"It was a boil. A nigger woman up the road told me what to do and I did it and it went away." (O Connor 75).
"Standing up straight, she was a short woman, shaped nearly like a funeral urn. She had mulberry-colored hair stacked in sausage rolls around her head..." (O Connor 63).
There are a few things that I would like to discuss. First, I would like to note that while many people are offended with the use of language provided by Flannery O' Connor, one must understand that this was written in the late 1940's and language like that was absolutely normal. While it is good for someone to be offended in this time period, one must still understand that calling someone "The N word" was nothing out of the ordinary. It was the same way with Huckleberry Finn. Jim, a slave in the deep south, was referred to as "a nigger" multiple times. I understand the offensive nature behind this, but I also understand that it was less offensive in that time period.
Now that THAT's taken care of, I would like to discuss the character's profiles in each of the stories. Flannery O' Connor seems to be following a theme that displays imperfect characters in each of her stories. Maybe she is doing that to teach us yet another lesson, that we are all imperfect in different ways, but we can still achieve accomplishments to still be good people. Listening to the description of Ruby's brother Rufus (who didn't even get a chance to defend himself), I realize how rude Ruby really is in her own nature. Maybe Rufus is a good for nothing slacker, but we only learn that from Ruby and Bill Hill, who seem to think that they are better than everyone else that they encounter. Everyone but Rufus says somethings that make themselves seem more important than the next person. I do believe that O' Connor is trying to teach the reader a lesson, even if the characters aren't paying attention.
Posted by The Gentle Giant at March 20, 2006 09:10 PMI definitely think O'Connor is trying to send readers a message. In each of her stories, I feel that I gain some insight into her beliefs and the characteristics she feels are important in people. I find that the characters (and actual people) we find most annoying are the ones with whom we identify the most closely, even if we don't want to admit it.
Posted by: Jennifer DiFulvio at March 20, 2006 10:23 PMThe more of her stories I read, the more I am finding similarities between characters. For istance, Bevel and "The Child" from "Temple of the Holy Ghost" in their misconceptions about religion; 2) Grandma & Lucynell Sr. in their manipulative ways, and 3)Grandma and Ruby in their myopic views of others. If I remember correctly, there's at least one racial epithet in each of these stories so far, and with the next one entitled "The Artificial Nigger", fasten your seatbelts! It personally makes me uncomfortable, and although times have changed, and I am really enjoying O'Connor's stories, use of such language begs the question of whether people 50, 100, or more years from now will still be studying her or will have moved onto something less impudent.
Posted by: Brenda Christeleit at March 23, 2006 06:57 PM