I ran into a similar conclusion as Josie about how the villain in "Free Radicals" has a completely different place in the story than O'Connor's villain. Often enough, the villains in O'Connor's stories are hard to identify at the end-well, sort of, there often isn't a definite villain in O'Connor's stories that can be easily identified, even at the end. Sure, the characters do stupid things, they are flawed, they make mistakes that make me want to slap my forehead. But I can honestly say that the slapping of the forehead was often because I had made a similar mistake (less tragic of course). And this is where I see where O'Connor is going with her characters role and purpose. The tragedy of O'Connor's stories becomes our own personal tragedy as we realize what we are. In "Free Radicals," the characters have a different reason for being. It was less personal to me, because I didn't think, "gee, I can really take that as a lesson for myself," or "wow, I've kind of been like (character's name) before in a way...that is really scary." "Free Radicals" was more just a look at the character's and sure, the mystery was still there for me, certainly not to the extent of O'Connor, but the entire time I was viewing the situation from the outside. For O'Connor I am viewing the situation from the outside only to have it turned inwards at the end. Perhaps this is only me who gets this reaction from reading O'Connor, but to me I feel like that personal reflection caused by the twists of her stories is like a slap in the face every time, and the only thing predictable was that the ending would come in a way I least expected it to. I had to stop guessing, it was useless!
Which leads me to another question, how does an author find so many paths in their writing? Is it like those adventure series books, where you get to a certain place in the book and must choose which way to go to get a different outcome?
Tags: Rebecca, Short story