After reading "Parker's Back" several times, I seem to have never-ending thoughts about it. It's not just "Parker's Back" that got me thinking, but it was the rest of Flannery O'Connor's short stories that our class has read, as well. Each of her stories are strongly composed of its characters and not so much its setting or plot. After carefully dissecting each main character, it seems that at some point they have a certain thing in common- trying to discover themselves.
I believe it's one of the most important qualities a person can possess- knowing what kind of person you are. Being a college student, it seems that this is the prime time for me to make this discovery. I feel as if I already have, but who knows, I may find something different down the road. People always change, but no matter what, there's always a person's true core, holding the qualities they, as a human being, possess.
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That's a great observation. I think that most stories that are good (or at least the ones I think are good) are more driven by character than plot. This is why books like romance novels aren't really considered "real" literature -- they are completely plot oriented; you could plug any name and stereotype into the plot and it wouldn't change the story at all. O'Connor directly defies that mode by having really similar stories, but really well-developed characters. Much more interesting.
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