ipl-logo

Ironic Elements In Flannery O Connor's Essay

393 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary critique of Flannery O’Connor

O’ Connor makes the racial difference more complex through her use of logical appeals. Although, white individuals in the 1960s were considered the most superior, not all white people were the same through Mrs. Turpin’s eyes. For example, the instance is given in the short story when Mrs. Turpin was forced to choose by Jesus if she would rather be a nigger or white-trash. Mrs. Turpin responds to this almost impossible question and answers with, “All right make me a nigger then- but that don’t mean a trashy one.” And he would have made her a neat clean respectable Negro woman, herself but black.” This shows how logically, Mrs. Turpin values integrity and hard-working individuals beyond race. She would rather be a hard-working Negro than white-trash …show more content…

Turpin saw a white-trashy woman she thought to herself, “Her dirty yellow hair was tied behind with a little piece of red paper ribbon. Worse than niggers any day” (454). This again shows how Mrs. Turpin sees white-trashy individuals as such a disgrace in society and how they are non-workers and are lowest in the social status spectrum. A final instance in the short story that shows the disgrace towards white-trash is when the white-trash woman brought up to Mrs. Turpin and the pleasant lady that she would love no niggers or scoot down no hog with no hose. The reaction of Mrs. Turpin and the pleasant lady was very distinct due to how it says that they looked at each other and “exchanged eye contact which indicated they both understood that you had to have certain things before you could know certain things” (456). This shows that Mrs. Turpin sees the white-trash lady as unintelligent and ignorant and that she does not understand certain things due to the fact that the white-trash lady does not have the same mental capacity as Mrs. Turpin and the pleasant lady. Through the use of logical appeals by O’ Connor, it is seen that race is not the main value during the 1960s and that hard-working individuals, white or black, are considered the highest in the social status

Show More
Related

Flannery O Connor's Contribution To The World

152 Words | 1 Pages

Perspectives Based on the perceptives on Flannery O’Connor personality she is described to be a loner. O’Connor has a different way of think from other authors because of her “sly humor, her disdain for mediocrity, and her often merciless attacks on affection and triviality.” (Gordon) She wrote her works to fit a new style a dark humor with Southern Gothic theme. O’Connor shows how grotesque the world is and how it needs a light to help change the world. Her works of irony is her main contribution to the world.

Read More

Analysis Of Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

1311 Words | 6 Pages

Turner perpetuates anti-blackness in her own black community by directly dismissing one’s personality based on the color of their skin, worshipping whiteness as a god, and working to achieve a racial hierarchy based on Eurocentric standards of beauty. As off-season for harvesting has commenced, Janie and Tea Cake have decided to remain on their residence in the Muck during this time of year; thus, Janie has more leisure time. Mrs. Turner, a townswoman of the Muck, begins to speak with Janie in her home during their free time about Janie’s husband, Tea Cake, and urges her to marry her brother instead. Mrs. Turner “didn’t forgive [Janie] for marrying a man as dark as Tea Cake, but she felt that she could remedy that” (Hurston 140). Here, Mrs. Turner clearly reveals her colorism against dark-skinned members of her community.

Read More

Summary Of Revelation By Flannery O Connor

1094 Words | 5 Pages

Turpin goes through is her being conceited. Mrs. Turpin feels that she is in and upper class and should be before everyone. She is not conceited about her looks or the amount of possessions or money but instead the way she thinks she is classed by Jesus. She sees in her vision that every other person is ascending to heaven before her including as she said “the niggers,” and the “white trash” people. When Mrs. Turpin sees this she thinks about how Jesus treats everyone equal and there are no classifications on people.

Read More

A Good Man Is Hard To Find The Grandmother Character Analysis

1165 Words | 5 Pages

Both ladies can be considered racists in many parts of both stories. During “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother sees a young boy out the window and describes him as a “cute little pickaninny” (pg.405) and insists that if she could paint she would paint a picture of him. Mrs. Turpin in revelation uses similar language but more vial profound language when speaking to and about her colored workers and other colored and white trash people around

Read More

Gender Roles In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

633 Words | 3 Pages

In Janie’s third marriage with Tea Cake, they encounter a white racist woman named Mrs. Turner. She is comfortable talking to Janie because she is part white and wants to bring her from the dark side to that of the light. One of her beliefs is that “it’s too may black folks already. We oughta lighten up the race” (Hurston 140).

Read More

Literary Analysis: Flannery O Connor

1068 Words | 5 Pages

Literary Analysis ENG2106 Student name: Li Michaela Bernice Student ID: 4002551 Word count: Grace and sins Flannery O’Connor was a Southern author from America who frequently wrote in a Southern Gothic style and depended vigorously on local settings and bizarre characters. Her works likewise mirrored her Roman Catholic faith and regularly examined questions of morality and ethics. She created violence in the end of both “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge” to put the stories to the end. She asserted that she has found that violence is strangely capable of returning her characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace, and also violence is the extreme situation that best reveals who

Read More

Mrs. Turpin: The Insecure Southern Belle

850 Words | 4 Pages

Mrs. Turpin uses her neat and tidy social hierarchy to comfort herself. What is she without the titles that southern society lends to its citizens? She does not know. After the teenager attacks her, she wrestles with herself and even with God on the subject of her identity. Mrs. Turpin does not know how to deal with the loss of here social structure.

Read More

Racism Exposed In Octavia E. Butler's Kindred

670 Words | 3 Pages

Dana goes back in time during the slave days where racism was very common, and this piece of evidence shows how rude people of color were treated. Butler draws on that experience to convey the universal theme that racism happened frequently in the past, but it’s still occurring today. Through this novel, Butler speaks to the reader with the message that racism is something that continues, and will keep on continuing for a long time. The words“ job and white” show a negative connotation, and implies that people of color did not have very pleasant lives before. Dana experienced time traveling to the past, which lead to an external conflict of dealing with racism and slavery.

Read More

Gender Roles In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

1288 Words | 6 Pages

Her tragedy reflects not only the sexism in the African American families in early 20th century, but also the uselessness

Read More

Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry

1387 Words | 6 Pages

(Chapter 4, pg. 99 Taylor, Mildred) As stated in the quote this shows the social circumstances of the whites that even though they don’t know if all blacks are bad, dirty, or objectified they chose to assume that they are so that they don’t respect them just because they aren’t the same skin

Read More

Hilly Holbrook In The Help

589 Words | 3 Pages

(Stockett 10) ’” This is proof that Ms. Hilly sees the colored community as something foreign. She feels that they are a danger to her town, and doesn’t even treat them with any level of respect; as if the colored help is beneath her.

Read More

The Little Widow From The Capital Sparknotes

920 Words | 4 Pages

They have accepted the white man's burden, convinced themselves she needed a subletter and graciously found her one. They assumed she did not come from money, or have much value herself. Because after the great kindness they had shown her of course she should “mutter only quiet thank yous.” (Delgado,

Read More

Theme Of Racism In Toni Morrison's Sula

1194 Words | 5 Pages

The discrimination against the white race begins with a gradual distinct treatment of the African Americans who appear to have a trace of the white race. Helene proves to have a more formal dialect as she asks for “the bathroom” (23) and the black woman cannot understand until Helene finally refers to it as “the toilet” (23). The difference in word choice distinct Helene from the African Americans in the Bottom. The fact that Helene also has fairer skin than the African Americans gives the black woman a reason to believe Helene has a trace of white. Therefore, when Helene approaches the black woman on the train, “[the woman fastens her eyes]…on the thick velvet, the fair skin, [and] the high tone voice” (23), as if surprised and shocked to see an African American women appear in such a manner.

Read More

Racism And Violence In Richard Wright's Black Boy

671 Words | 3 Pages

The story represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally, even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect or with fellow blacks. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. “It might have been that my tardiness in learning to sense white people as "white" people came from the fact that many of my relatives were "white"-looking people. My grandmother, who was white as any "white" person, had never looked "white" to me” (Wright 23).

Read More

Social Stratification In The Movie The Help

610 Words | 3 Pages

Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

Read More

More about Ironic Elements In Flannery O Connor's Essay

Related Topics

Open Document