ENGL 4310

I think it really helps to look at a story that seems O'Conn0r-esque (to barrow from Chelsea) because it helps us to better understand O'Connor. I couldn't help but notice the feminist element present in Free Radicals that it not present in O'Connors' works. I simply love that it is Bett and her published cookbook that empower Nita to "get up on a stepladder" so to speak and face the intruder, the male "tower." Nita had to become Bett, in a sense, in order to overcome her fears and confront her oppressor. I could be wrong, but I don't recognize this idea as an issue addressed in the works of O'Connor that we have read.
It is also interesting that the intruder has a "rural whine." I'm more sensitive to that now that Kay has pointed out that it is common to see the criminal, stranger, no good character, etc. with a Southern drawl. I, like O'Connor it would seem, enjoy an element of cultural richness regardless of its particulars, but would love to see a non-western cowboy hero with a twang. Has that ever happened?
Of course, what I miss from this modern story is O'Connor's imagery and her heavy use of dramatic irony that is so much fun to read. I don't know that it makes one story better than another, you just either like it or you don't. O'Connors imagery seems to simply intensify symbolism and metaphor in her works. There is some irony (think of the cosmic irony in Rich dieing before Nita who has cancer), symbolic and metaphorical use going on in Free Radicals (Think of the carpenter aprons, the railway embankment, the stepladder, the cellar and what comes up from it, the wine, the cookbook and the books they read, etc.), it is just much more subtle or understated. For me, Free Radicals helps illustrate how rich and intense O'Connor's irony and imagery is.