ipl-logo

Temple Of The Holy Ghost By Flannery O Connor

920 Words4 Pages

In Flannery O’Connor's short story, “The Temple of the Holy Ghost,” the main character, a young girl referred to only as “the child,” comes to a realization about herself by the story's end. Throughout the story, the child is fascinated by the carnival freaks, particularly the two-headed boy and the hermaphrodite. She views them as extraordinary and even admires their unique physical characteristics. However, as the story progresses and the child is confronted with the reality of their existence, she begins to understand the beauty and value of her own body. This realization is related to the sacrament of the Eucharist, which represents the body and blood of Christ.
At the beginning of the story, the child is captivated by the carnival and …show more content…

The Eucharist represents the body and blood of Christ, which are considered holy and sacred. Through the Eucharist, Catholics are reminded of the sanctity of their own bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit. In the story, the child's realization about the value of her own body mirrors the Catholic belief in the sanctity of the body.In the story O’connor states "It was hard to believe that she had a soul to save, and easy to see that she had a body that could put on weight(O’connor)." This quote touches on the idea that the body is temporary and that the soul is what is truly important. This is a central idea of the Christian faith and is related to the idea of receiving the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.The child's new respect for her body is a realization that her body is not something to be ashamed of or to envy, but rather something to be cherished and respected. O’connor states "She had always thought a body was a terrible burden anyway, subject to sickness and death and deformity(O’connor)." This quote shows the Christian idea that the body is imperfect and temporary, and that the soul is what truly matters. The Eucharist is seen as a way of transcending the limitations of the body and connecting with the …show more content…

Throughout the story, the child undergoes a transformation from a naive and curious girl to a more mature and self-aware individual. At the beginning of the story, the child is fascinated by the carnival performers and their unique physical characteristics. She is curious and eager to see more in the text it states "Her curiosity had always been too much for her (O’connor)." This quote suggests that the narrator has always had a strong sense of curiosity that has led her to explore new ideas and experiences. However, as the story progresses, she begins to see the reality of their existence and recognizes the pain and suffering that they endure. This realization leads to her own transformation, as she begins to see the beauty and value of her own body. In the text it states "She had never thought of herself as like one of these creatures but now she saw that she was, that they were all trapped, as she was, in the gray light of whatever they thought they knew(O’Connor)." in this quote she comes to realize that she is no different from them. Despite their physical deformities and abnormalities, they are all trapped by their limited knowledge and understanding of the world. The "gray light" represents a sense of confusion or uncertainty, and suggests that the characters in the story are all searching for meaning and purpose in a world that can seem dark and confusing at

Show More
Related
713 Words | 3 Pages

The book Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay follows the journey of a Filipino-American teenager named Jay as he tries to find out the truth about his cousin's death in the Philippines. Through Jay's perspective, the reader witnesses the social injustice that exists within the country. Jay's cousin, Jun, experienced these injustices firsthand, and through Jay, the reader can see the impact of social injustice in the Philippines. People struggling with drugs and poverty in the Philippines face social injustice daily by being criminalized by society.

Read More
486 Words | 2 Pages

There is often a time in Asian Americans’ lives when they experience a cultural disconnect: being too “White” for their Asian relatives, yet too “Asian” for their White peers. These feelings are true for Jay Reguero, the protagonist of Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay. Throughout the novel, Jay, a Filipino-American, struggles with feeling like an outsider in the Philippines because he cannot speak his mother tongue and has spent his entire life in the U.S. During his time in the Philippines, he attempts to connect with his culture but he is constantly reminded of how little he knows and understands about the Philippines. Therefore, this novel is about Jay’s struggle with his cultural identity and his feelings of guilt from not connecting

Read More
623 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever heard of the term "assimilation"? Many children of immigrants have experienced some form of assimilation of their culture, whether it be not knowing their mother tongue or having little knowledge of their home country's history. These skills and knowledge are beneficial to understanding our own cultural identity, without it we find it difficult to grasp our self-identity. Our values and beliefs are set by our identity because it is where we find our fundamentals in societal roles. Our emotions can also impact our identity, since how we feel makes us unique to other species.

Read More
194 Words | 1 Pages

Have you ever thought about how difficult it might be to go into a different country knowing absolutely nothing, not even language, and something horrific happened to you or anyone in your family?  Don’t you think you would feel so powerless, so helpless, so clueless? This happens commonly and it has never had any attention brought to it, at least not until 1998. Anne Fadiman wrote a book entitled, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This demonstrated a collision of two complete opposite cultures, but they both have the same goal to help the child get better.

Read More
1065 Words | 5 Pages

The Perseverance of Louie Zamperini Acclaimed writer, Laura Hillenbrand, in her biography, Unbroken, provides an elegantly written account of the amazing events that occurred in Louie Zamperini's life. Writing to an audience of readers who may know little about his life, Hillenbrand offers a tribute to Louie and the immense strength he had, revealing the power of positivity and perseverance. She creates an interesting mood change in a scene where both men are slowly dying in order to express to us readers that Louie survived because he wouldn't allow himself think otherwise. While telling us of a true event, she achieves her purpose by painting clear images complemented with rich diction; by deliberately using contrasting moods; and by creating

Read More
497 Words | 2 Pages

This excerpt I read is powerful,has strong meaning to it,and should persuades you to feel a type of way about it because it makes you feel that your inside the story. This piece is called “Sinner in the hand of an Angry God”,by Jonathan Edwards. The central idea is that God is furious about all the bad people of their sins because you shouldnt ever sin. First the excerpt that Jonathan Edwards wrote is “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God.”Mr. Edwards is an American Christian theologian.

Read More
1189 Words | 5 Pages

The term “melting pot” has been used since the early 1900s, and it means a place where people, ideas, theories, cultures, etc. are mixed together. Although this may seem like a harmless thing, the idea that one must give up part of their culture to obtain parts of a new one undermines the importance of cultures in one’s life. In chapter 14 “The Melting Pot” of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman shows the challenges and hardships that Hmong immigrants faced when immigrating to America to show the power that an environment has on a person’s connection to their culture, and the impact that people have on the culture of the society they are entering Fadamin provides examples of the action of Americans towards to Hmong people

Read More
1097 Words | 5 Pages

An Italian housewife’s husband was suffering from the plague. Her sister had sent her a piece of bread that had touch the body of a saint, so this was an important relic for the Catholic family. As a Catholic, like the majority of Italy, she fed the relic, believing it had the capability of saving her husband. Once he was cured, she believed it was the relic to have saved him, and wanted others to know that this is what saved her husband, and could possibly save all of Europe. (Doc 7)

Read More
874 Words | 4 Pages

“A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order.” For Jeannette in The Glass Castle, this border defines her childhood and how she and her siblings were raised by their parents. Growing up, the Wall's children quickly learned to rely on each other for support and protection, caused by the careless and destructive behaviors of their parents, Rex and Rosemary. Both were creative and intelligent parents who eventually followed their children into their new lives. In the novel, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the success that she creates for herself is heavily impacted by Rex and Rosemary’s parenting styles.

Read More
656 Words | 3 Pages

Caroline Bynum’s “Fragmentation and Redemption” essay argues that the human body is integral to identity and survival in medieval and modern discussions. She aimed to clarify these similarities by drawing parallels onto concepts like teletransportation, body/brain transplants and theories of theologians and philosophers. Although Bynum presents ample evidence when talking about medieval discussions, this critique will argue that she does not however go in depth when she addresses the concepts in modern discussions. As a result, the readers are left with an imbalanced and fragmented analysis.

Read More
221 Words | 1 Pages

"Cathedral" is a short story written by Raymond Carver and is narrated from a first-person point of view and this short story shows how the narrator’s perspective on life get affected by a blind man’s visit. The unnamed narrator appears cynical, close minded and he makes shallow remarks. His blindness with explaining the cathedral, comes into light when he starts viewing cathedral with Robert and turn towards and become more aware. In ‘The Black Cat’ Poe uses first person point of view.

Read More
1143 Words | 5 Pages

But the temptation of wealth was not the only thing which was holding the Church back from true Christianity. The nun also had a phrase graven on the brooch, which translates to “love conquers all” (Coghill). Just like how the nun’s greatest oath was contradictory, her brooch contradicts the vows which she was to recite. Nuns are to keep a promise, to make a “vow of chastity” (Daily). This brooch says otherwise.

Read More
1079 Words | 5 Pages

The following passages and their following explanations are excerpted from Flannery O’Connor’s “A Temple of the Holy Ghost “. The excerpts are an attempt to summarize what I believe to be the significance of this short story. The significance then of these passages are the representation of the struggle that one faces between being a “good person” and just being naturally imperfect and often not realizing that it is our imperfections that do make us perfect. Through the mischievous behavior and thoughts of our main character in the story, we are shown that these imperfections cannot be ignored and in fact are given to us by the Holy Ghost himself. It is through the cousin’s visit that the narrator realizes that it is ok to imperfect and

Read More
151 Words | 1 Pages

To regain their innocence and immortality early Christians adopted the practice of nude baptism. By participating in this form of baptism, “Christ is here initiating you into the regeneration that comes from the water and the Spirit” (Jenson, 181). For some ancient writers,

Read More
1892 Words | 8 Pages

Marc Chagall never aligning himself with any single movement, but his influence is as vast as the number of styles he assimilated to create his work. Many of his peers pursued ambitious experiments that led often to abstraction, but Chagall’s distinction lies in his steady faith in power in figurative art, one that he maintained despite absorbing ideas from many different avant-garde movements. He is a prime example of a modern artist who mastered multiple media including oil painting, gouache painting, murals, watercolors, etching, ceramics, theater, drawing, stained-glass work and costume design. Marc Chagall was born on July, 7, 1887 to Feige-Ite and Khatskl Shagal in Liozna, near Vitebsk, in Russian Empire, today Belarus.

Read More

More about Temple Of The Holy Ghost By Flannery O Connor

Related Topics

Open Document