... group two's analysis of Flannery O'Connor's short story.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Analysis of Plot Structure and Setting

Structure

The story is rather straightforward and chronological, The viewpoint is in third person, mostly following from the perspective of the grandmother,

Setting

From a couple of clues in the story I would say that the story is set some time during the 1940s or early 1950s. Considering that the story was published in 1955, the author was probably writing for the setting of her modern day.

Central Conflict

The central conflict in this story occurs near the end. Besides some foreshadowing throughout the story before the conflict occurs, the conflict and its outcome, is quite a surprise. On the surface it may appear that the conflict is mostly a physical one between the family members: June Star, John Wesley, Bailey, the mom and the grandmother and the trio of bloody criminals. In actuality though, the conflict is primarily emotional, though also physical, between the grandmother, who could be considered the protagonist of the story, and the escaped criminal convict dubbed the “Misfit” who could be considered to be the antagonist of the story.

Chance/Coincidence

The fact that the grandmother decides to bring Pitty Sing the Cat, for his own personal safety(so it won’t be “asphyxiated”) and that this same cat eventually causes the car accident is not only ironic, but not especially likely. The family happening to see someone on the abandoned dirt road, immediately proceeding said car wreck is even less likely. The chance of the people in the car coming to “help” them turning out to be the the Misfit with two other criminals named Hiram, and Bobby Lee, is EVEN less likely. I think though that these coincidences and unlikely happenings do not detract from the story in any way, in fact this story DEPENDS on them. Without coincidence playing a large part of this story, the story would be nothing more than an account of an average family’s road trip.

Rising action and Suspense

Besides the morbid foreshadowing in the first paragraph of the story, and the foreshadowing provided at Red Sammy’s through the conversation between Red’s wife, Red, and the grandmother. We as the reader are not especially worried for the family, the uneventful trip preceding the car wreck, and the somewhat humorous nature of the story so far gives you a sense of safety for these characters. Also, the characters are somewhat unlikeable, and so we are not especially worried for there lives. This does somewhat downplay the suspense to a certain extent. The first real action in this piece is the car wreck, it shocks the reader, at how quickly the happy family vacation has turned into something more horrible. We still feel a safety for the family, because no one is hurt, and there still a large element of humor present. The children June and John are in a “frenzy of delight”, and they run around happily screaming, “We've had an ACCIDENT!”, they are also disappointed that no one was killed. The grandmother “curled up under the dashboard" hopes she is injured, "so that Bailey's wrath would not come down on her all at once.” And this whole situation is actually due to a somewhat humorous lapse of memory, where she realizes that the plantation they were heading to is not even in Georgia but actually in Tennessee. All of these things down play the accident, and give the reader a sense of security for these characters. It is not until the Misfit shows up, and we see the elements of foreshadowing fulfilled and we begin to worry for their lives, that the first real suspense and action appear. Bailey begins to realize that they are not going to be helped by these individuals, and John Wesley notices that they have guns. As we begin to see the emotional disintegration of the family, the suspense begins to build. The reader soon realizes that all the family is probably going to die. First Bailey and little John Wesley are led off, and the reader wonders what is going to happen to them, until we hear the two shots that clue us to their deaths. Then the mother, her baby, and little June Star are led off and presumably shot. Now all that is left of this unhappy family is the grandmother. She pleads for her life to the Misfit, telling him to "pray" and telling if he would that "Jesus would help you". This is very suspenseful because of the emotional tenseness, and the fact that the grandmothers attempts seem to be having an affect on the Misfit. He says the he wished he had been their with Jesus, that it would have been different, if, "I had been their I would have known."

Climax

Finally the grandmother believing she has gotten to the Misfit, and that he will surely spare her life, in a burst of sensitivity and unselfishness she says, "Why you are one of my babies. You're one of my own children!", whilst touching the Misfit on the shoulder. This causes the Misfit to spring "back as if a snake had bitten him" and shoot her "three times through the chest". This is the most suspenseful part of the story and also the highest point of action, suspenseful , emotionally, physically and the highest point of physical action and violence, the climax as the character we have followed the whole story, the grandmother, is brutally murdered by the Misfit.


Falling action

Now, after the death of the family, we see Misfit and the two other criminals come back together, after disposing of the bodies. The Misfit states that the grandmother, "would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life"After a short conversation between Bobby Lee and the Misfit where Bobby states that killing is fun and the Misfit replies, contradicting himself from earlier in the story, that it “is no pleasure in life”, the story ends. The author wants to show the changes first in the grandmother, and also in the Misfit because of their dialogue, the grandmother, right before her death, showed some true unselfish sensitivity to the Misfit before he shot her. The Misfit now realizes that killing is not as fun as he stated earlier when he said that there is, "No pleasure but meanness".

2 comments:

Debra Bell said...

Nick

The best part of your recap is the analysis of the rising action and suspense. Here you seem to think more deeply about the meaning of the story and why O'Connor has included the plot elements she does. You do a good job of noticing all the coincidences in the story, but don't quite get why they are there. It's an important element. What do you think O'Connor is showing here?

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