Flannery+O'connor

__Group__: Jesse Gilstrap, Celeste Duncan, Brooke Harris __Story__: A Late Encounter with the Enemy

__Plot summary__: The story introduces the main characters Sally Poker Sash and George Poker Sash. Sally is sixty-two and George is one hundred four. She prays every night that he will make it to her graduation where she will get her B.S. in Education. She has been teaching and going to school in the summer causing her to take twenty years to finally graduate. The General cares nothing about going to her graduation and simply will not go unless he gets to be on stage and recognized. Here we find that the General is a liar and is very materialistic. It tells of the glorious story of both of them at the Atlanta conference where they refer to him as General Tennessee Flintrock Sash of the Confederacy. That is his moment of glory and he see’s all the pretty “gulls” around. But the moment is ruined for Sally when she realizes that with her bedazzled corsage she forgot her silver slippers. Therefore she was wearing girl scout oxfords. She is humiliated and rushes to push him offstage in his wheelchair while he’s enjoying his glory. He has lived to her graduation and she prepares him by having her nephew, Wesley, to get the old man ready and get him on stage while she is accepting her diploma. She gets him ready and dresses him up in a uniform he never fought in and asks him if he’s excited because she “is thrilled to death”. As she lines up to get her diploma she has to walk a few blocks and notices that the old man is outside while Wesley is getting a drink from the Coca-cola machine. She gets very agitated with him. The General is panting because of the heat while the boy drinks a cola. He begins to feel a hole develop in his head. She quickly rushes out to get them into line and get Wesley to push the General on to stage who is all dressed up. The General immediately recognizes that the whole procession in front of him is black. He decided not the listen but the words were going into the hole in his head. If it hadn’t been for the hole in his head he wouldn’t have heard anything. It bothered him greatly. He hears these places and he feels as if he should remember them and the hole in his head irks him some more. He begins to feel as if he is running backwards and finds himself running towards the words. The past literally flashes before his eyes. The black procession is now on top of him. Sally Poker receives her diploma and locates Wesley who has the old man sitting in his wheel chair, dead.

“He was introduced as General Tennessee Flintrock Sash of the Confederacy,

though Sally Poker had told Mr. Govisky that his

name was George Poker Sash and that he had only been a major.”

1) The General, like Mrs. Hopewell, put up a façade in order to be seen in a better light by the public. The General masqueraded as a rank that he never actually had and Mrs. Hopewell put up the front that she liked being around Mrs. Freeman, when in fact she only tolerated her for social appearances.

“He didn’t have any use for processions and a procession full of

schoolteachers was about as deadly as the River Styx

to his way of thinking. However, he was willing to sit

on the stage in his uniform so that they could see him.”

2) Both the General and Mrs. Hopewell are self glorifying in their actions, as the General wants to proudly sit in front of the graduates and Mrs. Hopewell wishes to present herself as a proper southern lady despite the secrets she hides.

“He lived with his granddaughter, Sally Poker Sash,

who was sixty-two years old and who prayed every

night on her knees that he would live until her

graduation from college.”

3) Both main characters (Sally Poker and Joy/Hulga) want their “guardians” to be proud of their educational accomplishments.

“Then suddenly he saw that the black procession was almost

on him. He recognized it, for it had been dogging all his days.”

4) Every character meets a horrible fate.

“For his part, the General would not have

consented even to attend her graduation if she had

not promised to see to it that he sit on the stage.”

5) Neither Mrs. Hopewell nor the General will acknowledge the educational accomplishments made by Joy/Hulga or Sally Poker unless it brings glory to them.

Ella Shipp Claire Payne Taylor Patton Joe Boteler ** “The Comforts of Home” and “Good Country People” Connections **


 * O’Conner creates characters that are blindly optimistic (Thomas’s mom and Mrs. Hopewell)
 * Both stories involve a seemingly happy family that is actually dysfunctional
 * Trickery (Sarah Ham and the salesman)
 * The mothers tend to be unaware of other’s motives
 * Characters have anger on the outside but keep a lot of stuff to themselves (Thomas and Hulga)
 * Incidents occur to characters to shape their bad personalities or habits (Sarah and Hulga)
 * Both include over thirty year-old children that aren’t self-sufficient and living at home (Thomas and Hulga)

Hunter Redmond, Douglas Rowe, Steven Boles, and Jesse SooConnections with “Greenleaf” and “Good Country People”

Quote 1: “Well, no matter how far they go, they came from that.” Mrs. May

In GCP, it doesn’t matter how far they go or what “great accomplishments” they complete, because they’ll always just be “Good Country People”. In “Greenleaf”, they always will be just obnoxious Greenleaf people that are a waste to society.

Quote 2: “They lived like the lilies of the field, off the fat that she struggled to put into the land.” p. 451.

The Greenleaf family members lived off Mrs. May in the same way that Mrs. Freeman and Hulga lived off Mrs. Hopewell. They leached off the ladies because they were to lazy to provide for themselves.

Quote 3: “I wouldn’t milk a cow to save your soul from Hell.” “I know you wouldn’t,” she said in a brittle voice.

Hulga is mean to her mother and will never do anything to help her. Just like OT and ET won’t help their mom. They both just live off their parent’s land and wealth and don’t do anything to contribute.

Quote 4: She gave him a very sharp look and said, “Well, I’m not surprised, that’s just how some people are.”

Mrs. Hopewell had the same attitude as this quote. They both have the same attitude regarding dealing with the Good Country People and the Greenleaf family.

Quote 5: “I’m afraid your wife has let religion warp her,” she said once tactfully to Mr. Greenleaf. P. 462

Hulga claimed to be atheist, and didn’t let religion change her decisions at all. The Bible salesman used Religion to make his living. In “Greenleaf” Mrs. Greenleaf is only concerned with religion and praying for other people.

=The Enduring Chill=

Josh Arend, Jared Payne, Tristan Hagerman
Summary: Asbury Fox is an aspiring artist and writer living in New York City. He is sullen, reserved, and skeptical of religion. He considers himself to be an intellectual superior to the masses. Asbury is also perpetually ill with a mysterious sickness, which has inhibited his creativity and drive and led to an unsuccessful career. No longer able to support himself, Asbury is forced to move back home to his small hometown with his mother and sister. Mrs. Fox is falsely optimistic and though she feels sympathy for her son’s poor state, she does not think it is anything serious and believes if he were to cheer up and do a little work in the dairy, he will get better. His sister Mary George, an elementary school principal, attributes Asbury’s illness to his unsuccessful writing career. Upon arriving home, Asbury remains mostly bedridden he refuses his mothers insistences that he see Dr. Block, but she calls him anyway and he takes a sample of Asbury’s blood to test. Afterwards Asbury continues to suffer in anguish. He has accepted the fact that his sickness will soon claim his life. He is not afraid of death, but he does fear dying without making a lasting impression or having some significant experience. He recalls a visit to home he made earlier, when he was writing a play about Negro life. He was spending time with the Negroes Morgan and Randall who work in Mrs. Fox’s dairy in order to learn more about them. He managed to connect with them when he smoked some cigarettes with them in his mother’s barn. Shortly afterward, he drank a cup of the freshly collected milk and offered some to Morgan and Randall, who both refused because it was against the rules.

As Asbury’s condition worsens, he prepares to meet his fate. He has written a letter to his mother explaining how her falsely optimistic demeanor imbued in him the desire to write and create, but at the same time deprived him of the actual skills necessary to do so. Asbury blames her for preventing him from achieving the one thing he aspires to be. He has locked the letter in a drawer and plans to give the key to his mother just before he dies. As the end approaches he decides to have one more meaningful experience and asks to see Morgan and Randall once more so he can smoke with them again. However, they misinterpret his intentions and merely accept the whole pack of cigarettes as a gift. They also have been clearly instructed by Mrs. Fox to tell Asbury how good he looks, as Mrs. Fox is still not convinced Asbury is going to die. As a last ditch effort, Asbury requests that his mother summon a Jesuit priest from New York City to talk to him, as he wishes to speak to a cultured man before he dies. The priest, Father Finn, arrives and proves to be only a simple, stubbornly pious man intent on saving Asbury’s soul. Infuriated at his failure, Asbury resigns himself to a boring and un-poetic death, but awakes the next morning to find Dr. Block has returned. He informs Asbury he only has undulant fever from drinking the unpasteurized milk, and will not die from it. Asbury sinks further into depression when he realizes he will be forced to live and suffer with his illness.

Connections:
 * The main characters of both stories are adults living with their mothers.
 * Both children, Asbury and Hulga, are atheistic, depressed, and reserved. They consider themselves to be intellectually superior to those around them.
 * Both have mothers who are falsely optimistic about life. They ignore their children’s sullen declarations and insist life is great if they choose to make it so.
 * Hulga and Asbury both pursued lifestyles deemed impractical by their parents. Hulga earned a Ph.D in philosophy, and Asbury pursued a career in writing.
 * As a result of their inability to make a career out of their areas of study, Asbury and Hulga both have to live with their mothers.
 * Hulga and Asbury both are not expected to live very long. Hulga due to her missing leg and Asbury because of his mysterious illness.
 * Both characters encounter someone that does not turn out to be the person they expected. Hulga meets Manly Pointer, who appears to be an innocent, pious Bible salesman but is actually a crude, clever con-man. Asbury asks his mother to bring him a Jesuit priest, who he thinks will be an educated and cultured man, but is actually on old, simple, zealous priest determined to save Asbury’s soul
 * In both stories, nothing extremely exciting happens until near the end, where the action picks up. In Good Country People, this happens when Hulga goes on a picnic with Manly Pointer. In The Enduring Chill, it is when Father Finn arrives to speak to Asbury.

=Everything That Rises Must Converge=

//by Joanie King, Tatum Wendt and Rebekah Shanks//

__Plot Summary__: Arrogant, recent college graduate Julian lives at home with his mother whom is simply referred to as “mother” throughout the story. An older woman, she believes firmly in the power of someone’s name and reputation-even generations later. To say that she is traditional would be a gross understatement. She is unaware of the world continuing to evolve and change around her while she remains fixated on the past, even ignoring that her neighborhood has become decrepit and declined in its’ former sophistication that it held 40 years ago. Afraid to ride the city bus alone since integration, she asks her son Julian to accompany her on her weekly weight loss visits to the YMCA. When entering the bus, Julian's mother exclaims her relief of the riders of the bus not being of color. To which another passenger agrees. Julian is mortified by her comments and the beliefs of others that share his mother’s way of thinking. Imagining and briefly pursuing ways to teach his mother a lesson of racial equality, an older black woman and her son step on the bus. This woman is wearing the same hat as his mother. Julian sees this as his mother’s punishment for her racist beliefs. However, his mother is unfazed. The four of them (Julian, his mother, the black woman, and her son) get off at their stop when Julian’s mother pulls out a quarter to give to the little boy. Unable to find a quarter, she finds a penny and offers it to the little boy to whom his mother responds by screaming that her son doesn’t take money from anyone and knocks her down with her pocket book. After the woman has walked away, Julian helps his mother to her feet and gathers her things while simultaneously telling her that is what she deserved. Moments later, his mother collapses and begins to presumably have a stroke. Julian begins to run to find help for his dying mother, but returns back to her side feeling ashamed of the way he has treated her.


 * 1) **Similar characterization between Julian and Joy/Hulga**
 * 2) Well educated, condescending ,philosophical, victim of the world
 * 3) “’They don’t give a damn for your graciousness,’ Julian said savagely. ‘Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven’t the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are.’”
 * 4) **Similar plot/ Tragic ends**
 * 5) Joy/ Hulga gets her leg stolen; Julian’s mother died
 * 6) “One eye, large and staring, moved slightly to the left as if it had become unmoored. The other remained fixed on him, raked his face again, found nothing and closed.”
 * 7) **Similar conflict between characters**
 * 8) Julian and Hulga’s resentment towards their mothers
 * 9) “Julian thought he could have stood his lot better if she had been selfish, if she had been an old hag who drank and screamed at him.”
 * 10) **Julian and Hulga both struggled with faith; internal conflict**
 * 11) “[Julian was] saturated in depression, as if the midst of his martyrdom he had lost his faith.”
 * 12) **Racism**
 * 13) Implied racism and blunt racism
 * 14) “And I remember the old darky who was my nurse, Caroline.”