Parker's Back By Flannery O'connor example essay topic

The Facade of Tattoos In 'Parker's Back' by Flannery O'Connor, the tattoos O.E. Parker receives are crucial to the reader's understanding of him. Furthermore, O'Connor suggests them as major symbols throughout Parker's life. Parker, the main character in this story, goes through the actions of life without really knowing who he is and why he is on the earth. "Parker gradually experiences religious conversion and, though tattooed all over the front of his body, is drawn to having a Byzantine tattoo of Christ placed on his back...

, O'Connor was using unusual symbols to convey her sense of the mystery of God's redemptive power (Shackelford, p 1800)". Because of the tattoos, the reader is able to see O'Connor reveal the major characteristics in Parker's life and sympathize with this man as he searches for his identity and finds God. First of all, in order to understand O'Connor's short story, the reader must look into the background of her life. "Parker's Back" was the last story written by O'Connor before she died at the early age of thirty-nine from the disease of Lupus. Her writings all reflect from her religious background of Catholicism. "O'Connor wrote brilliant stories that brought the issue of religious faith into clear dramatic focus.

She was a devout Roman Catholic living in predominantly Protestant rural Georgia. Her stories are far from pious; in fact, their mode is usually shocking and often bizarre. Yet the religious issues they raise are central to her work (Drake, online vertical file "Time and again in her stories, the spokesmen for a self-satisfied secularism run afoul of representatives of... the God-haunted protagonists... they play an indispensable role... they act as spiritual catalysts... (CLC, p 276... )."To even the casual reader it would appear that Miss O'Connor really had only one story to tell and really only one main character. This principal character is, of course, Jesus Christ; and her one story is man's absolutely crucial encounter with Him (Drake, p 273)".

Being a devout Catholic, O'Connor's "faith consciously informed her fiction. The difficulty of her work, she explained... is that many of her readers do not understand the redemptive quality of 'grace,' and, she added, 'don't recognize it when they see it. All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it... (Bucknell p, 1769)".

Likewise, in "Parker's Back", O'Connor uses the protagonist, O.E. Parker to tell her story. Parker's obsession with tattoos begins when he is fourteen and sees a circus performer tattooed from head to foot. "O'Connor emphasizes-rather heavily... the turning point the experience at the county fair representing Parker's destiny... the reader is clearly 'programmed' to see it not only as the beginning of a new life of 'unease' and unrest, but also as a prefiguration of Parker's later conversion (Bleikasten p 368)."Parker had never before felt the least motion of wonder in himself. Until he saw the man at the fair, it did not enter his head that there was anything out of the ordinary about the fact that he existed... but a peculiar unease settled in him. It was as if a blind boy had been turned so gently in a different direction that he did not know his destination had been changed". This first tattoo of the eagle symbolizes pride, freedom, and power for Parker; he appears very sure of himself, and because of this, he comes across as conceited.

Parker thinks of himself as 'attractive,' whereas Sarah describes him as 'a heap of vanity'. Parker shows his pride in himself through his tattoos. 'He did not for a minute think' that any woman would not love to have him. His pride comes through when he points 'out especial details of' his tattoos to Sarah. One major example of Parker's pride is when he thinks he can 'please's sarah with his tattoo of Christ. Because Parker is so sure of himself, he does not stop to think that maybe Sarah did not want him to get another 'vanity of vanities'.

Moreover, Parker likes to think of himself as a freeman and able to do as he pleases. He thinks that at anytime he can choose to he 'would not return' to Sarah, yet 'every night he returned'. He shows his thoughts of having his own freedom by quitting school, just because 'he could,' drifting from job to job, and running from the Navy, just because he felt like it. If one of Parker's employers offended him, 'he would have left' and found a new job. This shows his thoughts of being a freeman lead him to have no responsibility and connect with his arrogant attitude. The eagle also suggests the symbolism of power.

Parker runs from all authority and religion to maintain absolute rule and power over his own life. When he 'didn't go back to the Navy but remained away without official leave,' he shows his power to make his own rules without regards to the rules the Navy has for him. He also thinks a man should never have to turn to religion. If 'a man can't save his self from whatever' his own problems are than he deserves no 'sympathy'.

Parker refuses religion in his own life also. 'I ain't got no use for none of [religion],' says Parker. He blocks out Sarah's talks of 'religious subjects' because if God were in his life, he would not be in absolute control of himself. "A character's desire to remain autonomous and in control of things prevents his surrender to the transcendent-to that which is greater than he, which is uncontrollable, which is, in the words of 'Parker's Back,' 'to be obeyed (CCL, p 158)".

O'Connor also uses a serpent to enhance the reader's thoughts of symbolism. "O'Connor has a deep sense of the Devil or rather of the multiplicity of devils... (Pritchett, p 268)". The serpent on Parker's arm represents his life as being full of sin and deceit.

The serpent also serves as a symbol of a Biblical allusion. O'Connor describes Parker's life as being full of sin. Parker's first tattoos encouraged him to 'drink beer and get in fights'. He also began to get girls 'who had never liked him before' because of these tattoos.

O'Connor shows Parker as quite popular among the men atthe local 'pool hall'. In fact, he hung out there quite 'frequently'. Parker describes himself as having 'had other woman'. He also tries to get Sarah to 'lie down together' before 'they were married'. Parker's life is a life full of deceit. Not only does he lie to others around him, but he also lies to himself.

His relationship with Sarah is one lie after another. In fact, the whole thing started out with a lie when Parker faked a 'hurt' hand, just to get a look at her. He continues to lie to Sarah after their marriage. One example of a continuing lie is the description of the 'old... dried up' woman he works for.

Instead of telling Sarah her true description, he tells her he works for a 'hefty young blonde' to try to make her jealous. He lies to himself when he hides behind the facade of his tattoos. 'Parker had never before felt the least motion of wonder in himself' to hide these feelings he copies someone he sees wonder in, the 'man at the fair'. Because he has no real courage or inner strength of his own, he must get tattoos to account for this. Also because he is unhappy with himself, he turns to getting tattoos as the answer. The symbol of Biblical allusion that deals with the serpent refers back to Adam and Eve, who walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden.

After a serpent deceived them, they became discontent with themselves and wanted to be just like God. Because their discontentment leads them to sin, they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Like Adam and Eve, Parker is discontent. He has 'dissatisfaction' with himself, his marriage, and his life in general. In an effort to fill the void, empty feeling of his 'huge dissatisfaction,' Parker would go get more and more tattoos placed on himself.

But the contentment he gained from these tattoos would wear off in only 'about a month,' and then 'he would go off and find another tattooist and have another space filled up'. "Sarah Ruth... spends most of her time telling him (Parker) 'what the judgment seat of God will be like for him if he doesn't change his ways (CLC, p 158)". Through the final tattoo, O'Connor wants the reader to see the effect that visions have on the character. "Parker escapes death and races off to have a picture of God tattooed on his back.

Using brilliant allegorical device, O'Connor lists the faces of God that Parker rejects: 'The Good Shepard, Forbid Them Not, The Smiling Jesus, Jesus the Physician's Friend. ' He must reject these 'up-to-date pictures' in favor of those which are 'less reassuring,' for the experience he has had has introduced him to an all-demanding God of power and might. When he finally selects the 'haloed head of a flat stern Byzantine Christ,' his choice reflects the nature of the profound change he has undergone (Tolomeo, p 276)". Finally, "The image of Christ on his back has literally the effect to of a sacrament; though it is a symbol, it acts on Parker as if it were Christ Himself (CLC, p 159)". The 'Christ with all-demanding eyes's ymbolizes the acknowledgment of a new 'instinct' of obedience.

For 'the eyes that were now forever on his back were eyes to be obeyed'. "They seem to urge him to 'Go Back,' yet his response is not on an intellectual level but on an intuitive or instinctive plane (Tolomeo, p 276)". Parker had never solely obeyed anyone: not his mother, not his wife, and not the Navy. He ran from things that required obedience. This tattoo made Parker realize that obedience to God was at hand and that Sarah Ruth had been right all along. He now understands what Sarah said, and he knew he would 'have to answer' to God at 'the judgment seat'.

Parker felt their penetration 'under their gaze' he was 'as transparent as the wing of a fly'. The eyes symbolize a seeing through of Parker's facade. No one besides Sarah had ever seen through him. By crying his real name 'Obadiah Elihue' he is seeing through the 'spider web of facts and lies' that he is all about. He is also realizing that there must be more to life than 'woman,' 'beer,' and most importantly 'tattoos.

' He becomes a new person 'a stranger to himself' in realizing this. Furthermore, he lies awake 'examining his soul'. He comes to the conclusion that 'he is certain of it as he had ever been of anything'. He is certain that he become a new man in spite of himself fighting it off all along. Parker experiences a Spiritual warfare and 'all at once he felt the light pouring through him, turning his spider web soul into a perfect arabesque of colors, a garden of trees and birds and beasts' -- "The symbol of divine grace (CLC, p 158)."When Parker tells her (Sarah) that the tattoo is a picture of God, she is outraged. 'Idolatry!'.

.. I can put up with lies and vanity but I don't want no idolater in this house!' She picks up a broom and proceeds to beat Parker on the back 'until she had nearly knocked him senseless and large welts had formed on the face of the tattooed Christ. ' In this image O'Connor graphically conveys the suffering of Christ incarnate in humanity, and expresses her belief that convergence with Christ means union with Christ's suffering, not escape from suffering into some abstract realm of spiritual bliss... emphasizing that the rising in consciousness that precedes true convergence is expressed not through external power or dominance over others but, paradoxically, in a descent into vulnerability, into suffering, into weakness, into man's essential poverty (CLC p 159)". It is in this last scene that the reader becomes sympathetic with Obadiah Elihue, having been driven out of the house by his harridan wife, "leaning against the tree, crying like a baby". Through the descriptions of Parker's tattoos, one can make connections between the 'pictures' he has 'drawn all over him' and what goes on in his actual life. O'Connor uses the tattoo symbols to reveal the growth of the protagonist, for it takes him years to get past his outer image of his body, to examine his own soul.

One begins to sympathize with this man, 'Obadiah Elihue,' as he searches for himself and finds peace with God.