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March 30, 2006
Meaning of life, what?
O'Connor, ''A Late Encounter with the Enemy'' -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
"Living had got to be such a habit with him that he couldn't conceive of any other condition."
"...his heart doggedly persisted to beat...."
I think that here the word "living" is a bit of an exaggeration with regard to our friend the grandfather....
Of course his muscles flex to pull ligament and tendon and bone, and he breathes and eats and drinks and blinks his eyes. All his vital organs are functioning. Not spectacularly, but they are functioning. He can even have some semblance of responsive conversation. But at the risk of giving away the ending, the grandfather was dead years before he actually became the corpse waiting in line at the Coke machine. What differentiates him from a dandelion or a sea sponge? There's nothing of value going on in his head; there's nothing left to him that could be called a soul. Sally, for her part, i treats him as nothing more than a pretty prop. He's not going to be at the graduation to see her great accomplishment; he's not there to share the wisdom of his very long lifetime. Sally might as well dress a doll in his uniform and sword as have him there. He's not alive enough for anyone to realize when he's dead.
For the record, has anyone noticed that O'Connor foreshadows better than just about any other writer out there?
Posted by MeganRitter at March 30, 2006 02:57 AM