ENGL 4310

So at first I attempted to read letters by subject, but I couldn’t seem to find the things I wanted to find. I read the letters that O’Connor and Porter wrote to each other, but there really wasn’t much insight in them. So, I decided to read from the beginning.

One thing that I found fascinating in Porter (though of course, I already knew about) was her illness. Porter’s letters begin with her talking about the illness because it is when she was heading off to Mexico for a change of climate (17). I was really intrigued by Porter’s talk of death in her first few letters though. She says,

“I have no intention of dying, I never have, but I saw the X-ray of my lungs and
they are pretty funny looking….I am not really nervous, and even if I knew this
was the beginning of the end, I still wouldn’t be nervous, for it is not death
that troubles me, but the boresome process of disintegration, and I don’t mean
to go through with it past a certain point. When I am ordered to bed for the
last time, I simply don’t intend to go there. That’ll settle all this nonsense
of slow dying, a thing I could ever grow accustomed to.” (17, 19)

I wonder if her religion has anything to do with her lack of nervousness for death, or if it is merely her personality. I would also like to know if anyone has found anything on O’Connor’s view of death. I have read letters that show that she was sick and that she found it annoying to always be in the hospital and have no energy to write, but I have yet to read anything that discusses death.