An Analysis of the First Paragraph of O’Connor’s The Artificial Nigger

An Analysis of the First Paragraph of OConnors The Artificial Nigger ?In The Artificial Nigger, Flannery OConnor commingles property Christian imagery with themes evocative of her Southern setting. In this essay, a finish reading of the counterbalance paragraph of this humbug elucidates the subtle ways in which OConnor sets up these basic themes of redemption and forgiveness. An additional paragraph result examine the ramifications of this reading on the intertwined racial aspects of the tommyrot, which atomic number 18 connected by a common theme of headwaiter/servant imagery, which is integral to the first paragraph. In this story, the key character is named Mr. Head, which immediately signals to the reader that this character is apocalyptic of rationality and perhaps especially felicitate (as in the expression having a big head). This is appropriate given that Mr. Heads qualify throughout the story will emphatically revolve around his ghostly and Christian-orient ed awareness of the p lightsomeness of man and the problem of pridefulness. Mr. Head awakens (indeed, the whole story regards his awakening) in the night to a room full of moonlight. From the very beginning, elements of light and dark are vying in the storys background, and in this case, it is a light that shines through the darkness. OConnor, through the uses of dashes, alerts the reader to the moonlight existence the color of silver, the first of many silver/gray references throughout the story. It is hard not to equate this references to the thirty pieces of silver that Judas received for betraying Jesus. Such a reference is consistent with the storys themes of betrayal and forgiveness ( correct though Mr. Heads denial of his grandson Nelson is perhaps more reminiscent of Pete... ...nship in the midst of blacks and exsanguinouss exist without such interchangeability. Such a reading suggests that African Americans are often the vehicle through which Southerners experience pow erful lessons of hatred (as in Nelsons first experience with the black man on the train), pride (when Nelson witnesses his grandfathers witty rejoinder to the stuffy black waiter), sex (Nelsons run-in with the black temptress in the Atlanta ghetto), and even redemption (as they witness the statue in the storys penultimate moment). No matter that Nelson has only recently learned what a nigger is, never mind that the statue itself is plaster and one eye is entirely white the overturning of the master/servant relationship is only possible when firmly on the white side of the segregated line this reality ensures that all the niggers in this story remainartificial.