ENGL 4310

One thing that I have found very interesting throughout several of O’Connor’s stories is the “struggle” between children and parents. I already made a post concerning “Good Country People” and I just want to expand and include other stories into the child vs. parent idea. In some of the stories it is more of a power struggle, a basic “who will prevail”, and in other stories it is a form of child becoming parent, and parent becoming child, where the roles are reversed.

Everything That Rises Must Converge: This is one of those stories that involve a reverse of roles. Julian is the son, but he does everything that he can think of to no longer be under his mother’s power. At one point he even thinks to himself that “He was not dominated by his mother” (492). He believes that he is more intelligent and more “open minded” than his mother will ever be. He even views his mother as someone who is childlike when sitting on the bus seat, “Her feet in little pumps dangled like a child’s and did not quite reach the floor” (494). When Julian decides that he is the authoritative figure, he decides to teach his mother a lesson, much the same way that a parent teaches a child. When the “lesson” is done, Julian disapproves of how his mother is acting and chides her just like a child: “’I hate to see you behave like this,” he said. “Just like a child. I should be able to expect more of you”’ (500). His plan of course backfires on him and Julian once again becomes the child when his mother dies, when he cries for his “Mamma”.

The Artificial Nigger: This story is about power struggle and the reversal of roles. The morning that Mr. Head and Nelson leave to go to the city, Mr. Head had planned on getting up earlier than Nelson because “The boy was always irked when Mr. Head was the first up” (211). And Mr. Head was a bit annoyed when Nelson was the first up. Throughout the entire story they are always trying to outdo the other. But it is also mentioned a few times that each takes on the physical form of the other: “Mr. Head looked like an ancient child and Nelson like a miniature old man” (230). The roles of the grandfather and child are reversed, Mr. Head has turned into a child, and Nelson has turned into the old man. Nelson has the qualities of an adult, he may be a child, but he still has many qualities of someone much older. Mr. Head tries to act like an adult, but he has many qualities of a naïve child that believes whatever he is told, while Nelson questions authority and wants to learn for himself.

The Enduring Chill: This is a story that involves not quite a power struggle, but a child trying to “get back” at the mother for whatever misdeeds that she did. Asbury hates his mother, he feels that she killed his artist abilities, but not his desire to have those abilities. In his letter to his mother he even asks that she had also killed his desire so that he would not have to be a failure: “‘It [my imagination] was some bird you had domesticated, sitting huffy in its pen, refusing to come out!’ … ‘I have no talent. I can’t create. I have nothing but the desire for these things. Why didn’t you kill that too? Woman, why did you pinion me?’” (554). Asbury really has no reason to hate his mother, she just happens to be the best excuse as to why he is a failure. He can’t take responsibility for himself.

The Lame Shall Enter First: This story is interesting because the power struggle is really between Sheppard and Johnson, not Sheppard and Norton, but Sheppard considers Johnson as a son. Johnson strongly dislikes Sheppard because Johnson believes that Sheppard is self-righteous, he even calls Sheppard “God” and “Jesus” several times. Almost everything that Johnson does is just to “get back at” Sheppard. Johnson only teaches Norton about the bible because “This would be Johnson’s way of trying to annoy [Sheppard]” (613). Sheppard is determined not to let Johnson win, Sheppard is convinced that he will “save” Johnson from a life of crime. “Secretly Johnson was learning what he wanted him to learn—that his benefactor was impervious to insult and that there were no cracks in his armor of kindness and patience where a successful shaft could be driven” (611). In the end it is Johnson who wins, Sheppard himself resigns to failure.