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.)