I found this story to be rather odd. When reading it it definitely makes you think, OK what the heck? Here is this man named Mr. Shiftlet who just one day comes to this little farm house where a mother and daughter live. Both of whom are named Lucynell. So this man just walks right up to them and starts talking about rather disturbing subjects. Mr. Shiftlet came out of nowhere and starts talking about a doctor who took out a man's heart. Personally if a man randomly appeared on my front porch and this was one of the first things he said to me, I'd be a little creeped out. But not this lady! What does she do? She invites him to live with her! What the heck! First of all she hasn't even know the guy for more than ten minutes and he is a major creeper. He even said to her,
"I can tell you my name is Tom T. Shiftlet and I come from Tarwater, Tennessee, but you never have seen me before: how you know I ain't lying? How you know my name ain't Aaron Sparks, lady, and I come from Singleberry, Georgia, or how you know it's not George Speeds and I come from Lucy, Alabam, or how you know I ain't Thompson Bright from Toolafalls, Mississippi?"
If someone said something like this to me, he would be literally kicked off my property. This guy does not seem like he should be trusted. Then not only does Lucynell let Mr. Shiftlet live on her property, she practically forces him to marry her daughter. I admit he did do some stuff to help out around the house but I believe it was all a set up. He had his eye on the car from the very beginning. I don't know exactly how, but I do think this some how relates to the bible. There are many times in the story in which the author refers to the bible. Including, the fact that he was a carpenter like Jesus, how he taught Lucynell to talk even though she is deaf, how he said, "My mother was a angel of Gawd", and how when he leaves Lucynell at the diner, the name of the diner was The Hot Spot.
I don't know exactly what it was but some how I want to believe that this relates to characters and stories from the Bible.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree, Kelsey: Lucynell Sr.'s responses were pretty strange. There's even the strangely ironic line at the beginning of the story that mentions how she saw he was just a tramp and nothing to be afraid of. It makes you wonder what her motivation was. Maybe she wanted, at some level, to be free of the burden of her daughter.
Good call on the biblical allusions. O'Connor was very devout, and her Catholicism definitely figures into her writing.
Post a Comment