Setting of the story

     It's not so difficult to define the setting of the story. The first thing that helps us to learn it - reference to different songs, which she listened regularly at XYZ Sunday Jamboree radio program, the spoken language of Arnold Friend... They date the same period when Oates wrote her story - the middle of 60s of the XX century. . Oates sketches in few details of the town, which is meant to be a typical suburban landscape that includes familiar sights such as a shopping plaza and drive-in restaurant. Moreover, the setting is further described in the house, where Connie lived: "The asbestos ranch house that was now three years old startled her—it looked small". 

     

Of course, it had a huge influence on Connie. She tried to correspond to the society, where she lived. She payed too much attention to her appearance, music, which she adored and always sang all the songs she loved out loud. Also her attitude to men... She knew that she drew the men's attention and, being only a 15-year-old teenager, she "has begun some kind of sexual experimentation and has been with boys “the way it was in movies and promised in songs""   

     Though the actual location of the story is irrelevant, the reference to the radio show Connie listens to, the “XYZ Sunday Jamboree,” may be a reference to radio station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan, the area in which Oates lived at the time the story was written.