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The Displaced Person by Flannery O'Connor: A Lively Learning Guide by Shmoop
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Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 21, 2017
Re-read on International Refugee Day, June 20, 2017
“I am not responsible for the world’s misery”--Mrs. McIntyre
The short story “The Displaced Person,” by Flannery O’Connor was “inspired” in part by real life events. One of the events that became the inciting impulse for the story was that a refugee family in 1951 was hired to work at O'Connor's mother's dairy farm. In a letter O’Connor quotes the wife of a dairyman who worked on the farm: "Do you think they'll [the refugees] know what colors even is?"
The Pope that year had made a pronouncement about the need for compassion in the area of the refugee crisis, leading to a small and temporary influx of refugees, to which one farmer responded, “I ain't going to have the Pope of Rome tell me how to run no dairy."
The story focuses on Mrs. McIntyre, who needs more help on her farm and hires a “displaced person” from Poland named Mr. Guizac. He works hard, threatening the (lazy) farmhands, the Shortleys. The Shortleys want Guizac fired, but McIntyre fires the Shortleys instead; she is soon after that offended to discover that Guizac has invited his teenaged cousin to the U.S. to marry an African-American man, Sulk, who works on the farm, so she can get citizenship. This offends McIntyre’s (racist) sensibilities.
Mrs. McIntyre tells her priest, "as far as I'm concerned . . . Christ was just another D.P.," but she can’t bring herself to fire Guizac, though the rehired Mr. Shortley (spoiler alert!!!) takes care of the problem by running his tractor over Guizac.
As the final story in her first collection, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, “The Displaced Person” features one truly good and Christ-like man, Guizac, and a bunch of often disturbingly comic ignoramuses who are threatened by refugees like Guizac.
Reading “The Displaced Person” in an Age of Islamophobia, by David Griffith:
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...
Griffith suggests, “Many of our self-styled Christian leaders would do well to seek out ‘The Displaced Person.’”
“I am not responsible for the world’s misery”--Mrs. McIntyre
The short story “The Displaced Person,” by Flannery O’Connor was “inspired” in part by real life events. One of the events that became the inciting impulse for the story was that a refugee family in 1951 was hired to work at O'Connor's mother's dairy farm. In a letter O’Connor quotes the wife of a dairyman who worked on the farm: "Do you think they'll [the refugees] know what colors even is?"
The Pope that year had made a pronouncement about the need for compassion in the area of the refugee crisis, leading to a small and temporary influx of refugees, to which one farmer responded, “I ain't going to have the Pope of Rome tell me how to run no dairy."
The story focuses on Mrs. McIntyre, who needs more help on her farm and hires a “displaced person” from Poland named Mr. Guizac. He works hard, threatening the (lazy) farmhands, the Shortleys. The Shortleys want Guizac fired, but McIntyre fires the Shortleys instead; she is soon after that offended to discover that Guizac has invited his teenaged cousin to the U.S. to marry an African-American man, Sulk, who works on the farm, so she can get citizenship. This offends McIntyre’s (racist) sensibilities.
Mrs. McIntyre tells her priest, "as far as I'm concerned . . . Christ was just another D.P.," but she can’t bring herself to fire Guizac, though the rehired Mr. Shortley (spoiler alert!!!) takes care of the problem by running his tractor over Guizac.
As the final story in her first collection, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, “The Displaced Person” features one truly good and Christ-like man, Guizac, and a bunch of often disturbingly comic ignoramuses who are threatened by refugees like Guizac.
Reading “The Displaced Person” in an Age of Islamophobia, by David Griffith:
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...
Griffith suggests, “Many of our self-styled Christian leaders would do well to seek out ‘The Displaced Person.’”
October 5, 2015
I found this a really interesting character study of individuals who place social class above all else and the resulting tragedy due to people reacting without trying to understand each other.
Every short story I read by Flannery O'Connor makes me want to read another. I have yet to find one that leaves me feeling happy though. Not sure that is going to happen.
Every short story I read by Flannery O'Connor makes me want to read another. I have yet to find one that leaves me feeling happy though. Not sure that is going to happen.
June 5, 2016
I think O'Connor's take on the perception of refugees remains salient today. A chilling, well composed work.
May 4, 2017
Well this was an interesting read in light of the current refugee debate, however I'm not going to get political here. It was very odd how the narrator just switched in the middle of the story, O'Connor doesn't usually do that. I really didn't find anything else very interesting about this story though, unfortunately. It's alright.
November 30, 2021
Great subtext, analysis of the fascism in the local sphere, xenophobia, class differences blablabla but simply so absurd, cannot stand the writting of this person
Want to read
December 15, 2015From this piece in Paris Review (thanks Meghan!)
November 6, 2015
had to read this for a class. I found it repugnant but I guess that was the purpose of the tale
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews