For the first read, toward the end of the story I concentrated on Mr. Shiftlet's abandonment of Lucynell. Upon re-reading, I am now thinking it is someone else who trumps his deviat behavior: the bus boy at the restaurant. As she is sleeping, he "[bends] over again and very carefully touched his finger to a strand of the golden hair..." on page 182, right after being struck by her angelic innocence. This gives me the shivers. I am reminded of the rapist that picks up young Tarwater in his car in The Violent...
As always, O'Connor is crafting very perplexing characters. Sure, Shiftlet does abandon her, but he does give some of the money to pay for her to be fed. He could have pocketed all that money. As I have said, for me upon second reading, this is greatly overshadowed by any sexual violation that may later occur at the hand of the restaurant boy. Of course, it is Shiftlet that does leave her, to be they prey of anyone from the open road.
This also complicates things when taking the title into account. The title implies agency. The mother Lucynell and Mr. Shiftlet are both able to take action to bring about their desired results. The daughter Lucynell on the other hand is the only character that cannot do anything to save herself. Sure, being abandoned is horrible, but she also is at the mercy of this creep in the restaurant. She cannot save her life or anybody else's.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Excellent point. I hadn't thought of that. I always read the busboy as a kind of sympathetic character, or at least a harmless one. I even picked up a sense that he cared for her, and maybe she had been delivered him, albeit accidentally.
But your comment is a haunting one. What are his intentions? A very sinister thought, and if I no nothing else of O'Connor's writing, I know that her characters will always act in a sinister manner before an altruistic one.
Great point.
Post a Comment