Good Country People

Here's a link to Gary Graver's film of the story.

The Displaced Person

I'm still wondering what motivates Mrs. Macintyre to want to fire the DP.

Neither his faux pas in trying to have his cousin marry Sulk nor general xenophobia seem a sufficient explanation to me. Instead they strike me as post facto rationalizations.

One thought is that having the DP around represents her paying heed to the misery of the world, something she can neither squarely face nor cleanly dismiss. The peacocks, with their cries of pain in the night, might be an analogue: she has almost gotten rid of them--there's just one left--but she has not brought herself to rid herself of the last one. Seen one way, the suffering are just extra mouths to feed, not her responsibility, but viewed another way they represent the beauty of the world, Christ, and salvation. (Maybe it's worth noting that, even though the angel is gone, the feet remain, so there is still hope for her.)

More thoughts re: Judgement Day

The Glasses that Tanner makes to give to Coleman allows him to "see the white man." O'Connor seems to be laying down social reality. We see the way things are, and they are not the ways of the gospel. The actor at the end, like blacks who have had to "act" and "mask" all their lives, cannot "act" anymore. The mask has to come off. Social reality. Tanner keeps living in the world of the past where everyone knew his/her place.

And significance of the name "tanner?" Some one has to tan that "bear" hide. Right?

My vision of the adult Sabbath Lilly.

Wise Blood Question

So, for anyone loggin into the blog and wanting to talk, I'm wondering about the role of women in the book. If you listed the women appearing in the novel, what kind of picture does that make of women? Does these characterizations seem odd for a female writer? What sense can you make of that?