The Violent Bear It Away

I find the young boy, Bishop, very interesting. He is yet another one of the unidentified characters that O‘Connor writes about; he is a silent character and is only described by the words of others. He never makes his feeling known. We learn about Bishop through the words and actions of others. Even though Bishop does not have a voice his role in this story is very important. He, is almost, the center of the story because without him it seems as if this story would not exist. Tarwater’s purpose revolves around his ability to baptize the young boy. As we have learned from other stories by Porter and O’Connor, the lesson and message within their stories lie within the study of the silent character.

Tarwater has compared Bishop to several different animals. He compares him to a hog at dinner one night and then he compares him to a dog. O’Connor than makes yet another kind of animal reference without actually naming a type of animal. “The child began to scramble up the steps on his hands and knees, kicking his feet up on each one” (O’Connor 427). I can imagine any child climbing a set of stairs like this (I’m sure I climbed stairs on my hands and knees when I was younger) but in this case, since Bishop has been compared to animals in the past, I get the impression that O’Connor is referring to animalistic qualities of Bishop. When I picture him climbing the stairs I imagine some sort of dog scampering up the steps. I find it very interesting that these authors use their silent characters as their message carriers. Perhaps this shows us that it is the quiet people, the ones who observe life, who hold the answers. Since they merely observe the world that surrounds them they are able to scrutinize and examine what is really going on. In Bishop’s case, he is surrounded by anger and frustration yet he still maintains a kind and loving outlook on life.