Flannery O Connor The River Analysis

Flannery O’Connor almost has a habit of making the endings to her stories tragic. However, those same tragic endings always seem to have a positive deeper meaning. The title, “The River”, could make one believe that the text could be about almost anything. When I saw the title of the story and realized it was written by Flannery O’Connor, I knew that there cannot be anything good about a river and so it must lead to something catastrophic. The most important characters in the story are Harry, the five-year-old boy whose parents pay him no attention, his baby sitter, Mrs. Connin, and Bevel Summers, the preacher. The story starts with Harry being prepared by his parents to go off with a sitter. The sitter complains that Harry “ain’t fixed right” (O’Connor 1) so his father replies, “Well then for Christ’s sake fix him.” Mrs. Connin, being a very religious woman, takes this request seriously as in to fix the child for the sake of Christ. The sitter takes Harry to her farm where he will learn about his Maker and get baptized. She will later return him to his house where his parents are getting ready to throw a party. His mother immediately puts him to bed and this adds to his feeling of alienation. When he notices that his tennis shoes are still wet from being baptized, he realized that he wants to

Even though Harry was only five, one could tell that he already felt as if he served no purpose on this earth because of the lack of attention given to him. Mrs. Connin served the biggest role in giving him salvation because she told him that he “was made by a carpenter named Jesus Christ.” (O’Connor 4) This is what makes this text so significant. Harry was given so much purpose from faith that he felt as if he could do no more on this earth and he should just go ahead and join his