Each of the three stories of Flannery O’Connor we have read have a distinct “villain”: the Misfit, Manley Pointer, and Mary Grace. Do these villains have any redeeming features? Do they have anything in common? Conversely, how do they differ?
All three of the characters are the most complicated and non-stereotypical characters in their respective stories. And they are apparently they most observant and clever of all the characters. They see the true qualities of the protagonists. The Misfit comments how good of a person the grandmother would be if she had a gun held to her head permanently, Mary Grace calls Mrs. Turpin a self satisfied hog, and Manley Pointer knows how to take advantage of Hulga.They do not seem to have a redeeming quality in and of themselves, but they do cause the "moment of grace" for the other characters. The villains all reference or have something to do with religion. Mary Grace commands Mrs. Turpin back to hell, the Misfit says the Jesus messed everything up by raising the dead, and Manley Pointer is ironically a bible salesman.
David and Martin - I like your idea, and your graphic made me laugh! Keep an eye on what is ssid and encourage the students to use quotes as much as possible to defend their assertions.
Feel free to elaborate on one specific character. Personally, my "favorite" of the villains was the Misfit. I already touched on my theory that he was an Antichrist figure in class. Thinking about it some more, I believe he may be symbolic of the people that don't believe in religion. (I don't have my book with me, so forgive my lack of quotes)
He says something along the lines of "What Jesus did is wrong" and that he is confused as to what he should believe in. Perhaps this could be seen as commentary on the damage mankind can do without a guiding force, such as religion? This also fits in with my theory that, during her moment of grace, the grandmother "becomes" God. She sees him as one of her misguided children. He is flabberghasted by the idea that despite all the wrongs he committed and his lack of belief, there is still a god that could love him.
Mrs. Maurno, I was wondering, since Martin and I are the "police" this week, should we still comment, or should we just moderate?
David, I believe you and Martin should comment in reaction to comments by others or to provide a fresh direction for comments if you see that everything is "fizzling out". Please feel free to see me with any other questions.
My favorite "villian" out of the three is Manly Pointer, precisely because he does have redeeming qualities (atleast for me). Within the scope of the short story, Manly acts as the catalyst that drives Joy/Hulga's "moment of grace." However, in light of Manly's redeeming qualities, this "moment of grace" can also be interpreted as being a "moment of clarity" in which Joy realizes the hypocracy of her intelligence and the irony of her perception of all of the other "good country people." When Manly mocks Joy by saying, "You ain't so smart. I been believing in nothing ever since the day I was born" (469), he disrupts Joy's self-proclaimed atheism by asserting that she is hypocritical for saying that she doesn't believe in anything, when she has not lived that sort of atheism like Manly has. Furthermore, Joy believes that Manly is "simple" and devoid of intelligent thought. However, Manly refutes this by saying, "I think a lot. I'm not like these people that a serious thought don't ever enter their heads. It's because I may die" (464). With this, Manly delineates his complexity as a person and subtly connects this to his atheism, his belief that he "may die." Consequently, this complexity lends to his redeeming qualities as a rational man who, though corrupt, finds it essential to expose hypocritical intelligence, such as in Joy, and prove that complexity is not measured by education, but by genuine beliefs.
O'Connor created the "villians" in each of her stories to expose the hypocrisy in her main characters. These villians are the most grotesque characters, not only in appearance (as in Mary Grace's case), but also in their reputation (The Misfit). Manley Pointer was different from the other two in this respect because of his work as a bible salesmen. While we see him as the scoundrel he really is, the other characters viewed his line of work as very respectable and therefore he intially was the most surprising of the villians. Each protaganist was shown to be something entirely different from their perception of themselves after their "moment of grace" experiences with the villians.
Out of Manley Pointer, the Misfit, and Mary Grace, I find Mary Grace to be the most interesting character. It is true that all the "villains" bring out the true characteristics of the protagonists in their stories, and all initiate the "moment of grace" within these characters. From the beginning of "Revelation" Mary Grace keeps "her eyes fixed like two drills on Mrs. Turpin"(398). In the doctors waiting room Mrs. Turpin is exceedingly discriminatory towards Black people and White trash. It is apparent that Mary Grace is bubbling with fury listening to her bias comments and unfair assumptions. In reaction to Mrs. Turpin pious nature, Mary Grace pops, striking a book upon her face and sinking her fingers "like clamps into the soft flesh of her neck"(400). This automatically brings about Mrs. Turpin's moment of grace. From Mary Grace taking this violent action against Mrs. Turpin, I feel that in itself, it is a redeeming factor. Mrs. Turpin is in grave need of an epiphany moment showing her that all races and classes of individuals are equally as respectable and significant in God's eyes. Mary Grace happens to be the deliverer of this message, thus making her justly in her actions, and more of a helpful aid to Mrs. Turpin than a villain.
The Misfit, Manley Pointer, and Mary Grace each play the "bad guy" role in O' Connor's stories, yet O'Connor utilizes them as the "moment of truth" catalysts necessary for the plot of her pieces. The Misfit plays the role of a seemingly uneducated but naturally intuitive "redeemer" for the obnoxious family of six while Manley Pointer remains a "trickster" and deceives Joy/Hulga. He has little intention of guiding Joy/Hulga's passage into adoring feeling as long as he becomes well acquainted with her prosthetic leg- to the point of the leg becoming his property. Mary Grace seems to be a mixture of each. She would like Mrs. Turpin to see the fallacy of Turpin's beliefs, however Mary Grace simply seeks to punish than to correct. She asserts her validation by directly pointing out Turpin's failure at understanding her own hypocrisy, like the Misfit, but unlike this villain she does not provide Turpin's "salvation" which allows her to share this trait with Manley Pointer. Each villain seems to represent something similarly separate, allowing each trait to intermingle with one another and provide a broad spectrum of character evaluation.
To elaborate more on the Misfit himself, he never really had any malicious intent when speaking with the grandmother herself. Even with other events happening around him, he keeps his composure and continues the polite conversation with the grandmother. His only real qualm until she touches him is with the children. The procession of their conversation follows a pattern of the grandmother slowly getting close to the Misfit, and the Misfit replying with deeper and deeper thoughts that generally dismissed her advances. The Misfit starts out commenting on the weather, apologizing for not wearing a shirt, being real courteous despite the circumstances. However, only immediately after the grandmother asks, "Do you ever pray?" does the first shot ring out. Representing the beginning of the end, the grandmother's attempt at advising the Misfit only leads to disaster. Foreshadowing that further attempts at making the Misfit pray or follow her way will eventually bring about her end. The Misfit is a genuinely good person, as long as he is not provoked. You can almost assume that it is because of his past and his near paranoid disposition that "somebody is always after you" sort of mentality is what causes him to commit these acts; And the grandmother certainly sounds like she is 'after' the Misfit. She recognizes and identifies him, then talks to him asking over and over to pray. In context, it almost seems like that is the only reason she is there; To him, she appears out of the blue, calls him by name, then repeatedly asks him to pray. Whatever redeeming qualities and respect the Misfit has is dried up the by his impatience and her nervously insistent attitude. His politeness and other redeeming qualities exist, he is apparently bound by his past into doing what he did, but he "could be honest... if [he] only tried."
O'Connor, being an author of Southern Literature, incorporates many aspects of the South into the stories. One of these aspects is racism. What role does racism play in stories written by O'Connor? Provide analysis and examples.
In response to Martin's question, racism is prevalent throughout O'Connor's stories. In "Good Country People," O'Connor sterotypes the people in the waiting room. Mrs. Turpin is this self-righteous white woman who constantly creates scenarios as to what she would choose if Jesus made her choose a race. Over and over again, Mrs. Turpin says that she would rather be herself but Jesus never gives her the option. After debating inside her mind for some while, Mrs. Turpin says she would rather be a black woman with her current values and ethics and such. Mrs. Turpin thinks that there is nothing worse than white trash, especially after looking down at the woman in the waiting who is white trash. This shows O'Connors feelings towards white trash people and black people. She thinks that black people are just a step above white trash people but not by much.
Racism always seems to slip into O'Conner's short stories. It's not always a key plot point, but it seems to be ever present- not unlike racism in the old South.
In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother exclaims, "Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!...Wouldn't that make a picture now?" (446). For one, calling someone of African-American descent a pickaninny is hugely derogatory and offensive. To make matters worse, the grandmother treats the child as if he were a zoo exhibit...not truly human but rather some sort of creature or animal.
She goes on to say that the child "probably doesn't have any [britches]" (446) and that she'd like to "paint that picture" (446). This makes him seem even less civilized and furthers the emphasis on him being a zoo exhibit.
The real question is: was O'Connor truly racist? Her stories certainly have racist characters. But were these characters reflections of O'Conner's views or part of a grotesque and discouraging portrayal of yet another human (and, in this case, particularly southern) flaw: discrimination?
In reference to your earlier post about villians, I believe that the Grandmother's character in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" serves as more of a "villian" than The Misfit. The Grandmother is constantly lecturing others on what is "right" and "proper." This proves to be rather ironic because she is far from either. She appears to live her life with moral uprightness, but her attempts are squelched by her narccicism and her pompus attitude. It is obvious that no one in the family really has much emotional tie to her. She seems as almost more of a burden than an actual family member. Maybe my view is skewed here, just another way to interpret I suppose.
P.S.- sorry for the lateness, Peanut Fest gobbled up my life for the weekend.
In Response to the question of O'Connor's use of racism in her stories:
Although her stories and characters often contain racist hints, I don't believe that O'Connor herself is racist. I believe that she uses racism much similarly to how she uses grotesqueness. A devout Catholic, she writes about some of the most ungodly characters; so, as a person who may be accepting of racial equality, she may just be using racism to accentuate the grotesqueness of human kind. In her passage "On the Use of Exaggeration and Distortion" she claims, "I have to bend the whole novel - its language, its structure, its action. I have to make the reader feel, in his bones if nowhere else, that something is going on here that counts" (486). So, by using racism as an ever-present feature in her works, O'Connor is able to exaggerate and distort her stories to the point where readers take notice and are better able to understand the points she is trying to make.
The antagonist in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is by far the most complex character in the story. The casual demeanor he maintains throughout his encounter with the family suggests that he is too sure of himself to be vulnerable to any rhetorical trickery and that he had long absolved any feeling of brotherhood towards his fellow man. He is characterized by his void of sympathy, feeling of mutual abandonment towards others, and belief that he does not belong with ordinary, moral citizens. Thus, "The Misfit."
However, it becomes evident that some portion of said indifference is a product of his own self-deception, for the grandmother succeeds in reaching him. During this moment, he is bewildered by another sympathizing with him and panics, murdering the grandmother. His initial indifference and seemingly impervious apathy give the reader the impression that he is truly superior, but O'Conner breaks that illusion when he finally shows this weakness. Based on the assumption that The Misfit was indeed deluded, one can infer that the incident disturbed him and consequentially affected his perception of people from that point on.
15 comments:
All three of the characters are the most complicated and non-stereotypical characters in their respective stories. And they are apparently they most observant and clever of all the characters. They see the true qualities of the protagonists. The Misfit comments how good of a person the grandmother would be if she had a gun held to her head permanently, Mary Grace calls Mrs. Turpin a self satisfied hog, and Manley Pointer knows how to take advantage of Hulga.They do not seem to have a redeeming quality in and of themselves, but they do cause the "moment of grace" for the other characters. The villains all reference or have something to do with religion. Mary Grace commands Mrs. Turpin back to hell, the Misfit says the Jesus messed everything up by raising the dead, and Manley Pointer is ironically a bible salesman.
David and Martin - I like your idea, and your graphic made me laugh! Keep an eye on what is ssid and encourage the students to use quotes as much as possible to defend their assertions.
Feel free to elaborate on one specific character. Personally, my "favorite" of the villains was the Misfit. I already touched on my theory that he was an Antichrist figure in class. Thinking about it some more, I believe he may be symbolic of the people that don't believe in religion. (I don't have my book with me, so forgive my lack of quotes)
He says something along the lines of "What Jesus did is wrong" and that he is confused as to what he should believe in. Perhaps this could be seen as commentary on the damage mankind can do without a guiding force, such as religion? This also fits in with my theory that, during her moment of grace, the grandmother "becomes" God. She sees him as one of her misguided children. He is flabberghasted by the idea that despite all the wrongs he committed and his lack of belief, there is still a god that could love him.
Mrs. Maurno, I was wondering, since Martin and I are the "police" this week, should we still comment, or should we just moderate?
David, I believe you and Martin should comment in reaction to comments by others or to provide a fresh direction for comments if you see that everything is "fizzling out". Please feel free to see me with any other questions.
My favorite "villian" out of the three is Manly Pointer, precisely because he does have redeeming qualities (atleast for me). Within the scope of the short story, Manly acts as the catalyst that drives Joy/Hulga's "moment of grace." However, in light of Manly's redeeming qualities, this "moment of grace" can also be interpreted as being a "moment of clarity" in which Joy realizes the hypocracy of her intelligence and the irony of her perception of all of the other "good country people." When Manly mocks Joy by saying, "You ain't so smart. I been believing in nothing ever since the day I was born" (469), he disrupts Joy's self-proclaimed atheism by asserting that she is hypocritical for saying that she doesn't believe in anything, when she has not lived that sort of atheism like Manly has.
Furthermore, Joy believes that Manly is "simple" and devoid of intelligent thought. However, Manly refutes this by saying, "I think a lot. I'm not like these people that a serious thought don't ever enter their heads. It's because I may die" (464). With this, Manly delineates his complexity as a person and subtly connects this to his atheism, his belief that he "may die." Consequently, this complexity lends to his redeeming qualities as a rational man who, though corrupt, finds it essential to expose hypocritical intelligence, such as in Joy, and prove that complexity is not measured by education, but by genuine beliefs.
O'Connor created the "villians" in each of her stories to expose the hypocrisy in her main characters. These villians are the most grotesque characters, not only in appearance (as in Mary Grace's case), but also in their reputation (The Misfit). Manley Pointer was different from the other two in this respect because of his work as a bible salesmen. While we see him as the scoundrel he really is, the other characters viewed his line of work as very respectable and therefore he intially was the most surprising of the villians. Each protaganist was shown to be something entirely different from their perception of themselves after their "moment of grace" experiences with the villians.
Out of Manley Pointer, the Misfit, and Mary Grace, I find Mary Grace to be the most interesting character. It is true that all the "villains" bring out the true characteristics of the protagonists in their stories, and all initiate the "moment of grace" within these characters. From the beginning of "Revelation" Mary Grace keeps "her eyes fixed like two drills on Mrs. Turpin"(398). In the doctors waiting room Mrs. Turpin is exceedingly discriminatory towards Black people and White trash. It is apparent that Mary Grace is bubbling with fury listening to her bias comments and unfair assumptions. In reaction to Mrs. Turpin pious nature, Mary Grace pops, striking a book upon her face and sinking her fingers "like clamps into the soft flesh of her neck"(400). This automatically brings about Mrs. Turpin's moment of grace. From Mary Grace taking this violent action against Mrs. Turpin, I feel that in itself, it is a redeeming factor. Mrs. Turpin is in grave need of an epiphany moment showing her that all races and classes of individuals are equally as respectable and significant in God's eyes. Mary Grace happens to be the deliverer of this message, thus making her justly in her actions, and more of a helpful aid to Mrs. Turpin than a villain.
The Misfit, Manley Pointer, and Mary Grace each play the "bad guy" role in O' Connor's stories, yet O'Connor utilizes them as the "moment of truth" catalysts necessary for the plot of her pieces. The Misfit plays the role of a seemingly uneducated but naturally intuitive "redeemer" for the obnoxious family of six while Manley Pointer remains a "trickster" and deceives Joy/Hulga. He has little intention of guiding Joy/Hulga's passage into adoring feeling as long as he becomes well acquainted with her prosthetic leg- to the point of the leg becoming his property. Mary Grace seems to be a mixture of each. She would like Mrs. Turpin to see the fallacy of Turpin's beliefs, however Mary Grace simply seeks to punish than to correct. She asserts her validation by directly pointing out Turpin's failure at understanding her own hypocrisy, like the Misfit, but unlike this villain she does not provide Turpin's "salvation" which allows her to share this trait with Manley Pointer. Each villain seems to represent something similarly separate, allowing each trait to intermingle with one another and provide a broad spectrum of character evaluation.
To elaborate more on the Misfit himself, he never really had any malicious intent when speaking with the grandmother herself. Even with other events happening around him, he keeps his composure and continues the polite conversation with the grandmother. His only real qualm until she touches him is with the children. The procession of their conversation follows a pattern of the grandmother slowly getting close to the Misfit, and the Misfit replying with deeper and deeper thoughts that generally dismissed her advances. The Misfit starts out commenting on the weather, apologizing for not wearing a shirt, being real courteous despite the circumstances. However, only immediately after the grandmother asks, "Do you ever pray?" does the first shot ring out. Representing the beginning of the end, the grandmother's attempt at advising the Misfit only leads to disaster. Foreshadowing that further attempts at making the Misfit pray or follow her way will eventually bring about her end. The Misfit is a genuinely good person, as long as he is not provoked. You can almost assume that it is because of his past and his near paranoid disposition that "somebody is always after you" sort of mentality is what causes him to commit these acts; And the grandmother certainly sounds like she is 'after' the Misfit. She recognizes and identifies him, then talks to him asking over and over to pray. In context, it almost seems like that is the only reason she is there; To him, she appears out of the blue, calls him by name, then repeatedly asks him to pray. Whatever redeeming qualities and respect the Misfit has is dried up the by his impatience and her nervously insistent attitude. His politeness and other redeeming qualities exist, he is apparently bound by his past into doing what he did, but he "could be honest... if [he] only tried."
O'Connor, being an author of Southern Literature, incorporates many aspects of the South into the stories. One of these aspects is racism. What role does racism play in stories written by O'Connor? Provide analysis and examples.
In response to Martin's question, racism is prevalent throughout O'Connor's stories. In "Good Country People," O'Connor sterotypes the people in the waiting room. Mrs. Turpin is this self-righteous white woman who constantly creates scenarios as to what she would choose if Jesus made her choose a race. Over and over again, Mrs. Turpin says that she would rather be herself but Jesus never gives her the option. After debating inside her mind for some while, Mrs. Turpin says she would rather be a black woman with her current values and ethics and such. Mrs. Turpin thinks that there is nothing worse than white trash, especially after looking down at the woman in the waiting who is white trash. This shows O'Connors feelings towards white trash people and black people. She thinks that black people are just a step above white trash people but not by much.
Racism always seems to slip into O'Conner's short stories. It's not always a key plot point, but it seems to be ever present- not unlike racism in the old South.
In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother exclaims, "Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!...Wouldn't that make a picture now?" (446). For one, calling someone of African-American descent a pickaninny is hugely derogatory and offensive. To make matters worse, the grandmother treats the child as if he were a zoo exhibit...not truly human but rather some sort of creature or animal.
She goes on to say that the child "probably doesn't have any [britches]" (446) and that she'd like to "paint that picture" (446). This makes him seem even less civilized and furthers the emphasis on him being a zoo exhibit.
The real question is: was O'Connor truly racist? Her stories certainly have racist characters. But were these characters reflections of O'Conner's views or part of a grotesque and discouraging portrayal of yet another human (and, in this case, particularly southern) flaw: discrimination?
-Diana Heriford
Martin and David,
In reference to your earlier post about villians, I believe that the Grandmother's character in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" serves as more of a "villian" than The Misfit. The Grandmother is constantly lecturing others on what is "right" and "proper." This proves to be rather ironic because she is far from either. She appears to live her life with moral uprightness, but her attempts are squelched by her narccicism and her pompus attitude. It is obvious that no one in the family really has much emotional tie to her. She seems as almost more of a burden than an actual family member. Maybe my view is skewed here, just another way to interpret I suppose.
P.S.- sorry for the lateness, Peanut Fest gobbled up my life for the weekend.
In Response to the question of O'Connor's use of racism in her stories:
Although her stories and characters often contain racist hints, I don't believe that O'Connor herself is racist. I believe that she uses racism much similarly to how she uses grotesqueness. A devout Catholic, she writes about some of the most ungodly characters; so, as a person who may be accepting of racial equality, she may just be using racism to accentuate the grotesqueness of human kind. In her passage "On the Use of Exaggeration and Distortion" she claims, "I have to bend the whole novel - its language, its structure, its action. I have to make the reader feel, in his bones if nowhere else, that something is going on here that counts" (486). So, by using racism as an ever-present feature in her works, O'Connor is able to exaggerate and distort her stories to the point where readers take notice and are better able to understand the points she is trying to make.
The antagonist in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is by far the most complex character in the story. The casual demeanor he maintains throughout his encounter with the family suggests that he is too sure of himself to be vulnerable to any rhetorical trickery and that he had long absolved any feeling of brotherhood towards his fellow man. He is characterized by his void of sympathy, feeling of mutual abandonment towards others, and belief that he does not belong with ordinary, moral citizens. Thus, "The Misfit."
However, it becomes evident that some portion of said indifference is a product of his own self-deception, for the grandmother succeeds in reaching him. During this moment, he is bewildered by another sympathizing with him and panics, murdering the grandmother. His initial indifference and seemingly impervious apathy give the reader the impression that he is truly superior, but O'Conner breaks that illusion when he finally shows this weakness. Based on the assumption that The Misfit was indeed deluded, one can infer that the incident disturbed him and consequentially affected his perception of people from that point on.
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