Man on the Go: A Reading of “The River” and “The Displaced Person”

Abstract

This paper offers a reading of the two stories from O’Connor’s first collection of “stories about original sin,” “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Other Stories. The collection is the dramatization of the traveler’s encounter with the demonic forces of darkness impeding the progress of his Godward journey to the “true country, which the writer with Christian conviction will consider to be what is eternal and absolute.” Delineating the course of man on the go, O’Connor surveys the modern road on which her characters are making their journey and reports it as “a territory held largely by the devil.” Despite the darkly perilous nature of the journey, man’s fallen state compels him to be forever on the go—either toward further exile from or return to the “true country.”Young Harry in “The River” finds his “Kingdom of Christ” by submerging himself into the river; Mrs. Shortley in “The Displaced Person” finds hers at the end of the road. The frightening deaths that befell to them signal the end of their long earthly journey from suffering to penance and at the same time the beginning of their spiritual journey to God. Their sudden, violent deaths are undoubtedly good ones since by losing their life they make a breakthrough from the sordid earthly existence and find themselves at “the tremendous frontiers of [their] true country.” This way they make a great Christian paradox a literal reality: “He who loses his life will find it.”