ENGL 4310

There have been a couple of posts referencing the potential significance in the names of the characters of the stories we’ve been reading. Other names, or lack thereof, have not been touched upon. Perhaps we haven’t brought them up because they seem almost too obvious, to simple. Or perhaps we missed their importance because they seem so simple, like the color black representing death, that we just sort of glazed over them. In any case, I thought it might behoove us to compile a list of noteworthy character names and see what comparisons can be drawn between the character’s and their situations.

FYI, I intend to do a blog soon about the power of names themselves for specific characters. This blog is meant to be more of a list.

NAMES IN PORTER

Granny Weatherall: views everyone around her as a child or inferior for having not “weathered” as much as she has in her life including her “jilting.” Yet, of course, she ultimately cannot weather death.

Maria Concepcion: If you remember back, in class we touched on the significance that there were two “Marias” and both names could relate either to Mary, Mother of Jesus one to her and one to Mary Magdalene. “Concepcion” naturally invokes the concept of “immaculate conception” in the same way Maria Concepcion’s handling of the child at the end of the story is invocative of the Madonna and Child.

Him and Her in “Rope”: If their names were mentioned I don’t remember them, and leaving the two characters nameless in the story allows the reader to fill in the character’s names with those of the husband and wife of any couple.

He from “He”: “He” is not given a name because “He” is not even considered to be a whole person.

NAMES IN O'CONNOR

The Grandmother from “A Good Man is Hard to Find”: Like “He”, the grandmother is ignored and diminished, nothing more than an annoyance to the rest of her family. Her lack of a name cements this.

Joy/Hulga from “Good Country People”: Joy rejects her birth name and all of it’s connotations for the ugliest name she could’ve chosen, simultaneously rejecting the optimistic name that her mother gave her. However Hulga considers her name a “personal affair” and is upset when Mrs. Freeman addresses her by it. Hulga chose her name “at first purely on the basis of its ugly sound and then the full genius of it had struck her. She had a vision of the name working like the ugly sweating Vulcan who stayed in the furnace and to whom, presumably, the goddess had to come to when called. She saw it as the name of her highest creative act. One of her major triumphs was that her mother had not been able to turn her dust into Joy, but the greater one was that she had been able to turn it herself into Hulga” (p.266-67)

Mrs. Hopewell from “Good Country People”: While looking at her daughter in the kitchen Mrs. Hopewell thinks, “if only she would keep herself up a little, she wouldn’t be so bad looking. There was nothing wrong with her face that a pleasant expression wouldn’t help” (p.267). The next line continues this optimistic outlook with, “Mrs. Hopewell said that people who looked on the bright side of things would be beautiful even if they were not.” Mrs. Hopewell’s attitude about life certainly reflects her name. O’Connor even calls attention to Mrs. Hopewell’s name when the bible salesman even makes a little joke of it by saying to her, “I hope you are well” (p.269). Also perhaps noteworthy is that the bible salesman mistakes Mrs. Hopewell for Mrs. Cedar because he claims that is the name on the mailbox. Whether this is just another little joke of his, or perhaps foreshadowing of his revelation that the name he calls himself is not his real one could be an interesting discussion topic.

“Pointer” from “Good Country People”: As he is about to leave “Pointer” the bible salesman says, “And you needn’t to think you’ll catch me because Pointer ain’t really my name. I use a different name at every house I call at and don’t stay nowhere long” (p.283). This raises interesting implications about the power of names, changing them, and mistaken identities that I plan to address in a forthcoming blog.

The Guizacs/Gobblehooks from “The Displaced Person”: The nickname for the Guizacs not only is belittling, suggesting a fish gobbling greedily from a hook, but it diminishes the Guizacs as people. Furthermore, the renaming of the Guizacs by the other characters shows that other people are too lazy, ignorant, and jealous to make the effort to accept the “displaced people” and give them a new home.

Obadiah Elihue Parker: Neena wrote in her post, “Obadiah means servant of the Lord. In 1 Kings 18 the steward of Ahab who protected the prophets of God from Jezebel was named Obadiah. In 2 Kings there is a prophet named Obadiah. I also tried to look up Elihue. Elihu means God is he.” We also discussed in class that Parker has two encounters with Sarah Ruth when it is his full name that encourages her to open up to him. Like Joy/Hulga there is significance in Parker having chosen to go by a different name, O.E., instead of his full name.


Sarah Ruth from “Parker’s Back: As Brittni pointed out in this post, “The biblical implications of the names. Sarah who followed her husband to Canaan, and who's beauty forced her to hide. Then Ruth who was the faithful daughter in law. She followed Naomi...”

Mr. Shiftlet from “The Life You Save…”: I refer to Rebecca’s blog post

Old Lucynell and Lucynell from “The Life You Save…”: I find it significant that Old Lucynell gave her daughter the same name. I understand that names are often passed along the generations, but in this story, like in “He” the young Lucynell is “broken.” By not giving the young Lucynell her own name, her mother doesn’t give her a fully personal identity.

Asbury from “The Enduring Chill”: This may be a stretch, but I find it interesting in a story where this character has a preoccupation with dieing his name has to do with what happens with a body when someone dies. People can be cremated into ashes, “As”, or buried, “bury.”