I think I missed a lot of things the first time I read "The Displaced Person." Although I did note that there was some significance attached to the peacocks, I didn't examine what that might have been because my eye was caught by other aspects of the story. I just re-read through the blogs about "The Displaced Person," and found that the discussion about peacocks was very interesting, particularly in Jillian's blog. In her blog, she notes that it is only the Judge and the priest who appreciate the peacock's beauty. Both Mrs. Shortley and Mrs. McIntyre seem to be completely indifferent to the beautiful birds. This is evident when Mrs. Shortely is standing under the tree (that has the peacock in it) and with her "unseeing eyes directly in front of the peacock's tail....She might have been looking at a map of the universe but she didn't notice it" (290-291). I only bring this up because, later on, Mrs. Shortley expresses the opinion that foreigners are "all eyes and no understanding" (295). We can say the same thing about her because, for one reason or another, she cannot understand why anyone would be fascinated by the peacocks. Maybe she doesn't "understand" beauty, and so wouldn't the priest would be justified in saying that Mrs. Shortley is "all eyes and no understanding?"
Another thing I completely failed to notice was when the Guizac family arrives on the farm, Mrs. Shortely describes each of them as they step out of the car,
"out jumped two children, a boy and a girl, and then, stepping more slowly, a woman in brown, shaped like a peanut. Then the front door opened and out stepped the man, the Displaced Person." (286)Later on, she refers to the family collectively as "the displaced people." Lower case letters. Why is it that the man is THE Displaced Person, which seems to replace his name? I would assume that it may be because he is the bread winner of the family, and the fact that his family is forced out of thier native country reflects him much more than it reflects the mother and children.
Tags: Displaced Person, Josie Stillman, response
1 Comment:
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- Chels said...
April 4, 2008 at 5:02 PMI think I agree with your idea that the man is the bread winner and is therefore THE Displaced Person. I also think that the fact that he is around more (in terms of taking over jobs, etc.) makes him stand out more. If the mother and children were also taking jobs away from Mrs. Shortley and her children, then perhaps they would have been stigmatized as well. Instead, they are merely displaced people (lowercase) because they are with the Displaced Man who was creating such a mess on the farm for all the other hired help.