The Displaced Person Essay Research Paper Flannery

The Displaced Person Essay, Research Paper

Flannery O’Conner has again provided her audience a carefully woven tale with fascinating and intricate characters. “The Displaced Person” introduces the reader to some interesting characters who experience major life changes in front of the reader’s eyes. The reader ventures into the minds of two of the more complex characters in “The Displaced Person,” Mrs. McIntyre and Mrs. Shortley, and discovers an unwillingness to adapt to change. Furthermore, the intricate details of their characters are revealed throughout the story. Through these details, the reader can see that both Mrs. McIntyre and Mrs. Shortley suffer from a lack of spiritual dimension that hinders them as they face some of life’s harsher realities. Mrs. McIntyre struggles throughout the story, most notably during the tragic conclusion. Her lack of spiritual dimension is revealed slowly until we ultimately see how her life is devastated because of it. Mrs. Shortley, on the other hand, seems to have it all figured out spiritually – or at least she believes that she does. It is only in the last few minutes of her life that she realizes all she has convinced herself of is wrong.

Mrs. McIntyre is a divorced and widowed woman who has learned to depend only on her own strength during the day to day operating of her farm. She has created a comfortable world to exist in, and she fears change in that world. Mrs. McIntyre’s lack of spiritual dimension stems from this constancy of her surroundings. She has never been challenged by her circumstances and was thus never forced to examine her spiritual beliefs and their depth. We can see her fear of change when she speaks of the peacocks. She if afraid to let them all die off because she does not want her dead husband to be upset with the change on his farm. Though he died many years ago and she had two husbands after him, Mrs. McIntyre still strives to keep things the way they were when the Judge was around.

Mrs. McIntyre allows the priest to have unwarranted control of her because of her desire to preserve her farm. This allows him to persuade Mrs. McIntyre to do the unthinkable. She hires Mr. Guizac, a displaced person. Nothing could have caused a bigger change on her farm. He and his family come from Poland and bring with him many different cultural ideas. Normally, Mrs. McIntyre would never have undertaken such a drastic change. But because the priest is able to convince her that it will be best for the farm, she concedes. Soon, he comes to visit her regularly, attempting to both convert her and persuade her to bring yet another Polish family onto her farm. Mrs. McIntyre, who has heretofore been dependent only on herself for survival, has now come to trust the priest and turns to him for advice. She seeks his council about what to do about the possibility of the Guizacs leaving her because she cannot pay them enough. He responds, “ ‘Arrrr, give them some morrre then. They have to get along.’ ” (219). Mrs. McIntyre follows his advice, betraying her only friend, Mrs. Shortley, as well as planning to fire the best family she has ever employed. She soon discovers what an awful mistake this was.

As these changing circumstances on her farm, especially the loss of Mrs. Shortley, challenge Mrs. McIntyre, her lack of spiritual dimension catches up with her. Mr. Shortley, her hired man, is able to see physical changes in her. She is getting thinner and more fidgety. Her lips would move when she was not talking. The text states, “She looked as if something was wearing her down from the inside” (245). She is having nightmares about the Displaced Person kicking her out of her own home. All these things occur because she is unable to cope with the realities of her changing circumstances alone. A stronger sense of spirituality, or at least a more diverse spiritual perspective, would have given her somewhere to turn. Because she hasn’t developed spiritually, she looks to the priest.

Mrs. McIntyre obviously feels a sense of obligation to the priest. She sees him as a good “Christian.” One of the main reasons for her feelings of obligation is the fact that she wants to prove that she, too, is a good “Christian.” Unfortunately, Mrs. McIntyre has a warped definition of this word. To her, a “Christian” is not a follower of Christ. It is instead a person who lives according to general standards of decency and morality. And, to a person who lacks dimension spiritually and is thus ignorant of any religious practices aside from what she knows, who would set the standards for morality? Obviously his or her priest would fulfill this role. So, because of her attempt to prove her spirituality to this man, Mrs. McIntyre experiences feelings of extreme guilt when she wishes to fire the man who the priest worked to bring to her. This is clearly demonstrated in her dreams of the priest and his attempts persuade her to keep the Displaced Person. The priest, in her dream, reminds Mrs. McIntyre of the presence of Christ her Lord and how she must not offend Christ. In response Mrs. McIntyre says, “ ‘There [is]…no Christ our Lord’ ” (246). This reveals a vain attempt to relieve her guilt. As a result of the guilt that consumes her even more intensely after Mr. Guizac’s tragic death, Mrs. McIntyre comes down with a “nervous affliction” (251). She dies, blind, mute, and utterly alone – except for the faithful priest who visits her once a w