ENGL 4310

Our discussion in class today spawned some other thought processes of mine about the personable more character natured writing that Porter creates versus the more issue/situational stories that O'Connor seems to focus on. Again, I always have to tie in my own experiences off in some tangent, but walking home from class I really asked myself, what is it that I have discovered reading Porter? One thing that interests me is this unfamiliar territory that Porter writes about that touch me very personally, which is taking the perspective of a young woman, who comes to some epiphany and finds something about herself. These "ah ha!" moments are so interesting to me because they really are turning points that spark momentum in a character to keep them moving in a certain direction in their life.
For me, (there I go again) these realizations, like the woman in "Theft," are what I look for everyday, although they seem to come very uncommonly. I don't know, perhaps it is the dramatic success of a sudden "lightbulb" of an epiphany that thrills me. But it is also somehow an awakening to the fact that I am, finally entering a realm where I have to be an adult, no matter how "adult" I thought I was yesterday, or three years ago when I was still nineteen. Each epiphany provides a realization of the fact that I am still learning so much about who I am, reminding me that I am still so naive and young. Maybe that's what is so fresh about Porter's characters. They, like all of us, think they've figured everything out so far, only to realize that they still had something to learn.