Thursday, October 29, 2009
"Parker's Back"
Out of the three stories we had to read by O'Connor, "Parker's Back" seems to be the odd ball out. The other two stories, "Revealtion" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" each reveal the physical prejudices people can have against other people who are different from them. However, the characters of "Parker's Back" do not focus on this. The characters focus more on religion, beliefs, and personality. Also, the short story does not have a character that directly represents O'Connor. Her mother is represented by the nagging wife who is extremely religious. O'Connor slightly represents herself in Parker, who is trying to please his wife, but never quite makes it to the degree he wanted to.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think there's a lot of "body" stuff in this story, sort of an extension of what the other two are dealing with. Some of that may be attributed to the fact that this was O'Connor's very last story, the one that she was (secretly, against doctors' orders) working on on her deathbed. There's a real sense of physical alienation between Sarah Ruth and O.E., don't you think? She is totally "spiritual" and he is totally "physical." It's reflective of a sort of heresy that Sarah Ruth exhibits (look up Manichaeism, if you're interested).
ReplyDelete