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Ironic Elements In Flannery O Connor's Essay

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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.” And he would have made her a neat clean respectable Negro woman, herself but black.” This shows how logically, Mrs. Turpin values integrity and hard-working individuals beyond race. She would rather be a hard-working Negro than white-trash …show more content…

Turpin saw a white-trashy woman she thought to herself, “Her dirty yellow hair was tied behind with a little piece of red paper ribbon. Worse than niggers any day” (454). This again shows how Mrs. Turpin sees white-trashy individuals as such a disgrace in society and how they are non-workers and are lowest in the social status spectrum. A final instance in the short story that shows the disgrace towards white-trash is when the white-trash woman brought up to Mrs. Turpin and the pleasant lady that she would love no niggers or scoot down no hog with no hose. The reaction of Mrs. Turpin and the pleasant lady was very distinct due to how it says that they looked at each other and “exchanged eye contact which indicated they both understood that you had to have certain things before you could know certain things” (456). This shows that Mrs. Turpin sees the white-trash lady as unintelligent and ignorant and that she does not understand certain things due to the fact that the white-trash lady does not have the same mental capacity as Mrs. Turpin and the pleasant lady. Through the use of logical appeals by O’ Connor, it is seen that race is not the main value during the 1960s and that hard-working individuals, white or black, are considered the highest in the social status

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