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March 28, 2006

Middle aged Girl Scout

O'Connor, ''A Late Encounter with the Enemy'' -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)

"... Sally Pker looked down at her feet and discovered that in the excitement of getting ready she had forgotten to change her shoes: two brown Girl Scout oxfords protruded from the bottom of her dress."

Then she chooses her nephew the Boy Scout to do the same duty she had done. An archetypal reading of this excerpt might see this as a reference to the encroachment of death. Sally likes how the old and the young look together when her nephew is on stage with her grandfather. Perhaps she forgot to change her shoes as a sign that she did not want to age any further than she already had.

Posted by JenniferDiFulvio at March 28, 2006 10:30 PM

Comments

She forgot to change her shoes because of her age. She may not have wanted to be seen with her grandfather and for that reason let her nephew be seen with him. She just wanted her grandfather their to see her graduate.

Posted by: LisaRandolph at March 29, 2006 12:56 PM

O'Connor does foreshadow everything very well, doesn't she?

Posted by: Megan Ritter at March 30, 2006 03:22 AM

Good point about the encroachment of death. In fact, with all the people dressed in black and filing by, it's almost like a funeral.

Good observation.

Posted by: Matt Hampton at April 23, 2006 01:00 AM

There is a real issue for attention because Sally Poker feels like she has already lost so much. She only wants her grandfather there at her graduation, so that everyone can see what kind of background she comes from. She says that she would die if he didn't get to see her graduate, only because she desires attention. This is the oldest teenage behavior I have ever seen in literature, and Flannery O' Connor shows that there is something completely wrong.

Posted by: Jason Pugh at May 3, 2006 10:26 PM

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