Self Esteem Through the Eyes of Connie and Mrs. Turpin
Mirror Mirror On The Wall Do you recall the wicked step mother in Snow White? She was constantly looking into the mirror, not to see her own reflection, but rather to see what others thought of that reflection. "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" That same question rattles around the minds of many today. It is around that very concept that sociologist Charles Horton Cooley "developed one of the two most basic concepts in social psychology" (McNeal and Tiemann 118), the Looking Glass Self. Cooley's Looking Glass Self has three principal elements to it: "the imagination of our appearance to the other person, the imagination of his judgment on that appearance, some sort of self feeling, such as pride or mortification" (Cooley 121). To summarize this theory, it is how we evaluate ourselves through the eyes of someone else, or how we perceive ourselves based on what we believe others think or feel about us. Connie from Joyce Carol Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," and Mrs. Turpin from Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation," truly embody Cooley's theory of the Looking Glass Self. Imagining how she seems or appears to others, Connie continually checks her own refl
"Whenever she counted her blessings she felt as buoyant as if she weighed one hundred and twenty-five pounds instead of one hundred and eighty" (O'Connor 150). She attempts to deny thatthe young Mary Alice's words are true. "She was fifteen and 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" (Oates 130). "One night in midsummer they ran across [the highway], breathless with daring, and right away someone leaned out a car window invited them over, but it was just a boy from high school they didn't like it. It made them feel good to be able to ignore him" (131). Connie was moved to prideful arrogance. The way she imagines others will value those "blessings", contributes greatly to her self image. Connie's imagined view of herself through her own eyes and the eyes of others is an example of the first element of Cooley's Looking Glass Self theory. The Looking Glass Self explains it this way, "The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind" (Cooley 121). "If June's name was mentioned her mother's tone was approving, and if Connie's name was mentioned it was disapproving. Turpin imagines the judgment of the young Mary Alice while sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office. ection, as well as the faces of the onlookers. How could anyone judge her so harshly? Connie manifests the third element of the Looking Glass Self when she, believing that others can't help but be attracted to her, is sometimes prideful, arrogant or even disinterested. "'I am not,' she said tearfully, 'a wart hog.
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