Faulkner & F. O'Connor the Essay

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But the friction between her and her mother translated also to the society, to the 'good country people.' The good country people, represented by Manley Pointer, turned against her, victimizing her by using her own ideals and beliefs. Manley took advantage of her 'weakness,' being able to see through her tough self, knowing that within her, there is a part of her that wanted attention and love without pity. O'Connor may have portrayed Manley to be truly taken by Joy/Hulga's sulkiness and believed her to be like him, the kind of 'good country person' who knew and experienced the harshness of life. This can be verified in his remark after he 'revealed' himself to Joy/Hulga, exclaiming to her, "[w]hat's the matter with you all of a sudden? You just a while ago said you didn't believe in nothing. I thought you was some girl!" (par. 139).

Though Emily and Joy/Hulga shared the same fate (both experienced 'the fall') and were characterized as abrasive individuals towards their society, Faulkner and O'Connor used fictional elements differently to illustrate each character's downfall. The plot structure, for one, was developed differently. O'Connor, on one hand, chose to show his use of irony -- the worldly Joy/Hulga being played and fooled by the worldlier Pointer -- at the end of the story, giving it a surprising ending. Faulkner, on the other hand, explicitly stated Emily's end at the start of the story, and worked towards establishing the suspense and surprising demise of another character in the story: Homer Barron. Thus, focusing on Emily's character per se, Faulkner used an inverted structure to develop the plot of the story, but sought to balance this inverted structure by developing a regularly structured story plot for Homer's character.

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The third fictional element that is used to support the theme of the downfall of the characters Emily and Joy/Hulga is the point-of-view (POV). POV is powerfully used in the stories as it helped strengthen the claim that there was friction between the main character and her society. It was through POV that the readers/audience realized the friction that existed between Emily and her town, as illustrated in the antagonistic tone of the Narrator, who represents the townspeople. Interestingly, Emily was characterized and the story developed based on the Narrator's POV alone. This 'outside looking in' or third-person POV is an ingenious approach that Faulkner did to stress the importance that Emily's town played in portraying her as the "fallen monument" the town thought her to be. Conversely, O'Connor used the first person POV, using each character's lens as the voices that constructed their own character. In Joy/Hulga's case, her thoughts against Mrs. Hopewell and her own thoughts helped develop her worldly and surly persona, solidifying her character to the point that readers actually feel sorry for her after Pointer made a fool out of her by 'stealing' her artificial leg, making it his 'memento' of Joy/Hulga (par. 142).

In effect, through the characters, plot structure, and point-of-view, Faulkner and O'Connor successfully communicated to their readers/audience the theme of their heroines' downfall, from high morality and idealism, to moral degeneration and disillusionment. These elements of fiction supported this dominant theme of the short stories, highlighting points of similarities and differences between the writers' styles and even the characters' roles on the overall development and success of the short stories.

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