent. Furthermore, she has romantic feelings that would make her vulnerable to the deceits of Arnold Friend.
c) Arnold Friend is an adult who impresses Connie through singsong talking and psychological manipulation that he used to lure beautiful girls. Although he seems romantic and tender, he is a potential rapist and murderer.
2)The music is integrated into the story when Connie felt bored with life and reluctant to do something. The music particularly playing songs in story make her happy is expressed as a motivation that lead her to realize positive aspects of life. Moreover, by talking as singing a song and fluently, Arnold successes to attract her a bit because Connie could not resist against something associated with music. It is certain to look into the dialogue between Arnold and Connie;"Bobby King?" she said."I listen to him all the time. I think he's great.""He's kind of great," Connie said reluctantly. "Listen, that guy's great. He knows where the action is."
3) I think the hypothesises that expressed by Nichols are considerably accurate and appropriate.Firstly , today it is a common act that young people are heavily criticized by adults without caring upcoming consequences of their those critics. Furthermore, this data is confirmed by several public researches. One of the reason why adults devalue youth is that they couldn't remember their past and so evaluate youngsters by taking their current status into consideration.Due to that the empathy could not be set up among tow parties. This claim has also
been proved by a survey that additionally shows ; undergraduate students are much more successful in portraying the psychology of youth and more able to contact youngsters comparing to adults and psychologists. Beside this, the second reason why youth is devalued that the public especially adults could not actualize the alterations between terms in which they and today's youth has lived separately. The alterations that can't be understood by adults consisted of generally economic actions and family values. At past, there was a big collaboration among family members , each one has done same job in order to support family budget , however nowadays economic orientations are totally different because society and market has change as well. A lot of new jobs have emerged therefore, sometimes the interests of youth have focused on jobs that aren't supported by parents. Secondly , today children who come from school, face with an empty house since their parents have jobs and spend most of their times at work.
Hence the bonds among members weaken and youngsters try to find an outside family. But their these attempts again seem irresponsible by adults. And finally, Nichols point out the impacts of media that enable people to see youth as a separate part of society. In 2001, according to a survey;'' the most frequently reported news headings which related to youth were crime victims, accidents including youth and violent youth crime''.
As a result of these attitudes of whole society towards youngsters, youth is devalued.
If we think about these effects how they influenced Connie and Jim, we could say that
about Connie, her mother always insults her by giving examples with her sister such as she did that , achieved that, etc...In other words; her mother always stayed far away from her psychology and didn't replace her position with herself. Owing to that , Connie became more selfish and felt herself under pressure. About Jim, he couldn't love and care from his family and he invariably became witness of the conflicts of his parents. So as a conclusion of weak family bonds, he became irresponsible against life and his parents then separated from his family.
4) To Nichols' points, the lack of interaction that stems from generally media influence and limited times of parents drive adolescents to loneliness because they can't share their problems and adults have always understood wrongly so couldn't have formed a bridge with psychology of adolescents. In my opinion, these problems are very like the problems of Turkish society. Parents generally heeds the issues associated with their jobs firstly rather than the problems children have suffered. Moreover, there is an increasing orientation to internet sites in Turkey. For example, a site called youtube was the place in which adolescents felt themselves more comfortable and happier than the family. There is only one distinction between two cultures that is about time. Though American society has lived these problems since 1950s , Turkish people has challenged with these since 1990s.
5)
1)In what ways adults or parents should get closer to problems of adolescents?
2)What kind of acts inside family could lead children to fall into trouble?
3)Is it accurate to rebel against the society if each adolescent feels himself/herself alone and vulnerable?
1) Connie, who is fifteen years old, display the mystifying behavior and also she faced some difficult transition from teenager and adulthood. She is vain, selfcentered, rebellious and deceitful. She gets caught in her responsibility as a friend, sister, and toy of sexual desire. She had two realities. these are something is at home and not. She is romantic then she is listening popular song. And she is flattered by Arnold Fried’s attentions.
Arnold Friend, as a boy with shaggy black hair, in a convertible jalopy painted gold and he become aware of Connie in restaurant. In addition he is cute talking boy and a potential ravisher and killer who use psychological treatment to request to Connie’s pride.
2) Music is integrated into the story when Connie felt bored with life and unwilling to do something. The music also has a power to make Connie happy from her life. She has a weakness about music and she does not resist, Arnold knows her weaknesses and he try to attract her. As Salih said that it is certain to look into the dialogue between Arnold and Connie: “Bobby King?” she said. “I listen to him all the time. I think he's great”. “He's kind of great,” Connie said reluctantly. “Listen, that guy's great. He knows where the action is.”
3) To me, the hypothesises that expressed by Nichols are considerably accurate Alcohol, gamble, using drug or other bad attitudes are grown up in teenager. So where is the problem? Teenagers are affected by broken family, economic problems, lack of love or tenderness. Parents, who has lots of money or not, don’t have enough time to spend with their children. As a consequence of this, youth begin to find happiness in other outside world. When they don’t find it, they huff to life. Under this condition, teens can choose suicide or use drug or alcohol and they couldn’t escape from there. Some surveys show that teens, who have bad habits, have rich family. These teens background seems successful to the outside world; he is doing well in school, being a leader in peer groups, participating in everything from sports to music lessons, and is likely to experience pressure to excel in school and be accepted by a prestigious college. so why are not they happy? These are young people who are walking a very thin line. People have two aspects: spiritual and material. When their parents give material side to children without any spiritual side teens can have some depression problem and finally they could not find happiness in their family because family has the same problem, couples are separate or they also have the same problem too. Father don’t spare the time or mother is careless. Event parents say that “you have to solve your own problem we couldn’t handle your all problem”. Alternatively, teens have difficulties because of economic problems.
4) According to Nicolas, as a consequences of parents behavior , which is unsupported by psychologist, and exposing media teens can lead to have unhappy or loveless because they don’t spend time with their family so they couldn’t tell their problems they don’t share anything neither their happiness nor their sadness. This problem is seen all society even Turkey. Adults struggle with their own life instead of caring their children.
5) 1) what kind of negative things can give rise to have issues in youth life? How can parents help to their children to escape from their problems?
2) lots of filmmakers watch teens and they use youth. How do the filmmakers make it? And why does media do it? Do you ever think that you are being programmed in some way to be in commercial profit? (in terms of documentary “ the merchants of cool” you discuss these questions)
3) To what extent is teenager exposed to advertisements? How does it affect their desire for consumer property? Is advertising evil? Give examples from documentary. What strategy do company use to access teens?
1) Connie's a girl who is dissatisfied by family (a mother with disapproval and criticism, a father with no attention on children) and is at the stage of a self-exploration: She experiences an intention on a boy, who is capable of performing dangerous stuff, by following/obeying him (a forced love where only single side approves it). Also an instability appears, because she disapproves her family at the beginning but then she wants them to be with after Arnold scares her: A developing person with regrets and without the experienced which provides a family member to know the value of other family members. There is an easy flexibility of mood; for example the existence of a multiple character (“Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home “), and the change by music (“her face gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place; it might have been the music”).
Arnold is a show based character (painted car, using silly language as a way of showing his being hard core) with an awkwardness that every female falls into him or at least tries to attract him. His instability and capability of being a psycho is very clear when he struggles to comfort Connie, at the same time, he talks about knowing everything about her (spying on someone), firing the whole house, breaking in through doors and threatening the family member.
2) The music is very significant on creating the Connie character, because one of the themes is the quick flexibility of an adolescent and in such sense, Connie matches the theme. The interaction of music on Connie begins by isolating her from time (“her face gleaming with a joy that had nothing to do with Eddie or even this place; it might have been the music”) and flew away from the reality (“But all the boys fell back and dissolved into a single face that was not even a face but an idea, a feeling, mixed up with the urgent insistent pounding of the music and the humid night air of July”). This is the evidence of how teens being unbounded to reality which could be another theme of the story. The music distracts them from reality and creates an environment of dreams. “Connie dreaming and dazed with the warmth about her as if this were a kind of love, the caresses of love, and her mind slipped over onto thoughts of the boy she had been with the night before and how nice he had been, how sweet it always was, the way it was in movies and promised in songs”. The creation of dream here is by the strength of lyrics which are considered as powerful ways of meaning strong emotions. The music's effect on quick flexibility can be observed when Arnold tries to persuade Connie for ride when they both agrees the good music of Bobby King. Also the music from Elli's radio interacts Connie all the time.
3) 3)A) The parents simplify the adolescent case by ignoring the sources of stressed behaviors and not analyzing the sources/reasons of such behaviors. Parents hold a biased point of view on adolescents; they see adolescents as rebels against the authority and instead of analyzing such behaviors they prefer a simple way which is criticism. Such case is observed on Connie where her mother criticizes all the time and questions everything she does because of her bigger sister. “Her mother had been pretty once too, if you could believe those old snapshots in the album, but now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie. Why don't you keep your room clean like your sister? How've you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You don't see your sister using that junk.” Also in rebel without a cause, Jim's mother quarrel of Jim all the time and there is a considerable lack of communication between him and parents. She reflects the disappointment by her mother-in-law to Jim.
B) According to Nicholas, before 1950's, the youth was getting married and involving a job earlier than today's youth and this marriage and profession involvements provide a common life style between parents and youth and remove any possibility of an unusual behavior because both of them live the same life style and youth experience an adult life. Today, youth participate in college or higher education rather than participating the family economy and this causes to emerge different life styles, causing a lack of communication and a diversity between a working family and a money spending child. Such diversity can be observed between Connie and her father by the following line: “ Their father was away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted supper and he read the newspaper at supper and after supper he went to bed. He didn't bother talking much to them.” There is a distinction between a working parent and a non-working daughter.
C) The change in source for defining a teen has changed from 1900 to 1950s. Before media, parents refer to local people to know/define youth but the influence of media provides a global (not precise) knowledge about the young community and cuts the communication between youth and parents, because the knowledge may not be the same for each young person. Every young person experiences a different adolescent period because the “economic and social circumstances vary enormously” There can be different characters and the global knowledge of media ignores such exceptions. In rebel without a cause, Jim searches for an opposite sex to understand him and to find his place in life, and his parents are sufficient to understand and support him in this problematic period of time. Probably, it's because of the lack of knowledge on how to approach a young person.
4) In Turkey, the stressed adolescent behavior can't be observed in villages or small towns where economic limitations last for long periods. In such places, the involvement of youth on family economy is very common and the youth steps into an adult life and the possibility of experiencing unusual behaviors are gone, because they live the same life-style with family. In societies where parents have the privilege of funding the child, a lack of communication appears because the young member has a different way of life such as university and freedom (no obligation to work) to perform most actions in mind. Simply, the level of stressed behavior is totally depend on the economy of the family. Also, the limitations of Islam religion narrows the free actions of teens in Turkey. For example the sexual interactions are very pressured by the society (most of societies, not all), so the kind of unusual behaviors change in Turkey.
5) 1)Briefly explain what contexts of life isolate teens from reality and disarray into danger? (For example the music in where are you going where have you been?)
2)Discuss the multiple factors of media as a tool of creating diversities between parents and youth by using references on Nicholas text and the film Rebel Without a cause.
The references on Nicholas text are written on a separated document, because it would be much longer than this one. The link is (http://rapidshare.com/files/166725469/The_reference_on_18.odt.html)
1)
a. Connie is a teenager girl, who confronts this problematic era of transition in her life, with a double personality, one for parents other for outside.
b. Arnold Friend is a guy who acts cool and looks like he doesn't care about anything.
2)
The music is crucial in story. Arnold Friend plays tape in the car to impress Connie, Connie listens to radio in her room. Music taste also serves as distinction between cool, independent teenagers and "obedient", "boring" adult, so their common music and radio taste unites Arnold and Connie.
3) The arguments represent fair amount of truth in themselves. The adolescence is seen as very problematic by the adults. The accomplishments of youth are seen as individual successes (Olympics, school, science, entrepreneurship, creativity etc.) but failures are attributed to whole adolescence (thefts, violence, swearing, irresponsibility etc.). Connie further isolates herself from her family, as a response to unstopping criticism of her family to her.
4) We can see that, as a more traditional society, Turkish family institution is stronger than their American counterparts. Stronger family bonds, decreases the isolation of adolescence and their problems. However due to Internet and other technological developments, the globe is a big village now and youth in Turkey is aware of youth around the globe. They wish the freedom of American youth with the protection of Turkish family together, which creates a dilemma for both the youth and adults. The drug and alcohol usage and violent crimes are less common among the Turkish youth (I guess, I didn't check statistical data). However suicide rate is certainly much lower in Turkey.
5)
1) Compare and contrast the problems confronted by the youth in the film and the short story?
2) Describe adolescence with references to at least two of three texts.
I think Mert's analysis of adolescent life in Turkey raises some interesting points. He puts it into an economic context. It is pertinent to analyse the more privileged sectors of Turkish society. My first experience of teaching in a Turkish university was at Bilkent. To be honest, I was absolutely shocked that none of my students worked, nor had they ever had a job in their lives. I found them to be immature and irresponsible in many ways. I started working in a field at the age of 13 and I have worked ever since. Later observations of Turkish society led me to believe that wealthier parents hold their teenagers back from becoming adults. They do this by "over"supporting them and not requiring them to accept consequences for their actions. I see this every day of my teaching career :). I wonder what you all think about this - but I also wonder how young Turkish people actually perceive and feel about the "adult world" of work and study...
1) a) Jim: A teenager who has problems with family. Especially with his father.
b) Connie:A teenager girl with some problems about transition from teenager to adulthood.She has some feelings about Arnold.
c) Arnold Friend: He is an adult he acts like cool and seems romantic and tender also a potential murderer murderer.
2)Music integrated into the story when Connie feel bored don't want to do something.Also it makes connie happy. its crucial because arnold plays it to attract connie.
3)i think hypothesis expressed by nichols about the teenager problems and relationship between young and adult people.the story tells about Connie isolating herself from her family and critisms about her family to her.
4)According to nichols points parents less times and media is reason for lack of interaction. in Turkey there are stronger bounds than american families but american teenagers have more freedom rather than turkish teenagers.The bad habits of teenagers have less percentages in turkish teenagers.But also there are problems between parents and childs in Turkey too.
5)
1)Connie is a self-centered rebellious teenage girl. she is vain because she thinks beauty is everything. she is going through a hard phase from childhood to a woman and making some wrong decisions. she likes boys to like her and uses her beauty and act like a woman for that. She chooses to become distance from her family to feel free as most of the teenagers do. so she ends up having two different character ; one for home for her mom and one for outside to hang out with her friends and boys. she seems so confident doing that but she really is insecure on the inside.
Arnold Friend is an adult trying to make himself look young so that he can convince her to come with him. He observes Connie carefully and knows that she wants to be liked by man so he uses that to play with his mind. he also does not hesitate to threaten her to get what he wants.
2)As a teenager when you are going through all those emotional changes you need something to tell you that everyone felt the same way once and something to put those feelings to words. that is music most of the time. Different musics different emotions and moods. That is the same for connie. She goes to a bar like an independent adult and the music makes her feel like one. She feels bored and the music cheer her up. Arnold Friend knows that music is very effective on her so he uses it to reach her.
3)Nichols' hypotheses are a fair explanation to why youth has been devalued. first she says that adults are not sensitive to the change of the role of the youth in time which i agree. Most of the adults think that the youth in their times is the same with today's and that is the way it should be. that is mostly because they do not know youth much. Adults and youngsters are getting away from each other because of all the divorced parents and technology blocking the communication. As Nichols says adults do not spend much time with youth as they did in the past in small towns. Today, adults go to work come home as young people go to school and come home mostly directly to their room. Parents watches TV eats when youngsters talking to their friend on the internet all watching their own TV in their room.
another point she makes is the influence of media. Because of the disobedient, irresponsible and disrespectful youth image on the media, youth may come to think that they need to be like one of them to get credit in society or adults can judge all the young people depending on that image.
another hypotheses is that adults forget how it is to be a teenage and expect youth not to do what they once did. But this mostly backfires since most of the youth knows that they were also told not to do it by their parents too.
In 'Where are you going, where have you been?' we can see most of these effects. for example Connie knows that the reason her mother is complaining about her is that she was beautiful in her youth going through the same things and now she is not. and also being compared with her sister really bothers her. so instead of being around them and try to communicate she chooses to be away.
4)The media is a huge influence on youth in Turkey. First of all, there are all these movies and series about all these irresponsible and mature teenagers which i think most part of the Turkish society is not ready yet.
Another point is the families trying to protect their kids by putting too much pressure on them and forbidding everything. I have a lot of friends in this kind of situations and most of them end up lying to their families and doing whatever they want while their families think he is studying with a friend.
the other factors are families not letting kids to have the responsibility to have their own actions, not having a communication in family so the kids can not feel comfortable to share their problems.
1)connie is a girl who is at the transition time for child to teeanger. her behaviours is a kind of frame that show us she is awareness of being a teenager.
2)music is an important part of Connie's life. she makes a difference between teenaging steps like boring and exciting. on the other hand arnold uses music for attracting her.
3)the hypothesis is from nichols is quite accurate.the teenage problems are coming out with both economic and psychological problems like drug addiction, broken friendshipss. also families do not pay lot attention to thier children due to their busl lifes. in addition there are some resarch done by expert due to analyze family and teenage relationships.
4)In turkey there are a lot of teenagers that they do not aware of their behaviours. there are a lot of effects that influences their characters. for example media. media has a great effect on teenager by useless and harmful programmes. another case is family pressure that make teenagers sepertate them from thier families.
connie is a girl who is at the middle of the transition from childhood to adulthood. she has the beuty just like a sprouting flower.
ın this progress, children are very anxious to be an adult without knowing the problems that become at the same time.that's why they falter easily in this period. also, the role of the family is so important and the culture that you are living in shapes your personality so much.
feeling yourself insecure when you are a child affects your self-confidence. and also knowing that outside is dangerous as a family led them to control too much for protect their child. this pressure make children more agressive to the environment. so, when they find a chance to run away they can do mistakes easily because of the hunger to being lonely as a person in social life. this vicious circle keeps turning and do not change at all.
Connie is a fifteen year old girl with brown eyes and dark blond hair. The big proplem with her is that she is self-centered and thinks she was very pretty. The main points that the text tries to gives us is adolescence problems and Connie is the main character who shows these problems directly. She is interested her appearance too much and looks to mirrors every time. Connie's most clear characteristic that we can see from the text is her interest of music.
Almost in every part of text, the impact of music can be seen. Whenever Connie wants to move away from realities and real life, she listens music and sense the rhythm of it. Music can be a tool for Connie to create an imaginary life. By using this way, Connie tries to find her identity and understand the world. Arnold Friend can be also a part of her imagine who forces Connie to make choices, for example between her family and Arnold. Maybe by creating such a man, Connie wants to ask herself some questions which helps her to find the secret emotions inside her. Music's effect can be also seen at that point, when she trying to connect with Arnold and his friend.
The most important problem with youths is identification. Adolesence is a period of people's life which makes them to examine themselves and try to understand the real world. I think Connie and Nicols' characters have the same problems, they all wanted to find their identification. The times and places are different in each story which cause the characters give diffirent reactions. It will be possible to solve these kinds of problems with the help of parents. Connie and Jim, they are all lonely and can't find enough attract from their parents I think.
The points that Nichols mentions are not different from other yougths' problems but in our society, the reactions are a little different I think. The traditions can be a good feature to keep together the individuals of family, however it doesn't mean that parents are more considerate towards their children. They try to be related with teenagers' problems but don't know how to do. Forbidding should not be a solution to protect children I think, this is an important thing that our society can not understand clearly.
What is adolesence and its problems? Compare and contrast Jim and Connie's caharacters accoarding to these problems.
1- Connie is a typical teenage girl who has difficulties with being adolescent. She is self-centered and rebellious. Also, we can say that she has two personalities like Arnold Friend. Her behaviors differ from each other when she is at home and outside. She is a good girl in the house, but when she is out she wants everyone to like her, wants to have boyfriend. And she is romantic.
Arnold Friend has two different personalities like Connie. He acts like he is romantic when he wants Connie, he keeps saying sweetheart and honey. Although, when he gets angry or when he cannot reach what he wants he becomes a devil. He threats her and got in her house, scared her. He is not a reliable person. He also wants to fascinate her with his painted car and act like he is very cool.
2- Music is integrated in the story since many teenagers like listening music. Connie is one of the examples. She was listening music when her parents not at home, she paid attention to the new song. Also, she usually gets romantic while she is listening popular music and loves their lyrics. Arnold Friend was listening same radio station and turns the volume up to impress Connie. Some people are affected by music very easily and teenagers form most of the proportion. It might motivate people or it might cause people to feel more depressed. In Oates’ story, he used music to show how teenagers try to fascinate each other.
3- In adolescence, individuals start to shape their personality. Mostly, we take our parents as a model. It is very important for children to have their parents next to them, because they need them. In some very rich families do not spend time with their children, that child do not have model for their future and tries to shape his/her personality alone. They try to find respect and love outside. When they begin to spend their time outside, addictions may start like alcohol, drugs etc. As we discussed in “family ties” children is the most affected one in family, they need to be cared, love, respect and find a possible model for their future. Connie is not close to her family enough in my opinion. Do not spend time with them, also it is vice versa. Her parents do not try to be with her.
4- I observe adolescence very well on my sister. She is fourteen years old, and usually never cares about what my parents say. Sometimes I believe she does things just for purposely, just to show that do not do whatever they want her to do. She never stops saying “ufff, off” etc. My parents care about her a lot, but she is very rebellious. I am more close to her and try to show the right thing and she usually minds what I say. I think adolescence is very difficult stage to pass through, both for the individual and his/her parents.
5- *Compare and contrast adolescence in Turkey and America with reference to text and society.
*What is adolescence? Write about challenging parts of it with references to texts.
Task One
Connie
She is a fifteen-year old, rebellious and romantic girl. She has some problems that every teenager has and tries to find her identity. She looks like she does not care about her family but she does. She likes the concept of having a boy friend but she does not fall in love with a boy.
Arnold Friend
He is a thirty- year old man. He has a golden car with the sign of Arnold Friend. He wants Connie to go for a ride with his car. Although Connie does not know him, he knows many details of Connie’s life and wants to attract her. Critics say that he may represent “a friend” or “an old fiend”.
Jim Stark
He is a rebellious and furious teenager. He is the new person in the school; his family moved from another town because of his past ‘rebels’. His peers call him as “chicken”. Then, he involves in a dangerous car race to prove them he was not. This shows that he is stupidly adventurous and brave. He does not think about bad outcomes of his behaviors.
Task Two
Oates dedicates the story to Bob Dylan because she wrote it after she listened to his song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. Probably, that’s why music was immensely integrated in the story.
Some examples of integration of music in the story;
The words “sing”, “song” and “music” can be seen in the story many times.
Arnold’s friend was listening music; Bobby King. That was the same music; Connie was listening inside home before they came.
Connie wants a love like the ones promised in songs.
Task Three
In Nichols’ text, there are some references to a research among American adults by Gallup Organization. According to a research, many of adults think that teenagers are “more irresponsible, too wild, drink too much, more independent, less restricted and freer in action” . So, they are devalued. There are some possible reasons of devaluation. The first one is that economic and social expectations of families from teenager were changed. For instance in 1900s families expected their children to work but in 2000s families want their children both to go to school and work. Secondly, adults do not care about adolescences. They do not try to understand them and they forget problems they had when they were teens. Then, they label behaviors of teenagers typical and expected.
Effects of devaluation might be seen in manners of Jim and Connie. Jim does not listen to his parents. He does not think about what he was doing; it is harmful for him or not. He makes a car race with his friend and causes death of his friend indirectly. He becomes drunk and falls asleep in streets. Connie is deceitful and selfish. Although she does not know Arnold Friend and he is a possible rapist or murderer, she talks with him.
Task Four
Turkish teenagers experience a lot of firsts, too. So, they are stressful like American teenagers. They have same kind of problems as American teenagers have. Turkish parents forget easily their adolescence and they do not care about teens. Also they are stricter and teenagers may feel more stressed. I think being an adolescent in Turkey is harder than being an adolescent in America.
Task Five
1. What are the problems that teenagers usually have? Did Jim Stark and Connie have that kind of problems?
2. Imagine that Connie and Jim Stark become adults. How would their attitudes change when they become adults? How would they behave teenagers?
Sonja,
You said that none of your students in Bilkent worked. I think it is same for many students in Sabanci and in Turkey .
The most important reason for this is the educational system. As a product of Turkish educational system, I believe, it is not possible to work. Turkey is a poor country in general. For most of the families, education is really the only tool for going up to a higher social class. The system has been established totally on national examinations. Beginning with primary school, students pass through various exams which determine which school or which occupation they will go in. Since these examinations are perceived as the determinants of whole life, students have private lessons or courses in addition to school. For example, in my high school, after our classes finished I had courses in dershane and also some private classes. I went to courses since I was in the fourth grade. In the eleventh, I remember I had approximately 65 hours of classes in total. I don’t even mention hobbies; I had so little time even for sleeping. I was like a horse in a race like 95% of the students in Turkey.
This situation may be different for some wealthier students. Some lucky families (probably 5%) can pay the tuition fee for private universities. Even if their children hit low scores in the examination, they can easily go to university just by paying. Then most probably what you experienced in Bilkent comes to the scene: irresponsible students who just spend money of their parents and who just have fun. I believe, their irresponsible behaviour is a result of poverty of Turkey. They feel themselves different and luckier than the majority of society and they feel like they do not have to study or work. This attitude is normal because they know they are different so they become spoiled as being the citizens of a country in which some girls are not allowed to go to school, some people even do not know how to read or write, or some students cannot find money for buying books.
Your other point is that some wealthier families over support their children. I think, this situation is also related with social and political conditions. After 1980s, with the transition to free market economy in Turkey, there emerged many people who got rich. We are now a generation at the age of their children. I think, these new-rich(s) know hardness of poverty. They do not want their children to live through that hardness. So, they over support them.
TASK ONE
Connie: She's a naive, rebellious and self-centered girl, who is in the transition between girlhood to womanhood. Most of the time we observe that she's behaving differently at home and when she's outside with her friends, that's her hypocrite side. She is more interested in the idea of having a boyfriend, more than the boyfriend himself. She's quite vulnerable.
Arnold Friend: He is handsome and appeals to girls like Connie. he's deceitful, charming, troublesome, voyeuristic and threatening. During the story, she forces Connie to come outside, by threatening to harm her family. Arnold is sweet-talking and uses psychological manipulation very well indeed.
Jim Stark: Jim is full of pride and young-spirit. He's trying to adjust to his new neighbourhood and having some problems doing it. When he's challenged by some boys in his high school, he doesn't restrain for a second to involve in a fight or a duel. He's courageous and trustworthy as he keeps an eye on Plato, being his best friend throughout the movie.
TASK TWO
The role of the music is quite significant in the story. It's well integrated to fit the transitional behaviours of Connie. Arnold appeals to Connie by playing their common song. When Connie is bored, the music is entertaining her. The parts in the story, where the transitional behaviours such as boredom, sudden excitement and adolescent behaviours are represented through the playing of the music.
TASK THREE
According to Nichols, America's source is the youth. Hall and Bandura claim that the youth has been devalued over time because of two reasons: the perception and concept of youth has changed and the media influence has been quite active. Nichols has two arguments in her own words : 1)"youth's economic value has changed over time in that modern youth generally contribute less to the economic stability and vitality of the family and more to society than the youth of the past.", 2)"Adults' knowledge of youth has changed from a localized context to a more diffuse, unfamiliar, globalized one. There are less enduring face-to-face relations between adults and young people." We can clearly observe examples of this devaluation in the characters of Connie and Jim Stark. Connie and Jim obviously aren't forced to make a living on their own or they're not obliged to support their family or contribute in the society
somewhat, so they have their free time. Jim takes his time adjusting the neighbourhood and making friends, while Connie is eyeing boys in her sight, regardless of they appeal to her or not, when she's outside with her friends. We can support Nichols'
second argument, giving example that in the movie, the police station is full of troubled teenagers, that's because the lack of communication among the family members, between the child and the parents.
TASK FOUR
In Turkey, if young people want to be successfull, they have to study for long years as if in a horse race to keep up the pace of the ÖSS exam, so they don't have any time to work or for their hobbies. This is one of the major problems that turkish youth faces, as they can not socialize or spend free time doing whatever it is they want. The whole ÖSS system makes youth rebellious I think, because it's a must. Adolescence transition becomes unbearable when you combine it with the education system. I, being an example, do not remember a time I did not quarrel with my parents when I was studying for the exam. The teenagers have too much pressure on them that at one point it eventually breaks up when combined with the transition period.
TASK FIVE
1)What do you think are the reasons for devaluation of the youth? Explain and refer to the texts/movies related to this subject.
2)Introduce us your transition from childhood to adolescence, give specific examples of the difficulties, rebellions you've unintentionally caused, compare and contrast your worldviews of before and after of the adolescence transition.
Ezgi,
Thanks for your comments. I have been thinking a lot about them, which is why I haven't replied yet.
Yes, I have observed exactly the same things you mentioned. As a teacher, I am very against this exam-based system because real learning and education have very little to do with exams. It encourages students to focus on short-term goals, to only listen to or care about things that are directly related to exam items, and so on and so forth. I am so surprised to find this system in operation. True, Turkey is still a poor country in some respects, but viewed regionally, it is amazingly well-developed and has great potential for wealth. All modern educational theories reject the model which is used in Turkey. I think this is a real source of conflict between Turkish students and foreign teachers.
One thing you said confuses me, though. You said perhaps 5% of families can afford private tuition fees. But only 25% of Sabancı students are on bursaries. So how is 70% of the student body paying for their tuition?
TASK 1:
Jim Stark is at the level of teenage and he faces a range of problems within his family and outside of the home. His parents were trying so hard to protect their children and help him in his social life as they wish without listening him. The point is, to some extent Jim listens to them, and afterward each of their words is being sense him as lies. Also his environment as school mates designates his character substantially. Maybe because of moving their house so much, Jim came across with many different situations and he used to detect the right decisions sometimes, which must seem to be a proper one. Jim also not good in making new friends and do not see it so necessary. Beside his parent’s effort to sustain him what he wants, he had not been lost his way in terms of things which may bring shame upon his family.
TASK 2:
We start to see more music scenes in descriptions when Arnold Friend came out with his car. Directly, in the background of the dialogues between Arnold and Connie which were near the car, almost there is music playing all the time. Sometime this music ascribes meanings to Arnold’s way of talking and makes the words meaningful by transforming its structural way deeply. When Arnold is speaking the sound may come more convincing sometimes. In today world, it may also be observed explicitly that music influences teenage so easily.
TASK 3:
Nichols displays devaluation in terms of three arguments.
First it is pointed out that the expectations from children increased so much. This may show adolescences insupportable in the eyes of adults. They want to see always much further from their children in their all decisions.
Secondly, it is being proved by examples that the way people live is changing all the time. Today people are more nested and contributed with their daily works. This induces more fragile memory of their adolescence time. With that, they usually tend to memorize their good moments of pasts which represents that time. Therefore while they see negative attitudes of their children, they become astonished and devaluate it.
In third, now days, media has an inevitable unprecedented scale of influences on people’s life. That’s why it changes both perspective of parent’s looking their adolescences and adolescences angle of view to life day after day. It induces contradiction among each other.
Fourthly, young people are becoming much freer in their social and economical decisions respect to their older counterparts. This situation brings along different consequences in terms of experiencing entirely different things.
TASK 4:
In Turkey, we see very same examples but some part of the Turkish adolescences experience them after a long period of time. However some of the examples may be seen simultaneously because of the fact, global world. Maybe it is also because our people becoming newly sincere with these ideas. They seem to us as they are new in 2000s Turkey, like Nichols demonstrates very same situation in 1900s America.
TASK 5:
According to the texts and movie, in what ways, the situation will continue to show variety in itself, what do you thing that waits us more than these? Can you explain briefly the youth’s situation by grounding the subject on globalization?
Nichols suggests that role expectations have changed over time. In the 1900's a teenage was supposed to sustain the health of the family business.Today this is not the case.Media also has a big influence and when they report news about crimes and accidents of youth it affects the view of adults on teens. Positive things that the teenagers do aren't reported because they are not seen as good news material.Consumers of this media type see youth in problematic terms.
Another reason why many adults devalue youth is because it is easy to forget what being an adolescent was like.Adults fail to see that something may be insignificant to them but vital for teenagers.Differentiated experiences is also another hypothesis of Nichols. All American teens are not in the same exonomic or social circumstances so all teenagers expreience these years in unique ways.
Adults are insensitive to this factor.
1) Connie is a rebellious teenager girl. She had some problems about transition to adult.
Arnold Friend is an adult who acts like more younger and cool. This guy seems tender and romantic however he is a potential rapist.
2) Music is a vital point in the story. When Connie wants to escape from real life she listens the music. This relationship also seen in "The Graduate" between Ben and pool. In the movie Ben was using pool for escape from outside world. In the story Arnold also uses music for attract Connie.
3) In today's world young generation do not work for family economy. They work for their future in schools so they spent lots of money. Due to that reason there is a huge difference between young generation and adults. In the story we can easily see that situation between Connie's father and Connie.
4) Actually in Turkey because of the strong bonds between family members the problems that cause by teenagers are minimum. Especially when we compare with Europe this amount is very little.
5) Describe the affects of media on adolescence. How can media cause a diversity between parents and children. Write your opinion and compare them with the Nicholas' text.
Task One
Connie is a teenager girl who's having the most difficult times of her life. She's growing and she's being a woman. As the second task is related to music I' d like to link all the tasks with a song. And Connie's song is "Urge Overkill - Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon, soundtrack of Pulp Fiction"
Jim Stark is one of the most pathetic characters I've ever read. He should be a teenager, but he is acting like a child. For Jim Stark I choose "Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag"
Arnold Friend... well I think he's the devil himself. He is handsome, carismatic, crucial and most importantly mortal. While reading I described him as "John Travolta" in "Grease" so the song which is going for Arnold Friend is "Grease - Frankie Wallie"
Task Two
Well, the whole story is related to music. Every single emotion has its sound in the story, but it is a must to say that Connie's change in her feelings while listening music, her weakness for music harshly reminds me to myself.
Task Three
This time I will start with the name of the song. "Pink Floyd - We Don't Need No Education". I do not believe what Nichols said and most of all I don't see a devaluation in society. But there are some points that Nichols is right. First of all thee family bondage is becoming weaker and weaker. That is a problem that teenagers also Connie and Jim Stark had suffered. Teenagers feel more lonely and more vulnerable. But I think that it is the process for growing older.
Task Four
Turkish society is suffering another problem for over 2 centuries we can not define ourselves. Our religion and cultural beliefs are completely different what we saw in out-world. And Turkish society doesn't close its bounds to out-world like some other neighbours did. Our economical status is quite different from what we saw in TV, what we read. So the Turkish Youth generally wants to live a life which they see in foreign media but also they know that this is impossible, so they deny that they wanted that life. It is an interesting dilemma, which I couldn't find a song at the moment I'll post if I find one.
Task Five
Discuss if the existence of devaluation in adolescence is real.Justify your response.
Do you really want to see a youth more rebellious? Discuss birefly.
Connie is a 15 years old girl who is in the sharp transition era from childhood to adulthood. She thinks she is smart and decide her own acts by herself. But actually, she is vulnerable and feeling necessity of protection of her family as we see in the story. In story, music is also play a role. Arnold friend manipulates the music to obtain Connie like he does to other beautiful girls. Turkish adolescence also faces with youth issues. Young people are affected by media considerably rather than their adults which lead to erosion of some values as we discussed in our mid-term exam.
Final questions:
1)What can be changed in media display to influence adolescence in a better way?
2)What can be done by adults to protect children from devaluation and exposure of media?
Deniz Ö., I laughed out loud at your choice of songs for each character and I think you're spot on. "Teenage Dirtbag" is great. Keep thinking of more... :))
1)
Connie: Connie who is a typical teenage girl, interests her appearance more and she is self- centered, conceited and deceptive. Also she is deeply romantic, tries to attract high school boys, express life with songs, especially popular songs and she does not have good communication to her family. She is pinched between teenage and adulthood, she tries to identify herself however she actually acts different in home and outside.
Arnold:
He tries to attract Connie by his sport car and his physical appearance. Also he draws two different portraits like Connie, he is appealed gentle and loving person first to catch her interest but he begins to threat Connie to see him, this was the terror side of him. At the climax of story, Connie acquiesces to Arnold's evil desires.
Jim Stark:
He has communication problems with his family especially her mother, he is a rebellious boy. He wants to take his father is a true model for him or his life, however his father always follows his wife instructions which make Jim uncomfortable because his mother is typical adult, her ideal person type is being adaptive person for everything. On the other hand, Jim wants to find his own way to have communication with other people, but his family change their location periodically and this situation prevent him to have friends. In this way, he loses his self-confident. He struggles to change his family's perspective for him and show them his growth.
2) In this story many important images and symbols are used by writer and also she finds its way by using many musical themes. Also writer tries to emphasize how popular music of 1960s is effective on young generation. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is subtitled “For Bob Dylan, it is the most significant clue about importance of music in this story. I think music is very effective way to express many thing in short words and writer use music on both Connie's life and Arnold's life. Music is very crucial for them especially for Connie. She supposes that everything about life is similar to querulous in songs and set life inside songs so she is able to isolate herself from outside. Besides this, conversation between Connie and Arnold is a good sign for importance of music for adolescence.
3) Nichols has three significant hypotheses on devaluation of young generation;
First of all, she mentions about how generations become different since 1990s in sense of economical path and life aspect. During 1900s, teens contribute household economy to help their family by working their family business (generally). In this way they have healthy relationships between their families and also neighborliness exists in community. However, by 1950s economic values or comprehension began to change. '' Teens were teens for a long period of time'', Nichols tries to explain that high rate of youth began to stay school instead of working, therefore they became giving less contribution to society, role of man and woman became more stable in home. Additionally, Nichols claims that this situation is like for today's teens, because they spend more years in schools and adults are not care about their long term worries about future. Divorce rate increases and distance between teenagers and adults became bigger because they do not spend time together enough.
Another hypothesis is that impact of media. Media has huge impact on adults; generally it shows youth's negative sides by showing bad event like crime, robbery and conflicts. According to data of researches in media, media has not represented youth generation correctly by showing only negative sides of them, and this depicts youth problems in eyes of adults.
Last hypothesis is about forgetting adolescence. I think that the expansion of why teens has been devalued, because generally adults forget being youth. They only remember their white and black memories and time in between daily life events. Therefore they only see adolescence in one perspective also most of them unable to have empathy with their children. I think that transition from adolescent to adulthood is not like evaluation; therefore adult should remember that the psychological and social turmoil of this difficult period.
If we try to observe these hypotheses on character of Connie and Jim, they easily could be recognized. Both of them do not have good communication with their family; they try to find their own way during to passing adulthood by searching some answer outside. Also in their home, their families spend little time together; this situation is similar to Nichols hypothesis because she indicates that after shifting in economical path family member become more distinct to each other.
4) I think similar problems which are explained and supported by Nichols can be seen in Turkey. There is a huge gap between teenagers and adults, and the reason for that is the lack of communication between parents and children, they do not spend enough time to understand each other and concentrate on their problems. Economical problems, impacts of media and new family arrangements are effective in these situations. Parents have to gain money to sustain their life standards, spend most of time work therefore they do not separate sufficient time to understand their children even talk with them, this conditions divide them into two different worlds. Some voices like '' you don’t know what I’m talking about'', '' something is not similar in your ages'' etc are common word in every family. There is a song which summarizes the relationship between teenagers and their parents and it emphasizes on the sentence that “I know what is to be young but you don’t know what is to be old”. Moreover, most of adult think that giving money and supplying their needs enough for teens. I think this is the root of most problems. Additionally, some pressures exist on young generation like future stress, having good education, finding good job or gaining enough money. These life fears blazed becoming distant for two generation. Also media damage family relations in Turkey, members generally spend their time on TV instead of talking and looking each other, these push two sides to their own world.
5) Explain reasons of problems between adolescence and adult according to Nichols hypotheses.
1- connie is a girl who is in transition from being an adolescent to a young woman. her attitude her family rebellious as every adolescent. she is interested in arnold, she is trying to attract his attention. she thinks she is ver beautiful and pretty and with her beauty she can attract everyone. she wants everyone s attention on herself which means she is selfcentered ,but actually she is not a person like, she acts different than herself.
2- music is the key factor in the story. ın every part when connie wants to express herself, in a bad or good mood, music enters into the story. i think she can describe herself with music rather than using words, she may feel stronger when she listens music she likes.
4- there are similarities between turkish youth and characters in the story and text. but majority of turkish youth has economical problems this is the main point of being different rebellious than the youth in europa or us. first of all turkish youth wants to be rich and famous, and i think turkish media support this idea beacause they want to hurt feelings of adolescens to not a barrier to them when they become an adult. another point is about an islamic religous view and turkish family structure, i think it limits the freedom of turkish youth.
5- a)what are the main reasons of devaulation of youth and being isolated from their parents? explain with references from textes and movies which are related.
Connie is a fifteen year old girl with blue eyes and long, dark blond hair. she lives with her family. she is messy, she values her outward appearance, she doesn't help for daily works in the house but instead, she daydreams, she thinks about the boys all the time.
she has two sides in her life: life at home and life outside home.she is hypocritical,she doesn't care about she church and religion, she doesn't want to be in contact with her relatives.she is rebellious.
Arnold Friend is with a high probability thirty year old young man, who dresses up like all the cool boys do. he is self-confident, he tries to appear in Connie's eyes like a young man she wants to hang out with. he is able to convince Connie at the end of the story.
I think, Nichols thesis about the loneliness of the adolescence fits quite well to Turkey. in general, economic reasons affect the relations between it's members.but for some reasons, Turkish youth feels isolated from their parents and seek their happiness and the missing relation in other things.
-discuss the problems that the former problematic teenagers would face when they start to raise their own children.
-explain briefly the problems of adolescence
the short story is based on a girl's life who is connie. Connie has some teenage problems. also she has got lots of problems with her family likes the majority of teenager. for example her father cannot have enough time with her because of his job. Teenage years are times of strong emotion, rebellion, disagreement, psychological changes and sexual experimentation and etc. the problems are based on the transition from childhood to womanhood. In addition, i cannot understand the importance of ediie who is a friend of Connie.
1
*Jim Stark is a lonely boy and does not want to make any friends. He is not close to his family. Causes troubles reluctantly.
*Connie is struggling with transition of girlhood to womanhood. She is conceited and irresponsible. Music an her beauty only things that matter to her. Also she is jealous of her sister, it is reflected that Connie is the bad one and her sister is successful, responsible, who helps around the house.
*Arnold Friend is a troublesome pervert. He just wants to use Connie as a sexual object and he tries to get to her by using her weakness to music.
2
I agree with Nichols. I can see effect of devaluation of youth on Connie, Jim Stark and of course in real life. Jim Stark thinks that his family does not understand him. He has been acted immature his whole life and when he wants be mature his family does not appreciate it. On the other hand, Connie is devalued also,no one expects something from her, she has no responsibility which may make her feel worthy. Even she does not go to barbecue with all her parents, she is all alone in her family, like Jim Stark
3
I think the situation is same in Turkey. Just maybe we are following from a little bit behind that's all.
4
*Try to create a new Connie and Jim Stark with their families which will be not facing problems that we've seen in the movie and the short story, explain their daily life, use a few communications, support your work with Nichol's writing.
*Do you think that youth problems are more easy to encounter with in developed countries or developing countries? Specify your idea, and explain why.
1) Connie is a 15 years old girl, trying to discover herself and her place in society. However her effort is hindered by her mother and that drifts her away from her family.
2)Music is used like connie's inner world i think. Reflecting her depression. Also Arnold tries to reach her (inner world) by talking about music.
3)That make them more open to outside (at a stage they shouldn't)
Corrupts their sense of judgement against other people and make them open to manipulation.
4)I think Nichols model is suitable for Turkey also, But our infamous OSS is last nail in the coffin. That makes teenager compete with each other more then anything and corrupts our ability of team working.
5)Analyse the reason why it was too easy for Judy to fall in love with Jim.
Compare the Connie's interest against Arnold with Plutons interest against Jim.
Connie tries to attract boys, who are older than her. She is neither a child nor a woman. Therefore “everything about her has two sides.” She acts as a different person, when she is with her friends, than when she is at home with her family.
Music is a thing, which makes her happy in every situation. As she found out, that Arnold listens to Bobby King as she do, she saw him from a different perspective for a short time. Music is a common point for both, even they are very different from each other. This part of the short story shows the situation about youth. They can understand each other through a popular thing like music.
In “The continued myth of adolescence” Nicholas said that the parents spend less time with their children and that is a big factor, which decreases distance between them. In “Where are you going, where have you been?” Connie's father is at work till late and it is not possible to have a great communication between Connie and his father.
I agree with my friends, that the Turkish youth has the same problems as the youth from other nationalities. Adults are so busy with their job and doesn't see any necessities to spend time for their children or try to think as they do. This causes a big problem. neither parents nor their children can understand each other.
Sonja,
it is in general for whole Turkey, not only for Sabancı University.
Connie is a 15 years old typical teenage girl. She is at the phase of being a woman so she is always in unreal world that she created in her mind but she couldn't find her imaginary world in the her real life with her parents and she become rebellious teenager.
Arnold Friend is the man who gets Connie into wonderland. He has some kind of mystic ability to impress Connie.
jim Stark is a lonely teen as all youths in the "Rebel without a cause". He is acting disrespectful and crazy in some situations. For example when Buzz called him as chicken, he could not control himself because he never wants to be like his father, he thought his father is not brave enough and he wants that his father and he himself should stand up in every conditions. And he behaves honest to his father after the accident. He cares about his friend and proves it while trying to save Pluto.
Connie is between the line of maturity and being child. It is quite hard to understand the psychology of a teen and "Where are you going where have you been" is a sample of it. She has two different style of life as many teens have. Her life is different at home than while she is with her friends. She is acting like she is purely innocent that is why she comments on some kind of girls as rubbish. Also her mom compares her two daughters all the time and always Connie becomes the inferior one for her mom.
Arnold Friend is a symbol of Devil. He is quite strange, he knows all about Connie. He insists on taking her to the car with himself and he alludes to Connie like they will never come back. He is trying to impress her with the song that she likes so much.
Nichols gives some hypothesis about the reasons why youth has been devalued over time. He emphasizes, forgetting being adolescence and not thinking about changing conditions also the media impact. Jim Stark has a family in which he feels alone. Connie a family whose father does not spend time with them and mother always compare Connie with her sis and does not support Connie although the mom was like Connie while she were young. These are some points in which Nichols criticize the attitude adults.
I think, there are three types of family in Turkey. Number one is the one who spends time with their children, cares about their future, tries to create a family in peace and let their children to feel they are a member of the family while regarding their views. At this kind of family, i believe some problems of the adolescence are easier to solve. Second family is the one who does not care their family, every one thinks just themselves. At this kind of family usually children grows up in an empty house so for them communication became quite hard. Teens have to overcome this problem age by themselves therefore, so many of them can not do it easily because of no psychological support from the family and these ones are so close to control by a circle of friend. And the last one is really strict family. The family interfere their life of children. Again these children face with a communication problem and they follow two ways; they can elicit to their family or they can live under the shadow of the family. It affects the psychological of children deeply at these period of youth in both conditions. I think there are samples of all types of families in Turkey but unfortunately i am suspicious about becoming related parents will increase in our generation!?
1-Connie is a 15 year old unexperienced girl with an obsession to beauty. She has two different personalities senen in home and in other places and she's having the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Arnold Friend is an about thirty year old men who tries to attract Connie and probably rape her.
2-In the story music is seen as the religion of Connie. It has all the facts that she believes in and fights for. It is also seen when Arnold Friend came. Listening to the same songs probably made her attract more from Arnold Friend.
3-She says parents forgat their adolescence like Connie's mother forgat how being pretty is important for a 15 year old girl. She also says parents spend less time with their kids and we can see Connie's father doesn't spend much time with her and not interested in her life.
4-I think all the points that she talks about can be seen in Turkish society. In addition to this, not having enough money and pressure of the religion Islam plays a big role too.
5-What do you think can be added to Nichols' observations about youth?
What has been changed about the youth problems in 100 years time?
1)
Jim Stark is a teenage who has some problems about adaptation to a new society .
Also he has problems with his family , his mother and father always arguing in front of him
and his mother always criticize him about his behaviors. They always moving consequently he hasn't got continuous friendships and he always try to make himself accepted . His most problematic time , ha can not find to way out and try to solve his problems alone but he is trying to do this with wrong people and wrong actions. Jim's family is not capable to help him with his problems , his mother is a very nervous women and she cant control her reactions against the problems. His father is a kind of poor-spirited against his wifes over-reactions.So Jim is alone with his problems about his friends , journey of finding himself , make decisions about who he is , how to be a man . Because of All this reasons we can say that Jim is troubled with his adolescence.
2)The music in the Oates story is not very important I think . Connie listen to the radio when she was alone in the house and it makes her a little bit more relax or happy . She can listen whatever she wants at that alone time. Arnold using the radio or music for impress Connie .
3)Nichols discussing the problems and relationship between young and adult people . Jim hasn't got a real relationship between his family so he is trying to solve his problems alone . Because his family i so far away from understand him or try to help him with what he's trying to solve.
4)Turkish youth problems are nearly the same with Nicholes points. But maybe American teenagers have more freedom than Turkish ones but time is chancing and also Turkish teenagers have freedom as Americans.Maybe we can say Turkish families are more conservative about their traditions and this fact can create some differences .
1) Connie is a girl which is in risky period because she has started to be woman and this period includes this alteration. She is romantic and she likes dreaming and listening music. She argues with her mum because her mum always insults her for Connie's attitudes and behaviors. Her mum wants Connie to look like her sister.
Arnold Friend is an adult and he says that he likes to Connie and he started to annoyed her. He is a strange boy, we couldnt understand him very clearly. He could be deviant or murderer.
Jim Stark is a mute boy. He doesnt talk much but he has some problems with his family. He couldnt make friends because of his family. Normally he is good boy but he started to make some dangerous attitudes.
3)There are four hypothesis in that text. First one is about media influences, second one is that forgetting adolescence, another one is that role expectations have changed over time and finally adults are insensitive to the range of young people's situations. These hypothesis are related with Connie and Jim. Firstly, Connie's parents could not understand her and their expectations are very different but she doesnt want to be like that. And Her parent forgets their adolescences and they doent allow her to go anywhere in contrast to her friend's parents. Another character, Jim is a good example, too. He is not happy with his family because his parent dont listen him and they dont learn his problems clearly. He doesnt like his father's behaviors and he doesnt answer his parent's expectations.
4)There are really good examples for this hypothesis in everywhere, of course in Turkey. In contrast to the past, In turkey people have started to forget spending their own time with their family so it is a very dangerous point so it could cause lots of problems in family.
1- connie start to bore er mothers presure and she also think that her mother envy her
Task 1
Arnold Friend is one of the dangerous character for the Connie in the story. He is always antipathetic and oppositional. He play the role who try to tempt Connie. When we meet the Arnold Friend, I understood he is not teenager but I did not think he is older this much. May be caused from his first description and car.
Task 3
No I did not think that. may be Connie's family did not valued her but is she valued to her family? Definitely no. But I think Jim could not expose the value which his deserve. Her father love him very much but he could not provide anything to take pride Jim in his father. He wants to make his father brave.
Task 4
In Turkey, there is too much events as in the film between teenagers. In high school, teenagers knife each ones for girl friend.
Task 5
-compare older teenagers and actual teenagers
-if you have a teenage child, how do you behave and bring up he/she?
- what are the 3 main wrong about communication between teenager and parents?
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