Flannery OConnors Short Stories Defy Stereotyping Of Individuals - Essay Example

?Flannery O’Connor’s short stories defy stereotyping of individuals Introduction There is no denying the fact that the society is so given to stereotyping that it tends to stereotype people in a collective sense depending on their origins, race, gender or ethnicity. However, the fact is that no matter to what population an individual is affiliated to, it goes without saying that each individual tends to have a unique personality and mindset that could not be ascribed to a collective identity or culture. For instance in Flannery O’Connor’s stories A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People the two salient characters that are the grandmother and Mrs. Hopewell tend to stereotype the Misfit and the Bible selling boy, while trying to size up their personalities in consonance with their background and origins. However, in the climax these two characters completely shatter the stereotyping that is being forced on them evince their individuality and unique mental makeup. Thereby, one typical thing about Flannery O’Conner is that in her stories she tends to completely detest the stereotyping of individuals and any attempt to size them up and happens to prefer climaxes that are utterly contrary and unexpected. I. In the story A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother seems to be undeserving character for salvation. She lies to her family about “a house with a secret panel” (O’Connor[1], 33), and constantly gives sermons on flaws of the present and superiority of the past. She seems to be insensitive to the people around her, and only believes in her own moral rights. In spite of this, she displays a moral weakness at the point of time she was scared of her death; although she instructs the Misfit to pray, she herself falters when trying to utter a prayer. The Misfit, on the other hand, is a serial killer and had no remorse for his evil deeds. He can see through the manipulative nature of he grandmother and how she used her own religious conscience according to her convenience. In spite of all her family members getting killed, the grandmother’s attempt to flatter the misfit stems from the desire to save herself, and this only enhances “his contempt for her words” (McDermott, 2010). As last resort she attempts to eliminate the space between them by reaching out to him; the misfit recoils “as if a snake had bitten him” (O’Connor[1], 51) and shoots her three times on the chest. The grandmother experiences a leap of faith after being confronted by the darker side of human. Although the grandmother regards herself as a religious person, she focuses more on her appearance. This gets reflected in her choice of best clothes when traveling so that “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” (O’Connor[1], 76) Thus, the grandmother lives in a no man’s land between the spiritual and the material worlds, because she has no real religious commitment. Only after her encounter with the Misfit, the grandmother realizes the difference between her conception of faith and the true essence of things. She innocently hopes that her telling the Misfit that he is a good man will somehow convert him from being a serial killer. Although she speaks a lot about Jesus with the Misfit, her selfish and conceited character became apparent when she used her religious sermons for her own well being instead of trying to save the family. Towards the climax of the story, the grandmother becomes conscious of her own hypocrisy when surrounded by darkness that reflected the heartless nature of the Misfit. In the last moments of her life, the grandmother realizes all her flattery to convert the Misfit was devoid of sincerity, and she knows that the Misfit too realizes it. She now contemplates that she is equal sinner as the Misfit, and in doing so she can see the “light of self-analysis which she had blocked by her over-weaning pride” (McDermott, 2010). But her realization came too late as the Misfit shot her in the chest to kill her. II. In the short story Good Country People, Mrs. Hopewell is a character whose perspective of country people is that they are honest and simplistic. Going by this view, she believes that Freemans are good country people and extends the same faith on Manley Pointer who is a Bible seller and claimed to have heart condition that will not let him live for long. Mrs. Hopewell’s trust on country people is in contrast to the theme of disgust that is prevalent in the world and which becomes the final message in this story. It was revealed in the end that people whom Mrs. Hopewell trusted as “good country people” were truly not so. Her stereotype concept of country people was shattered by Manley in the end as he walked away with the wooden leg of Joy. The stereotype concept of country people according to Mrs. Hopewell defines the Freemans as simple and hardworking. In spite of the contrasting characteristics of Mrs. Freeman who “could never be brought to admit herself wrong to any point” (O’Connor[2], 1), Mrs Hopewell accommodates her. She makes sure that Mrs. Freeman remains aware of every incident and makes her in charge of the entire household to avoid problems. The author described Mrs Hopewell as having no bad qualities herself which indicates that people who are by nature good also consider others in the same bracket. Mrs. Hopewell’s concept of country people and her ability to see good virtues in everyone is reflected in her words “that is life” or “other people have their opinions too” (O’Connor[2], 2). Mrs. Hopewell’s trust in country people is the reason why she drops down her resistance and invites the Bible selling boy, Manley to dine with her family. Mrs. Hopewell’s apparent blindness to the imperfections of life is reflected in her nonchalance way of dealing with problems as she dismisses them with her cheery but too often uttered words “nothing is perfect” (O’Connor[2], 2). So when Manley said that he has a heart condition that will not let him live long, Mrs. Hopewell immediately felt sympathetic towards him and invited him over for dinner. Joy changed her name to Hulga and this proves her wanting to live in an imaginary world thinking the name Joy does not describe her but the manly name Hulga is more fitting. She allows her identity of holding a PhD dominates her personality, and so she immediately desires to seduce Manley. She imagined a situation when she can easily seduce him, and then “she had to reckon with his remorse” (O’Connor[2], 10). When Manley convinced her to take off her leg and then put it back himself; she began to dream that one day he will take care of it. Her illusions were shattered when she got struck with reality. Manley was in essential not religious as his Bible selling job was a farce. When Hulga tells him to return her leg he opened one of his Bible which was “hollow and contained a pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a small blue box with printing on it” (O’Connor[2], 14). Eventually he walked away with the leg leaving her feeling helpless and forlorn. III. O’Connor in her two stories attempts to break the stereotype notions of individuals regarding the world and other people. In both these stories O’Connor has depicted “Trickster” as a “spiritual confidence man” (Schaum, 3). The tricksters in her stories are liars and smooth manipulators, create disorder and bankrupt the soul. Like the characters Misfit and Manley impersonate the “strange traveler” to shatter the spiritual or social order created by a person’s psychology (Schaum, 6). The Grandmother’s belief that the Misfit cannot kill a lady, and Hulga’s dream that Manley will one day take care of her are shattered when both Misfit and Hulga show their true colors. The grandmother tends to stereotype the Misfit by harping on his good background. She tries to instill religious faith in him by recalling verses from Bible. She even reaches out to touch him thus eliminating the space between them and called out “you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children” (O’Connor[1], 124). She with her conventional notion of people believed that the Misfit will be transformed by her moral code, and will spare her life in spite of his criminal ways. She tries to flatter him by saying “I know you must come from nice people” (O’Connor[1], 50). Unlike the grandmother, the Misfit is true and loyal with his perspective of life and acts according to what he believes is right. His actions are not moral in the worldly sense, but his beliefs are strong and that is his strength. The grandmother’s sense of morale has no permanent base as was proved in this case. She even called a criminal as good man only for her selfish need of protecting her life. It was the Misfit who remained true to his moral integrity by killing the grandmother. Manley Pointer represents that aspect of human being which can deceive people to any length to get what he desires. He presented himself as humble, troubled boy who does not have many days to live and thus earns the trust of both Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Hulga. Hulga in spite of demonstrating a manly spirit is a woman in need of care and affection. Manley deceives her and uses her weakness. He takes off her artificial leg thus putting her into a helpless position, only to add her leg to his collection. In this way, Manley destroyed the stereotype conception of Hulga and her mother about country people. Had he presented himself as a boy from a big city, then he would not have earned the trust of the Hopewells so soon. In this way, Manley by behaving against the stereotype norms of Hulga eventually left her with the feeling that her “emotional, intellectual, and spiritual life, all built on a foundation of nothing” (Oliver, 236). The Misfit is essentially an atheist who is “appalled that Jesus raised the dead”. He defies the stereotype norms to believe that Jesus cannot be accepted as holy man but is a “wholesale fraud” (Wood, 38). On the contrary, the grandmother who like any other conventional women tends to believe that she is religious even tried to convert the Misfit by asking him to pray for Jesus to help him. In a last attempt to save her life, the grandmother even denies her faith and declares that Jesus may not have raised the dead (Wood, 38-39). The stereotype norms are mocked here as the grandmother who apparently should be a religious person breaks her moral code to save her life. On the other hand, the Misfit who according to stereotype norms should be the one to show less integrity towards his faith actually remained true to his belief that whatever he does is right. Manley Pointer, the Bible seller in Good Country People represents nihilism by destroying the stereotype notions of the Hopewells’ concept of country people. He was a “moral devastation of a young Bible salesman” (Wood, 181). He earned the trust of the Hopewells by attacking their weakness by presenting himself as country man instead of a big city person and declaring himself as having a weak heart. The nihilism in Manley was symbolized by the hollowed Bible that contained all unreligious things. In the end, he displayed being someone who uses the weaknesses of other people to fulfill his amoral desire of collectibles. Conclusion Flannery in her short stories has mocked the stereotyping of individuals. She has demonstrated by the above two stories that people are slaves of their circumstances, and whatever picture they apparently portray is destroyed when challenged at difficult times. Flannery is a master at amalgamating literary and satirical instances to prove her points about flaws in humanity. Her use of satire does not reflect the conventional morals that people usually believe, but is based on a religious view which makes the satire ineffective on all non-believers (Edelstein, 140). References 1. Edelstein, Mark G. “Flannery O’Connor and the Problem of Modern Satire”. Studies in short fiction 12.2 (1975): 139-144 2. McDermott, John V. “Flannery O’Connor’s Validation of the Unreasonable in “A Good Man is Hard to Find””. Notes on Contemporary Literature 40.1 (2010): 36-39. Print. 3. O’ Connor[1], Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find, USA: Rutgers University Press, 1993 4. O’ Connor[2], Flannery, Good Country People from: http://plaza.ufl.edu/lacy.hodges/GoodCountryPeople.pdf 5. Oliver, Kate. “O’Connor’s Good Country People”. Explicator 62.4 (2004): 233-236. Print 6. Schaum, Melita. “”Erasing Angel”: The Lucifer-Trickster Figure in Flannery O’Connor’s Short Fiction”. The Southern Literary Journal 33.1 (2000): 1-6. Print. 7. Wood, Ralph C. Flannery O’Connor and the Christ Haunted South. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2005. Print Read More