March 23, 2006

Temple One and Temple Two

"'...Somebody said they were both going to be Church of God preachers because you don't have to know nothing to be one.'" (O Connor 84).

At first, I truly believed that O' Connor wrote more as a Southerner, rather than a religious one. Now I am not so sure. I'm picking up sarcasm from O' Connor about her characters personas and ideas, which seem to go against her. She seems to be bashing religion, which is really odd to me. For someone who has been expressing religious morals throughout all of her tales, she finally heads back in a different direction. Whenever the girls laugh because they are supposedly "Temples of the Holy Ghost," it makes one wonder why they would express themselves in such a manner. I know that they're only teenagers, but you would think that the idea would be taken very seriously, especially with their mother around. Maybe I'm missing the point on this one, so if I am, then help me out.

Posted by The Gentle Giant at March 23, 2006 10:13 AM
Comments

I had similar thoughts - why is O'Connor having her characters joke about religion? And why is the child so misguided. But then, most of her characters are misguided and maybe she is once again trying to teach the reader something. Perhaps she herself questioned her religious beliefs as a teenager. The child's desire to become a martyr since she sees no hope for herself as a saint reminded me of my own thoughts around that age while I was in Catholic school. The feeling I had was that I would never be able to live up to what was expected of me, so I could see how the child might think that dying a commendable death in the eyes of the church might make her worth something. Bevel "didn't count" until he was baptized so this seems like a theme. I need to know more about O'Connor, but I think she may have been more critical of Catholicism than we realize.

Posted by: Jennifer DiFulvio at March 23, 2006 11:07 AM
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