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March 25, 2006

Thankfulness & Coping 101

O'Connor, ''A Circle in the Fire'' -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)"Even a small change in the weather made Mrs. Cope thankful, but when the seasons changed she seemed almost frightened at her good fortune in escaping whatever it was that pursued her. As she sometimes did when one thing was finished and another about to begin, she turned her attention to the child... "(150). I think that these are some of the most important lines in the whole story, and they deserve a close reading. We know that Mrs. Cope repeatedly says how thankful she is, but how deep can her thankfulness be if she feels it with every change in the weather? Thankfulness is a good quality, and it assumes a level of serenity for the one who is thankful. When we are truly thankful, we feel blessed, but Mrs. Cope does not feel blessed. Her life is all about sweating the small stuff (nut grass, weeds, potential fires, Mr. Culver using the gate) and she disdains everyone around her. You are unquestionably thankful if you manage to avoid some calamity, and may even devote the rest of your life to God, doing good, etc., but we don't know if there was a defining or dangerous moment that Mrs. Cope somehow survived, and if this is why she makes such a conscious effort to be thankful (Notice that there is never any mention of a Mr. Cope, yet there is a daughter). Because the reader is not given a complete history, and because of her focus on petty details ( "(She) ate her dinner hastily, not conscious that she had her sunhat on"(147), Mrs. Cope's gratefulness seems contrived. No matter how hard she works and how thankful she says that she is, she really has no control (as personified by th visitors) and this douses any good in her life, including being a mother to her daughter, who is only squeezed in between tasks.

Posted by BrendaChristeleit at March 25, 2006 6:31 PM

Comments

I noticed that they was a young girl but never come to mind where is the dad? They are very thankful people for all that they do have but those young boys muct have never been raised to appricate anything that they had. Mrs. Cope is extremely pictular about that see owns, even getting down and picking the little nut weeds as she does. What another sad ending story.

Posted by: Melissa Lupari at March 26, 2006 7:01 PM

I was actually expecting Mrs. Cope and her daughter to die somewhere in the conclusion, because Mrs. Cope seemed somehow like the grandmother from "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." She seems to suffer from the same lack of genuine faith, as you've pointed out.

Posted by: ChrisU at March 30, 2006 8:41 AM

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