Читать реферат по английскому: "Three Common Themes Essay Research Paper Three" Страница 2

(Назад) (Cкачать работу)

In the story “Good Country People” O’Connor uses the roles of a mother and her daughter to represent the differences in the old and new south. The representative of the old south in this story is the mother Mrs. Hopewell. In order to portray the old south in Mrs. Hopewell, O’Connor writes; “Mrs. Hopewell could not understand deliberate rudeness, although she lived with it, and she felt she had always to overflow with hospitality to make up for Joy’s lack of courtesy.” Mrs. Hopewell’s intense display of politeness is another way that O’Connor instills her character with a very old south mentality. A much different role is played by the daughter Hulga [Joy]. Several traits of Hulga’s show how O’Connor instills her with ideas of the new south. “When Hulga stumped into the kitchen in the morning (she could walk without making the awful noise but she made it – Mrs. Hopewell was certain because it was ugly sounding), she glanced at them and did not speak. A lady with any regard for old south manners would never “stump around” when walking and even if she had to “stump around” she would at least apologize for her actions. Another trait that separates Hulga from the old south is the fact that she has a college degree. In the time the story was set not many women had college degrees. “Mrs. Hopewell thought it was nice for girls to go to school to have a good time but Joy [Hulga] had ‘gone through. For Hulga to actually get a college degree just reinforces her place in the new south. Another way that O’Connor shows her disapproval for the new south is when Hulga changes her name from Joy to Hulga. The beautiful sounding name Joy represents the old south and the name change symbolizes a change from the old to the new south. Miss O’Connor gives her the very ugly sounding name Hulga to represent a new south that she really does not care for. O’Connor expands on her dissatisfaction for this character through the word usage she uses when describing Hulga. It was said that Hulga “stumped” around the house even though she really didn’t need to. The verb “stumped” once again draws up a negative meaning. Since Hulga is the character that represents the old south in the story and since O’Connor has portrayed her in a very dark manner, it can be assumed that O’Connor does harbor a good deal of ill feelings towards the new south. Another example of the transition of time is evident of Julian’s mother in “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” She glorifies the fact that her grandfather was a plantation owner with one hundred slaves and dismisses the plights of blacks by saying, AThey should rise, yes, but on their own side of the fence@. It is clear that his mother has difficulty dealing with the changes of today=s current society. Evidence that times have changed is given by the fact that the colored woman sitting on the bus was wearing the same hat Julian=s mother was wearing. This indicates that not only white women of statue now wear big hats. Julian=s mother is put in her place when the woman with the big hat refuses her charity of a penny to her little boy. Julian has a lot to offer to his mother in how the new world is changing, and his mother can teach him the history of her life. However because both are so stuck in their ways, they don=t to listen to each other and take learning experiences from each other. Rather than dividing along color lines as does his mother, Julian separates by class. This observation shows two things; one is the connection between racism and “classism” and the other is the connection between Julian and his mother. Flannery O’Connor uses many different ideas to show change between the two souths. In all three stories she uses completely different characters to show the same theories. By interpreting the descriptions of O’Connor’s characters and by analyzing the tone that she takes when dealing with the characters a strong sense of disapproval for the new south can be seen.

Flannery O Connor also strongly emphasizes the mother-child relationship in her three short stories. In Everything That Rises Must Converge, the relationship between Julian and his mother is the main focal point of the story. Julian his entire life has been spoiled by his mother. She has done everything in her power to make Julian s life more comfortable, many times sacrificing things for herself even. Julian has taken advantage of his mother his entire life and never has given her the respect she deserved. He makes it a point opposing his mother all the time and trying to bring her head down from the clouds to the harsh reality that she does not live in the plantation anymore with the slaves all around her. In spite of her racism, Julian s mother is not the ogre that her son makes her out to be. She has made many sacrifices so he can have a better life. Her hard work and sacrifice have put her son through school; she even neglected her own teeth so she could have Julian s fixed. In fact, her son is her life. She sees him as a future novelist, even though he knows that he does not have the ability to succeed. It is Julian s own selfishness that turns out to be the true destructive force in this story, not his mother s prejudice. In her dying moments she can

Похожие работы