The Displaced Person

I thought this piece was really interesting and it seemed to tie together a lot of the themes that we have talked about throughout the semester. It also encorporated a religious aspect that we had yet to see in our readings. It was really interesting to find out that Flannery O'Connor was a woman because I had assumed the author was a man. In the other pieces that we have read so far that have been written by women, it was much clearer because many of the main characters were women, strong, independent women, who varied from their element and gender roles. It was really the first time that women really had personality. But O'Connor was focused on other themes such as religion. Although I found it hard to decipher the religious symbols that she used. For example, the peacock, O'Connor wrote about it in a way that I knew it was important I just found it hard to figure out what it was supposed to represent. The same was true for Mrs. Shortley's visions, I had a hard time understanding what she was seeing and why it was important. At the end though, it was easy to draw the parallels between the Displaced Person and Jesus. A lot of the time Mrs. Shortley appears to be quite a hypocrite because in one breath she is praising God and in the next she is cursing blacks. This two attitudes do not seem to go hand in hand. Once again it is a view of the life and culture at the time.
In many of the stories that we read at the beginning of the semester that dealt with slavery, the slaves were viewed as being animals. If you were black, you were not considered to be human. This same type of racism was expressed toward to the Displaced Person, not because he was black but because he was foreign. The same root of racism was in both though. Slaves were different because of their skin color and language. Polish immigrants had the same white skin color but they spoke differently and had a culture that was foreign to Americans. Both were not understood.
I found it interesting that in the end Mrs. McIntyre chose to keep the black workers over keeping the Displaced Person despite the drastic difference in the profit she would receive. We see that like adjusting from the Old South life to the New South, people are still afraid of change. Despite seeing blacks as inferior and unequal in all aspects, they were part of Southern life, something Southern whites were used to. Immigrants were different and not part of the life they were used to.
The importance of obeying racial boundary lines was also emphasized, just like it was in "Desiree's Baby." Mixing of races was against all cultural and social rules. Mrs. McIntyre almost has a panic attack when she realizes the Displaced Person wants his white cousin to marry one of the black workers. She can't explain why it is so wrong and not allowed, she is just adamant that it can't be done. Chopin had this same problem with her characters and marry across class lines. There was no real reason why it was so unacceptable or couldn't be done, it just couldn't. These are social rules they were socialized with, not something they ever questioned. They just did it. I think the Displaced Person was the first character we ahve read about that openly questioned this aspect of Southern life.
Once again we also see the importance of home. Mrs. McIntrye does all she can to save her home and her land. The Displaced Person did not have a home. This was just another way to make him different. This was another issue that seemed to be two-sided though. The Shortley's were living on Mrs. McIntyre's land and when they decided to quit, they too were displaced and without a home but this was overlooked.