Sociopaths in - Literature review Example

full Sociopaths in Literature (two short stories by Mary Flannery OConnor) 09 March Introduction Flannery OConnor (1925-1964) is one of the best and most famous short story writers in American fiction. She excelled in a number of short stories she had published in her lifetime; one of the most popular stories she ever wrote was “A Good Man is Hard to Find” which oddly enough mixed comedy, religious fervor and unmitigated violence; it was first published in 1953 She wrote a total of thirty-two short stories in which her Roman Catholic faith is often reflected in the themes of the short stories. She is able to portray her characters in a kind of naïve, innocent, or even simple-minded mindset or mentality in which a reader is often able to identify with, as the stories showed how people will normally react. The other short story she is famous for is “Good Country People” which also showed how people seemingly rely on the inherent goodness of people, even complete strangers, and fall victim to the machinations and evil intentions of these people whom they had just met. In this particular story, the reader comes away with an impression how simple people, especially those living in the rural areas of the South, can get victimized by unscrupulous persons who in turn take advantage of the very trusting nature of rural people, something that can happen quite often when people assume these strangers to be kind and honest like them. OConnor also wrote two full-length novels in addition to essays, commentaries, and literary reviews. A frequent theme of her stories are questions dealing with morality, ethics, or decision-making capabilities of some people in the rural Southern regional settings and of odd or grotesque characters, the kind of people one should exert all efforts to avoid at all costs. A few academicians and literary historians consider her an apologist of Catholicism for she portrays characters in her stories as too trusting and gullible due to their religious faith. Discussion Things and events can oftentimes conspire to create a situation wherein people can be at the mercy of other people. However, the reaction of these people in dire or even a difficult situation can determine the eventual outcome, whether they will come out of it better off or in rare instances, worse off and even get killed by complete strangers whom they trusted. This is the theme of both stories featured in this brief essay paper as it is recounted here. Synopsis - In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the family of June Star and John Wesley (siblings), with their parents and grandmother, decided to go on a journey and visit another state. Their trip began innocently enough and they enjoyed the first portions of their trip throughout the countryside. The family wanted to go to Florida and experience better climate such as the sunshine of this tropical state but there was a little argument initially as their grandmother had wanted to visit instead her relatives and friends in east Tennessee. The first half of the story was generally pleasant, in which the family dropped by at an eatery owned by Red Sammy who is a World War II veteran and so considered as a patriot. It was only in the latter half of the story when things went wrong, starting with the little side trip the family took on an impulse, to visit an imagined old and large plantation house with white columns wherein there is a secret panel on the wall where silverware of the family was hidden and this supposedly innocent deception brought the family unto that fatal dirt road. The family car overturned when it fell into some deep ditch but luckily no one got hurt seriously but this lead to the encounter with the so-called Misfit, a well-known and notorious escaped criminal with his two equally criminally-inclined younger companions. The Misfit is bitter about his own life, how he suffered unnecessarily at the hands of the authorities and so took revenge on the hapless family, killing them off without mercy despite their pleas. Analysis - more than anyone else, it was the grandmother, although she was not named directly, who is the pivotal character in the story among the family members traveling in that car. It was she who suggested to take that side trip to visit an old plantation house which brought the entire family to their deaths. If not for her foolish idea, the family could have gone straight on to Florida, avoided that car accident in going to Toombsboro, and most probably arrived safe in Florida without ever meeting the dreaded Misfit although The Misfit was within the same vicinity as per the newspaper reports the grandmother had read about. When the family finally met The Misfit face-to-face, it was the grandmother who had argued for their safe release by speaking to The Misfit and appealing to this criminals sense of fairness, that the family is just a group of innocent people who met an accident and they should be let go without any incident. The first indication something was wrong was when the Misfit came near them and John Wesley saw a gun in his waist and asked, “what you got that gun for?” (OConnor 14) and then a bit later, it was June Star who also asked, “what are you telling us what to do for?” The reply of The Misfit was quite ominous by itself, “lady, would you mind calling them children to sit down by you? Children make me nervous.” But the grandmothers faith in religion caused her to ask, “you wouldnt shoot a lady, would you?” and followed by, “I know youre a good man . . . I know you must come from nice people!” and she further said, “listen, you shouldnt call yourself The Misfit because I know youre a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell.” These passages indicated the grandmother believed in the inherent goodness of people, including The Misfit, and so they should not be harmed at all despite his bad reputation of being a murderer. The grandmothers faith in religion made her believe she could argue and convince The Misfit, by asking him, “do you ever pray?” and she really thought until the very end that she would be spared. Synopsis – the second story “Good Country People” tells the life of Mrs. Freeman and her two daughters named Glynese and Carramae (eighteen and fifteen years old, respectively). They have a neighbor named Mrs. Hopewell who also has a daughter named Joy who is now thirty-two years old and also happens to be a girl who is highly educated, as she had attended the university and managed to obtain to a doctorate degree despite having only one good leg, her other leg lost due to a hunting accident while she was only ten years old. Joy is the kind of girl (actually, now a grown-up woman) who is rebellious due to her being a disabled person; it (having an artificial leg) made her grumpy and uncommunicative, even anti-social. Joy renamed herself Hulga just to spite her own mother; Joy did not enjoy the usual kind of fun usually enjoyed by other kids while in the elementary grades or in high school due to her impediment. Her mother Mrs. Hopewell thought how pitiful it was that Joy was not able to take one dance step while still in school in her younger years or had any good times at all. Moreover, Joy is suffering from a bad heart and doctors diagnosed her not to live long. In the opinion of Mrs. Hopewell, her daughter Joy is idiotic and still acts like a small child. Joy does not like all young men who might be interested to court her, thinking they are stupid, as a result of her high academic achievement of having a doctorate degree in philosophy. It so happened one day that a young man selling bibles came by their house and had a good conversation with Joy, who was enamored with this seemingly honest, kind, innocent, and sincere young man. This tall but gaunt-looking youth was also a good salesman, quite persistent, and appears to be very convincing, telling people he met he is a good country lad and therefore could be trusted completely. This young named Manley Pointer managed in the end to gain the trust and love of Joy because he could quote biblical passages with sincerity. It turned out he was just fooling around and took advantage of Joys gullibility and loneliness. Analysis – the young man made false claims and pretended to be from the country so he could gain the trust of his intended victims. Moreover, he also took advantage of the kind, courteous, and welcoming attitude of people he met by using religion as a disguise but in fact, he was just sizing them up if he could carry out his evil plans. He took great efforts to be seen as genuine, and trustworthy to gain the heart of Joy who was supposed to be immune to the advances of young men but Joy is just an innocent girl as she had been deprived of the usual companionship of boys due to her bad leg. In essence, Joy was a very gullible woman despite academic achievement due to this lack of socializing while she was still younger. Joy really lacked common sense in a big way. Mr. Pointer painted himself as a “just a country boy” who is incapable of evil, a person who is God-fearing, very religious, and unsophisticated of the world (Kirk 71) but Mrs. Freeman does not think so, saying “some cant be that simple.” Conclusion Joy is an atheist and thought she could seduce this young country boy and put sense in his head about God as Joy thought she is more sophisticated and educated than this simple country boy whom it turns out was much more worldly-wiser, more evil, and more intelligent than what Mrs. Hopewell and Joy/Hulga had ever thought. It is a very bad idea to look down on anyone, especially country people who are considered as the salt of the earth, as simpletons, unsophisticated, and uneducated. These people can be capable of evil things; if needed, anybody should be on guard against anyone, especially of the people whom one had just met as religion can blind people to the truth. Intelligent people are taken in or fooled by false pretenses, more so if that impostor pretends to be “just a country boy” who looks stupid. Real good country people, like Mrs. Freeman herself, has plenty of common sense and they see or smell danger whenever there is one nearby, like the Manley Pointer (Hardy 141). Works Cited Hardy, Donald E. Narrating Knowledge in Flannery OConnors Fiction. Columbia, SC, USA: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. Print. Kirk, Connie Ann. Critical Companion to Flannery OConnor. Los Angeles, CA, USA: The Infobase Publishing Group, 2008. Print. OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find and other Stories. Orlando, FL, USA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992. Print. Read More