Choices Made to Lower the Body
Terry White introduces her article, "Allegorical Evil, Existentialist Choice in O'Connor, Oates, and Styron" giving the reader the impression that she intends to explain how Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and the camp-doctor passage of William Styron's Sophie's Choice are all tied together with the common theme that "absolute evil and horrific suffering" of their respective characters "illustrate a common allegorical technique and existentialist themes." (White) This thesis sounds plausible; and while still reading the remainder of the introductory paragraph, a reader might even think that it will be supported with actual, concrete evidence from the works mentioned. Terry White fails miserably in her apparent attempt to support her thesis and introduction. Terry White's "Allegorical Evil, Existentialist Choice in O'Connor, Oates and Styron" does nothing more than try to explain that the climactic choices of characters in three different works were made with religious motivation, rather than existentialist choice as the title indicates but ends up contradicting this attempt by showing how each character simply just wanted to reduce the number of fa
The arguments contained in White's "Allegorical Evil, Existentialist Choice in O'Connor, Oates, and Styron" are ultimately ineffective. White manages to contradict herself in one sentence. White constantly refers to symbols which are never clearly defined. White manages to find many subtleties in Oates's story which she twists around to make into religious references, such as her inference that the drive-in restaurant at the beginning of the story being "fly-infested" is a foreshadowing of the appearance of Beelzebub (Satan) who is also known as "Lord of the Flies". In White's introduction, the foundation for a highly effective essay is laid, but the remaining paragraphs seem to build on a different foundation and crumble with the gentle breeze of an intelligent reader. White even goes so far as to point out that as the grandmother in O'Connor's story is about to die, she "pled for her life with the name of Jesus on her lips" in an attempt to support her idea that religious motivations, particularly of the Christian religion, are the motivations that each character uses to make the life-altering, even life-ending decisions which are made. White intends to explain that the main characters in O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", and the camp-doctor passage of William Styron's Sophie's Choice make turning-point decisions with the under pressure of absolute evil, and even what White claims to be the presence of Satan himself. She seems to change her mind between the introduction and the first body paragraph. White claims that the grandmother's "prayer for salvation" is answered but that the salvation is death rather than being allowed to live. The details of this pretentiously worded and extensive article do nothing more than contradict the thesis and fail to support the ideas which they are supposed to support. Even though the rest of her family has been shot, the grandmother just wants to live and there is no evidence anywhere else that her prayers are for anything more than to be allowed to live. If a restaurant being infested with flies is indicative of the presence of Satan, then McDonald's must literally be hell on Earth. Since the prayer was that the grandmother be spared from the wrath of the Misfit, it is impossible that she die at his hands and this prayer be answered simultaneously.
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Acceptance Essays
