Course Guidelines Path 1 Calendar Class Discussion Path 2 Groups & Texts Writing Assignments Reference Texts

 


ornamental line

"The Displaced Person"

"I am not responsible for the world's misery" (315).
Flannery O'Connor's "The Displaced Person" (1955)

 

Points for Reflection

Flannery O'Connor's "The Displaced Person" (1955), 485-500

  1. do any of these characters encounter circumstances that force them to interrogate their own xenophobia and/or racism?
  2. consider the symbolic function of the ubiquitous peacock on Mrs. McIntyre's farm.
  3. why does Flannery O'Connor allow so many of her characters in this story to speak truths aloud, then remain ignorant of these truths' applications to themselves?
  4. what motivates the actions of the eighty-year-old priest?
  5. how does the final "vision" of Mrs. Shortley (305, 318) differ from those that precede it (291, 300, 301-302)?
  6. what type of value system does Mrs. McIntyre use to justify her actions throughout this story?
  7. when the Priest claims "'He came to redeem us'" (317), is he speaking of either Mr. Guizac or Jesus Christ?


An arch and several buildings and the sky is a greenish blue color
On Paranoiac Critical Town (1936)
oil on canvas
Salvador Dalí



Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu