How are the Characters Different and Come Together

 

    The character of O. E. Parker, in Flannery O'Connor's story, "Parker's Back," is very distinct and in some ways the same as the charters of the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin. In the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother, considers herself to be a lady and that times are changing and there is becoming less and less good people. In the story, "Revelation," Mrs. Turpin is a lady who believes she is better than other people and tends to judge them. Parker is the opposite of them, he is what they might think of as trash or that he is from a lower social class than them. All three of them however share the fact that they all have a revelation. It is important to show how the grandma and Mrs. Turpin are different from Parker.

    Parker has many distinct qualities that make him different from the grandma and Mrs. Turpin. The grandmother and Mrs. Turpin are from a higher social class and Parker is considered to be in the lower social class. The grandmother and Mrs. Turpin are judgmental and tend to believe that they are some what better than other people. Parker instead is someone that they might judge, because his body is filled with tattoos. The grandmother and Mrs. Turpin believe in God and religion, and Parker does not. But, religion is what brings these characters together and connects them.

    How these characters come together is through the fact that they all have revelations. Also, even though Parker is from a lower social class, he still tends to judge people and make assumptions about them. Parker obviously does not believe in God or religion, but his wife however does. Sarah Ruth, states that God will look down on him because of his tattoos. Parker grows very irritated and frustrated with her. Parker believes that tattoos help him deal with his frustration. He only gets tattoos on the front of his body, because he wants to be able to look at them. But, when he runs out of room, his frustration with Sarah Ruth grows even bigger. He decides that to deal with this he needs to get another tattoo that she will enjoy, on his back. While he was working, he wrecked the tractor he was on and it caught on fire, this is when his revelation starts to happen. He decides right then and there to go get his tattoo on his back. He picks out the picture of the Byzantine Christ, he heard a voice that told him to stop and go back. It is almost like Jesus had told him to pick this picture. Parker believes that Sarah Ruth will be amazed by his tattoo and will like it. After, Parker's tattoo is finished he does not want to even look at it, and some what wants to deny that he ever got it. On his way home Parker sat in an alley examining his self and he finally realized that he now believes in God. When Parker gets home and shows his tattoo to Sarah Ruth, she gets very upset with him and says that he is an idolater and she beats him. This is what connects him to the other characters because, even though they see things clearly in the end and realize the true meaning of religion and faith, they still get punished. The fact that Parker is completely opposite from the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin does not matter; really they are all the same, because they all did not know the true meaning of faith in the beginning and realized it in the end. .

Word Count 623

Reflection Oct. 24

    Today I am reflecting on Halloween. I can not wait for next weekend because I am going to a Halloween party with my boyfriend and we are dressing up as gangsters. Every one I know is dressing up for the party. His middle brother and his wife are dressing up as pirates and his youngest bother and his girlfriend are dressing up as baseball players. I am so excited for this party because, I have not been to a Halloween party in forever it seems like. My boyfriend's uncle's band is playing and there is going to be contest for the scariest, most creative, and best overall costumes. I doubt I will win anything, because I just went to the store and bought a costume, instead of trying to create my own. But, I can not wait to see what all costumes people are wearing. We bought so much stuff to decorate for the party, like fog machines so the house will be foggy, banners, extra, the whole works. Also, two houses down there is a haunted house. These people make a haunted maze in their backyard every year to make money. It supposed to be scary; my boyfriend went through it and says it is pretty good, so we will probably go through it before we go to the party. I think that this Halloween is going to be great and one to remember. I hope it is a lot of fun and I can not wait for next week to write a blog about what went on at the party and Halloween night.

Word Count 265

Reflection Oct. 22

    My reflection today is about how people's dogs seem to reflect their owner's personalities. I was at the vet the other day and realized that the dogs in some way really represented what kind of person the owner was. The first person and dog, that I realized was like this was this big guy who seemed to work out a lot. I did not talk to the owner, but his dog was an English bulldog. They both had broad shoulders. The dog seemed like all he was thinking about was running and playing fetch, as the owner seemed like all he could think about was working out. At first I thought this assumption might have been a coincidence, but then I saw a teenage girl and her miniature poodle. The girl seemed very prissy, and very in to herself. Of course I know it is bad of me to say things like that about her because I do not know her, but this was just the impression that I got. She was all made up, as if going to the vet were a fashion show. Her dog had that kind of attitude to. The dog would not sit in the floor, it either had to sit beside her in the chair or the girl had to hold her. The dog's fur was very clean and white; it looked like the dog was rarely outside. What was crazy is that I over heard the girl talking to the receptionist and the reason they were there is so that the dog could get groomed. The girl told the receptionist that she would pick up her dog after her massage appointment. I was laughing in my head because the dog gets pampered to while the owner gets pampered as well. This is when I really started thinking that dogs are seriously like their owners. The next dog and owner I saw was and older gentle man and his dog that was a basset hound. The man looked around the age of about seventy and the dog looked pretty old as well, because he had grey fur. The two of them walked in real slowly together and they both slowly sat down. The man did not really talk to anyone and seemed to be observing the other people. The dog did the same, he did not get up to go see the other dogs, and instead he just laid there watching the other dogs bark at one another. Then I started looking at my dog and I realized that my miniature dachshund, Missy. I realized, like my self she is interested in what everyone else is doing, but sometimes just wants to be alone and not bothered. Also, she can not stand the fact that our other two dogs get attention. I was like that with my brother when I was little; I hated it when my parents paid attention to him and not me. I guess this means that the saying that a dog is a man's best friend is true, because the dogs since how their owners act and learn to act the same way.

Word Count 525

Reflection Oct. 20

    My reflection today is about my service hours for my special education class. I have to earn only five hours of service to people with special needs. I have not decided what I might do for these hours yet. The reason I have not done it yet is because, even though I am excited, I am also very nervous to do it. I have been around people with special needs, but I have never had a whole lot of interaction with them. I am scared that I might do something wrong. But, I also know that other students might feel the same way, and that the people who direct these events understand that some of us might be nervous. With that said I feel some what reassured that everything will be okay. I know that I will enjoy working with special needs people and that I will learn a lot. I am becoming a dental hygienist, and therefore this experience will help me to understand how to deal with patients who have special needs. It is getting closer and closer to the end of the semester and I need to figure out what I might do for my volunteer hours. I keep delaying it, because of all the other school work I have and also because I work part time. I need to stop procrastinating and get it done. I really hope that these hours will be a great way to learn and get to know how to interact with people who have special needs.

Word Count 255

Reflection Oct. 16

    My reflection today is about my grades. I am so nervous about my grades this semester. I am trying to get into UT, so I can become a dental hygienist, but they only accept thirty four people a year. Therefore, it is very competitive. I also, just found out that if I retake a class UT will not take the better grade and instead they just average them. So, now I am really scared, because I am afraid that my grades will not be enough. I only have a 3.0 GPA, therefore I have to get a B or better in all of my classes. And I know that there is tons of people trying to get into UT. So, it is not just based on grades it is also based on who you know as well. I have tried to shadow at my dentist's office, but it is really hard to get hours between school work and my job at Schnucks. Plus, I am under pressure about my grades and if they will be good enough. I really hope I can succeed in my grades and be able to go to UT. If I do not get accepted I do not know what I will do because, even if I retake a class again to try to get a better grade it will not help that much because, they will just average it. I want to get accepted the first time, because I will feel like a failure if I do not. I am really hoping to increase my GPA over the next year to a 3.5, even know it says they accept as low as a 2.75 GPA, I need to make sure that I am the best of the best. I am stressed out, I think I just need to take a deep breath and relax, because I know that it will all work out in the end.

Word Count 321

Reflection Oct. 15

    I love to go walking especially in the fall that is why my reflection today is about me and my boyfriend's mom walking in the park today. Her and I always walk together and also, go to the same gym together as well. We were going to go work out at the gym, but since it was such a nice day outside we decided to go walking at the park by the house. This park is one of my favorite parks to walk at because it has lots of trees and also a small pound where you can see a lot of ducks and geese. Also, the walking path goes all around the park, and there are such cute little houses all around the park. Anyways, the reason why I decided to write about this particular time is because, we saw a lot of different characters there.

There were a lot of people at the park that day, I guess because it was such a nice day. We passed a lot of people on the walking path; of course you have to say hello and wave because, that is what people do in Bartlett. The people we passed were of all different shapes and sizes. There were very young people walking to very old people walking. The whole time while we were walking our attention was kept the entire time because of all the different types of people we saw. The first group we saw was a bunch of preteens, dressed up as witches. We could not figure out what exactly they were doing but, they had a whole bunch of balloons and they were playing some type of game. The next people we saw were little kids, I guess they were around the ages of five and seven. Their parents were with them and they helping them feed the ducks at the pound. Also, while we were walking we heard some one playing the bag pipes. He was an older gentleman probably around seventy, he sounded very good on them and I am sure it is a hard instrument to play. When we passed him on the path he said he was getting tired and we told him that he was great and we enjoyed his music. And last but not least we passed what looked like a class from a school on a field trip. They were by the jungle gym and the tennis courts. They were all dressed up in different Halloween costumes. They were all so cute. The characters were, Indiana Jones, Snow White, a Ninja, Star Wars characters, and also one of them was dressed up as a teddy bear. They were all playing and were having so much fun, I could remember back when I was that age and Halloween meant so much to me. The walk was very enjoyable that day because, of all the fall activities going on. We enjoyed our walk at the park very much.

Word Count 495

Reflection Tuesday Oct. 13th

    I want to reflect on peer reviewing. Our class peer reviewed today in class and I believe it helped my paper a lot. I also got an outsiders point of view on the paper and they opened my eyes to new ideas about the stories we were writing about as well. My group all chose different topics therefore; it gave us a chance to see how our other peers thought about these stories. I felt like my peers did a very good job on his or her papers. Their views on my paper helped me see mistakes that I did not catch before while I was reviewing my own paper. They gave me great ideas in which to change my paper to make it stronger and easier to understand. It was a good way to get advice on the paper before you have to turn it in. I learned a lot about my paper and how the audience would think of my paper. I know that peer reviewing open my eyes and ideas about my paper. It was a great learning experience and I hope that we continue to keep on peer reviewing because it teaches people a lot about his or her paper.

Word Count 207