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Harry Ashfield In The River By Flannery O Connor

777 Words4 Pages

In The River, O’Connor’s use of setting develops the character of Harry Ashfield, which is used to highlight a disparity between newer ideas and values of the Deep South. In The River, there are three main settings, the city (where Harry lives), the Connin farm, and the river. In the city, Harry is part of a family that doesn’t have time to spend with him, and instead choose to occupy time by giving parties and sleeping late. At the beginning of the story, Harry is left with a sitter, Mrs. Connin, because his father is hardly awake at six o'clock in the morning, he pushes the boy into the hall, to leave with Mrs. Connin, without having properly dressed him. When Mrs. Connin notes that Harry "ain't fixed right," his father replies, "Well then …show more content…

Connin returns Harry to his parents’ apartment, Mrs. Connin and Harrys parents are embroiled in a tense conversation about a preacher named Bevel and the healing that Mrs. Connin took Harry to see. After realizing that his parents have no faith, Mrs. Connin leaves without taking their payment for babysitting, Harry's mother discovers the book he stole from Mrs. Connin's house and she and her friends make fun of it. This sequence of events is used by O’Connor to further highlight the difference between the two settings, and the differences between the people in those settings. This is significant in the development of Harry’s character as he is conflicted by which setting to believe, this individualizes Harry from the other characters as they already have set beliefs, but Harry doesn’t. The stark contrast between what Harry learns from an urban and a rural environment highlights a disconnect between the two, especially from a religious point of view, as the city embraces new ideas and is more modern than the rural environment, or the Deep South, the presence of this contrast is part of O’Connor’s critique of Southern morals and values, she believes that they are stuck in the past, and, as Harry does, far too easily accept what their elders tell them and don’t explore new ideas and

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