ipl-logo

Flannery O Connor: Passage Analysis

599 Words3 Pages

What is the relationship between the self and religious influence? Flannery O’Connor explores the tensions between fulfilling the self’s needs in the face of religion. After a great deal of religious influence, the self is likely to rebel (even to the extent of committing horrible misdeeds). At the point in the novel depicted in the above passage, young Tarwater is in conversation with a supposedly evil voice that comes to him after his zealous great uncle’s death. Tarwater attempts to bury his uncle, but is unable to fit him in the casket that his great uncle built. His great uncle warned Tarwater previously that if he was unable to fit his great uncle in the casket, he would have to bury him in a hole that is ten feet deep with a cross marking his grave so he will be resurrected in the future. The voice that comes to young Tarwater becomes like a “friend” to him. While many may interpret this voice to be that of Satan (or a similar evil entity), I believe that this voice is the extension of young Tarwater’s self. While this voice does eventually coerce Tarwater to do terrible things, there is a more rational side to this voice as well (which is depicted above). O’Connor establishes this voice in young Tarwater to show the negative impacts that can be created …show more content…

The voice is able to take Tarwater’s more rational thoughts and bring them to the surface. Before his great uncle’s burial, Tarwater has an argument with his great uncle about his wishes regarding his burial. Young Tarwater points out that his great uncle’s wishes are a bit irrational and unreasonable to expect from such a young and small person (i.e. carrying old Tarwater, who is much heavier and larger than young Tarwater to be buried). The voice that comes to young Tarwater insists that he forget about the burial and making a cross because the cross will rot away

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis: A Life In Letters By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    89 Words  | 1 Pages

    On my honor, I have not given or received any unauthorized aid on this work. When famed writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, responds to a short story sent by a family friend named Frances Turnbull, Fitzgerald states that he does not believe the story is saleable and that Turnbull is not putting enough work into the writing. In the excerpt from F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters, Fitzgerald attempts to argue his views on the essence of writing by providing logical reasoning and by using a wise and eloquent

    Read More

  • The Shack Quotes

    739 Words  | 3 Pages

    It seems as if after this Great Sadness had draped itself around Mack’s shoulders, his faith in God had grown to become weak. His friend, Willie refers to his relationship with God as a love/hate relationship. He also says that Mack sometimes suspects that “God is brooding, distant and aloof.” It becomes obvious that Mack begins to question God’s existence in the midst of his dilemma. The absence of his daughter seems to drive him away

    Read More

  • Flaws In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

    1087 Words  | 5 Pages

    Flannery O’Connor’s stories always contain a flawed character that is usually crippled in a spiritual or a moral sense to embody an ongoing issue in her time through that flaw. In O’Connor’s story, “Good Country People,” the protagonist’s physical and spiritual flaws represent weaknesses in a certain movement that swept up the early-mid 20th Century: the movement of Nihilism. She invalidates Nihilism through Joy’s (who changed her name to Hulga) three physical imperfections and at her “moment of grace” in which she loses her artificial leg. Hulga has a weak heart, artificial leg, and slightly defective eyesight. While they are physical flaws, these symbolize “her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments” (Oliver 234).

    Read More

  • Good Country People By Flannery O Connor Analysis

    666 Words  | 3 Pages

    Looks Are Not Always As They Seem In Flannery O’ Connors story “ Good Country People,” the author leaves the story for the reader to interpret the different true and underlying meanings. The reader can understand, after reading this story, that the looks of the main characters can be very deceiving. Joy, better known as Hulga, and Manly Pointers appearance at the beginning of the story varies greatly to the people that we realize that these same people are by the end. Joy is the daughter of Mrs. Hopewell.

    Read More

  • Ironic Elements In Flannery O Connor's Essay

    393 Words  | 2 Pages

    O’ Connor makes the racial difference more complex through her use of logical appeals. Although, white individuals in the 1960s were considered the most superior, not all white people were the same through Mrs. Turpin’s eyes. For example, the instance is given in the short story when Mrs. Turpin was forced to choose by Jesus if she would rather be a nigger or white-trash. Mrs. Turpin responds to this almost impossible question and answers with, “All right make me a nigger then- but that don’t mean a trashy one.”

    Read More

  • O Pioneers Literary Analysis

    945 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the beginning of the 2014 California drought, farm lands have been deteriorating just like the beginning of the O Pioneers novel. The California drought is extremely similar to the poor farm lands in O Pioneers because it shows the same effects both farms are facing. The farm situation in O Pioneers is foreshadowing to California’s drought because it is leading into the same exact situation. However, Cather teaches Californians that not all is lost. Cather describes that the lands were made prosperous again by Alexandra.

    Read More

  • Comparing Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown And Flannery O Connor

    716 Words  | 3 Pages

    The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church-bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveler, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn. But he was himself the chief horror of the scene and shrank not from its other horrors (59). Author Nathaniel Hawthorne 's, and Flannery O 'Connor, religious background reflects on the themes of both stories since they demonstrate a strong sense of moral judgment and a distinction between good and evil. Why does the grandmother gets “redeemed” a distinction the end of the story, but not Young Goodman Brown, did she honestly got saved?

    Read More

  • Susan B Anthony Passage Analysis

    846 Words  | 4 Pages

    L i t e r a r y E s s a y The passages “Susan B Anthony Dares to Vote” and “Don’t Give Up the Fight” share a common theme of hard work. In both of these passages, the characters work hard to achieve a goal. In “Susan B Anthony Dares to Vote,” Susan B Anthony’s goal is to earn United States women the right to vote.

    Read More

  • Flannery O Connor's Revelation Character Analysis

    827 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is Only Two Places Available for You “‘What if Jesus had said, “All right, you can be white-trash or a nigger or ugly!’” How would you react? Would you verbalize a response or think it only in your head? If you say it out loud, are you a worse person than if you only think it? Are you an abominable person for doing either?

    Read More

  • Essay On The Governess In Henry James's Turn Of The Screw

    1024 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is not presented to the reader until Ms. Grose reveals him to be Peter Quint, a man who worked at the house of Bly, but passed away at an earlier point in time. This presents a choice to the reader, to follow the Governess’s story and believe what she is saying, or to believe that she is unstable. It is not known to the reader for sure what the truth is. The quote also provides an early insight that the children will be aligned with the ghosts, as she connects Peter Quint with

    Read More

  • Evil And Suffering In Flannery O Connor

    1187 Words  | 5 Pages

    Questions that may cross Flannery O’Connor mind are questions like, why does evil and suffering exist? Is there a purpose for going through evil and suffering? What is the purpose of going through things that cause such feelings? Or what can be gained, if anything, through evil and suffering? Evil and suffering is subjective based on the person; what I might consider evil may differ from the next person, and my definition of suffering- the way I view suffering will differ from someone else’s state of suffering.

    Read More

  • Bartleby Narrator

    634 Words  | 3 Pages

    This changes because of an errand he has to complete. He became “a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man,” (pg. 805), because of a nightmare or “a dream of evil omen,” (pg. 805), that he had. He did not get to enjoy the rest of his life because of this fear. It paralyzed him. At the end, it says that “when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grand-children, a goodly procession, besides neighbors, not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone; for his dying hour was gloom,” (pg.

    Read More

  • Revelation Flannery O Connor Analysis

    989 Words  | 4 Pages

    Short Story Analysis “Revelation,” by Flannery O’Connor is a short story about a woman named Mrs. Turpin. She accompanies her husband to the doctor’s office for an injured leg where they must sit in the waiting room. While waiting Mrs. Turpin has a conversation with a few ladies. Throughout the conversation she is mentally judging each person by their outward appearance while ironically thinking highly of herself. A young lady, Mary Grace, is obviously annoyed by Mrs. Turpin.

    Read More

  • Flannery O Connor Revelation Analysis

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    Response Essay-Revelation by Flannery O’Connor “Revelation” is a short story written by Flannery O’Connor, which was published in her short story collection named “Everything That Rises Must Converge”. First of all, the title itself tells plenty about what the short story is about. It is about a woman realizing everybody is equal to God. It was written in first point of view, which means that the protagonist (Mrs. Ruby Turpin) is narrating the story herself.

    Read More

  • George's Waller Im Shnee Poem Analysis

    1132 Words  | 5 Pages

    It seems as if the speaker is shaken awake from his death wish at that moment. Instead of giving himself up to the elements, he once again tries to find

    Read More

More about Flannery O Connor: Passage Analysis

Open Document