Vol. 10 No. 88 (2021)

Research Article

The Power of the Disabled: Flannery O'Connor’s “the Lame Shall Enter First”

Published 2021-12-31

Cilt 10 Sayı 88 kapak

Abstract

Flannery O'Connor’s (1925-1964) "The Lame Shall Enter First" (1962) deals with three characters: Sheppard, a widower, his son Norton, a ten years old boy and Rufus, a miscreant teenager, whom Norton dislikes. Rufus has a clubfoot, is very intelligent and fond of violence. Sheppard is a philanthropist and likes to help Rufus inviting him to live with them, contrary to Norton’s wishes. In fact, Rufus despises Sheppard, resists help and is aware of his own evil nature. He makes Sheppard embarrassed and causes Norton’s death deliberately, leaving both of them as victims. O’Connor in this context, de/reconstructs the prejudice against the disabled people; in the American South the disabled are regarded as evil characters. On the other hand, although it is generally accepted that the disabled people are good, she shows them as ordinary people having both good and wicked sides. Moreover, they may refuse help and prove personality despite the fact that non-disabled people are inclined or regard it duty to help them. She problematizes the disabled body as ‘the other/marginalized’ being pitiful and pitied. Thus, it becomes clear that O’Connor acknowledges the disabled people as normal as the non-disabled, or powerful, not physically but spiritually and intellectually. The tenets of ‘Disability Studies’ are insightful to discuss the work.

Keywords Flannery O'Connor, "The Lame Shall Enter First", “Disability Studies”, American South

Öz

Flannery O'Connor’ın (1925-1964) "The Lame Shall Enter First" (1962) adlı eseri üç karakter ile ilgilidir: dul bir erkek olan Sheppard, on yaşındaki oğlu Norton ve onun sevmediği kötü karakterli bir ergen olan Rufus. Rufus yumru ayaklıdır, çok zekidir ve şiddetten hoşlanır. Sheppard iyilikseverdir ve Norton’un istememesine rağmen Rufus’u kendileriyle birlikte yaşamaya davet ederek yardım etmek ister. Rufus aslında Sheppard’ı küçümsemekte ve yardıma karşı koymaktadır; kendi kötücül doğasının da farkındadır. Sheppard’ı utandırır ve her ikisini de kurban durumuna düşürerek Norton’un ölümüne kasden neden olur. O’Connor bu bağlamda engelli kişilere karşı olan önyargıyı yapıbozuma uğratıp yeniden inşa eder, çünkü Amerikan Güneyi’nde engelli kişiler kötücül olarak kabul edilir. Öte yandan, engelli kişilerin genellikle iyi olduğu kabul edilmesine rağmen, onların hem iyi hem kötü tarafları bulunan ve alışık olunan bireyler olduğunu gösterir. Dahası, engelsiz bireylerin onlara yardım etmeyi görev bilme eğilimlerine karşın yardımı reddedip kişiliklerini ortaya koyabilirler. O’Connor engelli vücudu acınası ve acınan ‘öteki/dışlanmış’ olarak sorunsallaştırır. Böylelikle, onun engelli bireyleri engelsizler kadar normal veya fiziksel değil ama ruhsal ve zihinsel olarak güçlü kabul ettiği ortaya çıkar. “Engellilik Çalışmaları”nın ilkeleri eseri yorumlamada faydalıdır.

Anahtar Kelimeler Flannery O'Connor, "The Lame Shall Enter First", “Engellilik Çalışmaları”, Amerikan Güneyi

PDF (Turkish)

References

  1. Angle, Kimberly Greene (1994-95). “Flannery O'Connor's Literary Art: Spiritual Portraits in Negative Space” The Flannery O'Connor Bulletin. Vol. 23, pp. 158-174 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26670331 1 July 2021.
  2. Asals, Frederick (1970). “Flannery O'Connor's ‘The Lame Shall Enter First’ ". The Mississippi Quarterly. (Spring) Vol. 23, No. 2 pp. 103-120. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26473852. 22 May 2021.
  3. Backstrom, Laura (2012). “From the Freak Show to the Living Room: Cultural Representations of Dwarfism and Obesity”. Sociological Forum (September), Vol. 27, No. 3 pp. 682- 707 https://www.jstor.org/stable/23262184 22 November 2020.
  4. Crow, Charles L. (2009). American Gothic. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
  5. Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie (2017). Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia UP.
  6. Goffman, Erving (1963). Stigma:Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc.
  7. Gordon, Sarah (2003). Flannery O’Connor: The Obedient Imagination. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
  8. Gross, Louis S. (1989). Redefining the American Gothic: From Wieland to Day of the Dead. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
  9. Katz, Claire. “Flannery O’Connor’s Rage of Vision.” American Literature 46.1 (1974): 54-67.
  10. Köseman, Zennure (2020). “The Fisher King Myth in T.S.Eliot’s ‘Waste Land’ and Anne Tyler’s ‘Teenage Wasteland’ “. English Studies in the 21st Century. (Ed. Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu et al) Newcastle upon Tyne:Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 72-85.
  11. Magistrale, Tony (1987). “Flannery O'Connor's Fractured Families”. Journal of American Studies. Vol. 21, No. 1, Henry James: New Contexts (April), pp. 111-114. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27538257 22 May 2021
  12. Magistrale, Tony (1990). " ‘I'm Alien to a Great Deal’: Flannery O'Connor and the Modernist Ethic”. Journal of American Studies , (April) Vol. 24, No. 1 pp. 93-98 https://www.jstor.org/stable/27555269 22 June 2021.
  13. Mikics, David (2007). A New Handbook of Literary Terms. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  14. Mitchell, David T. and Sharon L. Snyder (1997). "Disability Studies and the Double Bind of Representation". (Eds. Mitchell and Snyder). The Body and Physical Difference: Discourses of Disability. Ann Abor: University of Michigan Press: 1-31.
  15. Nelson, Jack A. (2003). “The Invisible Cultural Group: Images of Disability”. Images That Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media. Ed Paul Martin Lester and Susan Dente Ross. Westport: Praeger Publishers (175-184)
  16. O’Connor, Flannery (2021). “THe Lame Shall Enter First”. http://sites.nd.edu/ten-images-of-hell-2020/files/2020/02/The-Lame-Shall-Enter-First-1.pdf 18 May 2021.
  17. Oğuz, Ayla (2015). “Stigma As a Means of Social Oppression in Disabled Individuals: The Secret Agent”. Gaziosmanpasa University Social Sciences Researches Journal (Winter) 10/2 http://dx.doi.org/10.19129/sbad.37 (pp.1-10) 29 October 2021.
  18. Pernick, Martin S. (1996). The Black Stork. New York: Oxford University Press.
  19. Quicke, John (1985). Disability in Modern Children’s Fiction. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.
  20. Sonnenfeld, Albert (1972). “Flannery O'Connor: The Catholic Writer as Baptist” Contemporary Literature. Vol. 13, No. 4 (Autumn), pp. 445-457 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1207441 01 July 2021.
  21. Stiker, Henri-Jacques (1999). A History of Disability. (trans. by William Sayers) Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
  22. Titchkosky, Tanya (2000). “Disability Studies: The Old and the New” The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers Canadiens de Sociologie , Spring, Vol. 25, No. 2 pp. 197-224 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3341823 28 March 2021. 28 March 2021.