For my tester blog I thought I'd take Kay's challenge to discuss mercy in The Artificial Nigger. I find myself fascinated with the equalizing forces that exist in O'Conner's works. In this particular story it is the "artificial nigger." Why that? Perhaps because at this most humbling moment in Mr. Head's life he is able to understand that his perception of Blacks as being the most unworthy and lowest of beings has been an artificial one. He has sat upon the trash can lid, stooped behind a trash bin and denied his own grandson. He recognizes his own headiness and that recognition, occurring for both he and Nelson, triggers the mercy. "They could both feel [the artificial nigger] dissolving their differences like an action of mercy" (p.230). Christ condescended all men and his mercy views all men on equal terms. All are in need of that mercy and all may receive it. Humility and mercy reduce Head's "lofty" statement to a colloquial sounding one that is still profound to the two of them. We know Nelson shares in the humility and mercy of this moment when he says: "Let's go home before we get ourselves lost again." He acknowledges that they have been lost, both literally and figuratively speaking, and that they are equally at fault --neither at this point blames the other. On the train they both approach the door "ready to jump off it if it does not stop," as they see themselves as insignificant and may be readily overlooked. Finally, Head seems to recognize that mercy has been granted him throughout the entirety of his life though unbeknownst to him. "He had never thought himself a great sinner before but he saw now that his true depravity had been hidden from him lest it cause him despair," the greatest mercy of all (p.231). "He saw that no sin was too monstrous for him to claim as his own" the equalizing force in this story has been a cleansing one in that "since God loved in proportion as He forgave, he felt ready at that instant to enter Paradise."
I've already written enough, but I'd like to examine further the ghost images these two characters take on and their black and white view of things. I'm intrigued by the references to angles on the first page of the narrative and how they then related to the ghostly image they take on. Head's position of guide is equated to that of Vergil's who guides Dante from the lower regions of Hell to the gates of paradise, but cannot enter those gates himself. By the end of this story, however, the gates of paradise seem to be wide in admittance of both characters. If anyone has insights, I'd love to hear them!