Thursday, February 23, 2012
"'She in camp three year,' he said.
'Your cousin,' she said in a positive voice, 'cannot come out here and marry one of my Negroes'" (314)
The story is rife with racism directed at nearly every character by Mrs. McIntyre. This moment struck me as interesting because it presented a predicament that I assume very few people in the south had to deal with. Reading literature of the American South, I've become used to the dividing line between blacks and whites and this sentence made me sit up and take notice but it also got me thinking.
What does this moment truly say about the racist attitudes of the characters? More importantly, what does it say about the moral attitudes of the characters? Mrs. McIntyre is not ignorant of the situation in Europe and the existence of concentration camps. If Mrs. Shortley was aware of them, it can be safely assumed that Mrs. McIntyre did as well. While it may be understandable that she rejected the notion of an interracial marriage, given the time period, the thing that struck me was that it didn't seem to really bother her that someone's life was on the line and this made me dislike her. Despite knowing his situation, she never fully accepts him either - always referring to him as the 'Displaced Person' or 'DP'.
What also surprised me, later on, was the attitude of Astor towards the Guizacs. As a person who, presumably, had to deal with intolerance and oppression his entire life, Astor seems remarkably callous towards the Guizacs. We later find out that it's because he makes them work too hard, but I would have expected Astor to empathise with Mr. Guizac.
Question: why do you think Astor played such a role in getting rid of the Guizacs? What does this say about attitudes towards racism?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
“’I am not responsible for the world’s misery,’ she said as an afterthought” (315).
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading this short story, looking for something to post about, I was constantly trying to convince myself to not post anything about the Holocaust for fear of running that thought into the ground; then I read this quote by Mrs. McIntyre. I was so taken aback by this statement that I had to set the course packet down; I was genuinely mad. For fear of writing this post out of anger, I then tried to find how this relates to the South. First off, this is such a self-centered sentiment that characterizes everything Mrs. McIntyre does in this novel. While admitting that she actually did like him, she marries the Judge for his money. She takes in refugees not because she wants to help, but because she wants workers who aren’t black. In this particular conversation, as the Pole is talking about his family’s experience in concentration camps, she shows no emotion; what doesn’t affect her is not her business. I took this as O’Conner’s commentary on one of the main problems of the South: egocentrism. Mrs. McIntyre could not go against her belief in a white woman cannot marry a black man, not even considering that it would save the life of a girl who had suffered in concentration camps for three years. While there are many more things wrong with the South that leads to this, pride is a key player. Does selfishness or self-preservation keep people (us) today from seeking justice in situations such as Darfur, Rwanda, or sex trafficking?
Keller
"She in camp three year, he said.
ReplyDeleteYour cousin, she said in a positive voice, cannot come out here and marry one of my Negroes" (314)
I saw the same quote as an embodiment of how Mrs. McIntyre treated all of her farm hands. She was looking out for only herself throughout the story and it struck me as interesting seeing a triangle of competition between the black, white and Polish families. The title of the story being, A Displaced Person, was in reference to Mr. Guizac according to Mrs. McIntyre. I myself believe that out of all the characters in the story Mrs. McIntyre was in fact the displaced one who was in a sense farthest from God. This is all evidenced by the way she treated other human beings and has created a state of hell for her workers who have no salvation or way to better themselves under her wages. The only escape shown from Mrs. McIntyre's cruel employment and company was death and running away which led to death in Mrs. Shortley's case. Of the husbands that found a way apart from Mrs. McIntyre one was in an Asylum and the other buried with a transcending grin on his face on how Mrs. McIntyre cannot escape her fate such as those working for her. Out of all the people on the land Mrs. McIntyre was the most displaced as she was always in direct opposition to her workers and could never see eye to eye with the priest who wanted to give a better life to the Polish, not profit from them.
Discussion Question - During the story Mrs. Shortley defines "Displaced Persons" as a person who is not where they were born at and theres nowhere for them to go. How would you define Displaced Persons after reading this story in regards to character rather than origin.