Choices

Another interesting slate of stories, where choices the characters made seemed to be defining moments within each story. To start it of with “A&P,” I understand some people’s thinking when they support Sammy’s decision to quit his job abruptly because Lengel is giving the young girls a hard time about their attire. They believe that if Sammy wants to find his own identity, he needs to leave the regulated confines of A&P or risk turning into Stokesie. Yet I feel Sammy’s decision was a poor one. Lengel had every right to reprimand the girls because as manager of the store he has to watch out its best interest. While girls walking around in bathing suits doesn’t seem to be a big issue, it could potentially upset some of A&P’s older customers. Older customers tend to provide more revenue than the occasional shopping trip by teenagers. With that being said, Sammy’s decision is irresponsible regardless of whether or not Lengel’s decision was right or wrong. From the story we can infer that Sammy’s family really needs the money and even Sammy goes on to regret what he said. If Sammy was so concerned about becoming just another mindless worker, he should have had the foresight to search around for other opportunities instead of putting his family in a tough situation.

In the story “Revelation,” it takes another girls actions to make Mrs. Turpin realize her mistake. Yet even then, I do not see any great changes in Mrs. Turpin’s character. During her “revelation” she describes it as, “And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right…They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They alone were the key.” From this view on Mrs. Turpin’s revelation, it seems as if she still believes that she is of a higher class than “white trash,” black people, and the “battalions of freaks and lunatics.” Mrs. Turpin’s beliefs are so ingrained in her, I find it hard to believe that the incident she faced really changed her opinion especially considering the way her vision takes place. Because I do not have much understanding of the Bible, I may be more skeptical than others when it comes to believing in Mrs. Turpin’s sudden conversion into a believer of equality.

From my understanding, Flannery O’Connor was a devout Christian. Her beliefs in Christianity seemed to pervade throughout her short stories. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit and the grandmother are direct contrast of each other though not in the way most people would assume them to be. The grandmother comes across as insincere and selfish. For example, she wants her family to go Tennessee as opposed to Florida, she dresses properly so that people will recognize her as a lady when she dies, and she lies about a house in order to get her family to listen to her. She complains about everyone else but fails to notice her own. Ironically, she doesn’t want to visit Florida in part because the Misfit is headed towards there, but her actions lead her right to the Misfit. The Misfit may seem to be the morally wrong character, but he is able to accept himself when he says, “Nome, I ain’t a good man…but I ain’t the worst in the world neither.” When he dies and reaches his judgment, he will have a better understanding of himself than does the grandma. In O’Connor’s eyes this makes the Misfit a more devout Christian than the grandma, who only remembers Jesus during her times of difficulty.

In “Cathedral,” the narrator does not enjoy the prospect of Robert coming to visit him and his wife. Due to selfish reasons, he is a bit hesitant about Robert coming over. He feels that his wife will spend too much time with Robert, and he is also apprehensive about taking care of a blind man feeling it will be too much work. From the story, we also learn the narrator has few friends, doesn’t like his work, and seems to use marijuana as an escape mechanism. Yet it is his decision to talk to Robert, which potentially changes his life. As he tries to help Robert get a better understanding of a cathedral he seems to get a better understanding of himself in a way he never thought possible. By making the choice to help a blind man, the narrator receives more help from Robert than he could have ever imagined.

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Mr. Coon, sorry for not posting my blog yesterday. I figured I would do it after I came back from my JLP trip, but I was so tired that I came home and literally slept the moment I got back home.