This recalls the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. If you listen and avoid danger, then you should be fine. If there is a strong man around, you will be fine. If you are modest and keep to yourself, you will be fine. If you do as your parents tell you, you will be fine. This advice all forgets that you can do everything right and still lose. Likewise, you can do everything wrong and lose. Should a wolf be loose, it can be misfortune as much as choice that plays a role in real life. I do think Oatess story does indicate the unique situation Connie is in as a girl, but I think the story modernizes the fairy tale based on how things change as well: given the turbulence of the sixties, does Red Riding Hood take the guise of a free-spirited, even reckless Connie, ignoring her mothers advice and associating with any boy and experience she wants? Does the wolf take the form of Arnold Friend, a slick outsider that preys on the girls lost in the wave of their new-found independence?
