거울이미지와 에피퍼니 - 플래너리 오코너의 「좋은 사람은 찾기 어렵다」를 중심으로
Mirror Image's Epiphany in Flannery O'Connor's "A Goodman is Hard to Find"
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Flannery O'Connor's "A Goodman is Hard to Find" is about a typical American family who ventures forth into the precarious world for a disastrous meeting. In this story, O'Connor wants to show how salvation and grace reveal themselves to a hypocritical believer through the embodiment of evil. To this aim, two main characters, the grandmother and The Misfit, function as mirror images reflecting each other. They have a lot in common. First of all, they don't have proper names. Second, they don't think grace will come through someone who is a hypocrite or a criminal. Therefore, the grandmother and The Misfit, both of whom can't see themselves as sinners, blame Others, God and the Modern world. Last, they don't even believe they are responsible for their own wrongdoing. However, the grandmother and The Misfit as Mirror Image realize grace has come at a moment of death and experience epiphany respectively. As O'Connor says "all my stories are about the action of grace," the grandmother always expects that grace will be coming to a good person like herself, a sincere Christian. Grace, however, comes to her through The Misfit, the murderer who is the person she has tried to avoid throughout her life. When the grandmother forgives The Misfit for killing her family and embraces him as her own son, she comes to know that her life has been falsely led and realized the meaning of love and forgiveness of God. Likewise, at first, The Misfit believes that God makes the world unbalanced. Due to God's inappropriate act, the world has been unfair and God has made The Misfit a victim of it. From The Misfit's point of view, the grandmother is nothing but a selfish, talkative, old woman. Killing the grandmother means killing the dark Other within the Misfit. Ironically, by doing this, The Misfit can be a grace-bringer for the grandmother and also the grandmother is reborn to be a real good person by bringing grace to The Misfit by touching him on his shoulder. It shows that the grandmother and The Misfit are mirror images of each other. The epiphany lets them experience their true selves. Like this, O'Connor shows the power of grace and salvation through imperfect human beings instead of showing God's grace directly.
Abstract
Flannery O'Connor's "A Goodman is Hard to Find" is about a typical American family who ventures forth into the precarious world for a disastrous meeting. In this story, O'Connor wants to show how salvation and grace reveal themselves to a hypocritical believer through the embodiment of evil. To this aim, two main characters, the grandmother and The Misfit, function as mirror images reflecting each other. They have a lot in common. First of all, they don't have proper names. Second, they don't think grace will come through someone who is a hypocrite or a criminal. Therefore, the grandmother and The Misfit, both of whom can't see themselves as sinners, blame Others, God and the Modern world. Last, they don't even believe they are responsible for their own wrongdoing. However, the grandmother and The Misfit as Mirror Image realize grace has come at a moment of death and experience epiphany respectively. As O'Connor says "all my stories are about the action of grace," the grandmother always expects that grace will be coming to a good person like herself, a sincere Christian. Grace, however, comes to her through The Misfit, the murderer who is the person she has tried to avoid throughout her life. When the grandmother forgives The Misfit for killing her family and embraces him as her own son, she comes to know that her life has been falsely led and realized the meaning of love and forgiveness of God. Likewise, at first, The Misfit believes that God makes the world unbalanced. Due to God's inappropriate act, the world has been unfair and God has made The Misfit a victim of it. From The Misfit's point of view, the grandmother is nothing but a selfish, talkative, old woman. Killing the grandmother means killing the dark Other within the Misfit. Ironically, by doing this, The Misfit can be a grace-bringer for the grandmother and also the grandmother is reborn to be a real good person by bringing grace to The Misfit by touching him on his shoulder. It shows that the grandmother and The Misfit are mirror images of each other. The epiphany lets them experience their true selves. Like this, O'Connor shows the power of grace and salvation through imperfect human beings instead of showing God's grace directly.
참고문헌 (24)
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