The main characters

In the story the author presents two main characters – Connie and Arnold Friend. There are also some minor characters, such as Connie’s parents, sister, her best friend and the driver.

The protagonist, Connie, is 15-year-old girl, who lives with her parents and her sister. She is very pretty, but light-headed girl: “she knew she was pretty and that was everything”. Connie thinks a lot about her appearance and spends a lot of time before the mirror: “she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right”. All her thoughts are occupied with boys.

Connie doesn’t reach an understanding with her family, particularly she has misunderstanding with her mother, who she thinks old-fashioned, and she is a rival with her older sister, who is loved and admired by both mother and aunt. Connie spends a lot of her time with her best friend visiting different cinemas and meeting boys.

The antagonist of the story, Arnold Friend, is like “a man from another world”. We know just some things about him. He is about 30, well-dressed fashion man. He has a gold car which no doubt attracts girl for the first time.  But then she realizes that “everything about him and even about the music that was so familiar to her was only half real”.