Macdy's Relationship With Mack

Sarah once asked her children on a Thanksgiving Day, “Has anyone of you thanked God? Really thanked Him?” (29). At first, Sarah fearfully respects God, because she already knows that her prosperity that she has today is going to be taken by God eventually. Sarah’s true temperament is not truly revealed after the death of her five children. “Has death no meaning? Pain no meaning?”, Sarah questioned J.B (109). Sarah is bitter and angry at God, because she does not expect God to take away her loved ones that fast. She even becomes more depressed and hopeless when J.B is still faithful to God at this point. At the end of Scene Eight when Mrs. Murphy said, “And he’s alone now”, implying the leaving of Sarah for her own good. Sarah is an example of fake piety that is fallen after an astonishing punishment.

The secondary argument is that use of grace, as Flannery O’Connor sees it, is inapplicable within the context of the story. As evidenced in the article, O’Conner sees the Grandmother as a vessel of grace who, by extending her arm to the Misfit, in turn extends a grace which ultimately touches his soul. She speaks of this action “ [turning] him into the prophet he was meant to become”(O’Connor qtd on Bandy 6). However, as Bandy indicates, “there is no ‘later on’ in fiction” (6), making O’Connor’s comments trivial at best. The article references that grace must

' Mary's heart was already with god and conventional values were not going to keep her a way from the life he had chosen for her.' (Mary MacKillop A tribute, 1995)

He finds great understanding from these discussions; and throughout the book, Mack’s relationship is irrevocably strengthened. He talks to “Papa” about the death of his daughter, and his relationships with family, friends, and the Godhead. “Papa” relates to Mack: “You are the ones who embrace fear and pain and power and rights so readily in your relationships. But your choices are not stronger than my purposes, and I will use every choice you make for the ultimate good and the most loving outcome.” (Young 127) In addition, “Papa” explains to Mack the enormity of His death on the cross. The Bible is clear that the Cross is the apex of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ ultimately paid the penalty on the cross for the sins of this world. The penalty He faced was the wrath of the Father because of man’s negligence towards the Creator. In turn, Mack’s relationship was dismantled, reevaluated and carefully put back together piece by piece. Mack undeniably leaves the shack as a changed man.

Even in the midst of suffering, God is aiming for your ultimate good (Jer. 29:11-13; Rom. 8:28; Gen. 50:20).

Why me ? What did I do to deserve this ? Why now ? Well, these questions he ignored and put aside. “ I came to accept it and to dedicate myself to making the best of it” (142). He handles this by simply just accepting that he doesn’t have control of everything. And he didn’t ponder why this was happening to him, but he continued to show gratitude for the thing he did have. Ultimately the Creator made us the way we are for a good reason, we may not see it, but in the long term it will turn out for the better. People today can have to responses or reactions to adversity. One, Sit down and thrown yourself a pity party, wallow in despair and wonder why me ? Or, they can accept that they can’t change what is happening to them, and use that to boost them in their journey. It will teach them to handle it and use it for the

“His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’ She reached out and touched him on the shoulder” (O’Connor 715). The ability she gained to love her enemy was a clear sign that she had really met Jesus. The grandmother knew she was guilty for everything she had done. Unfortunately, she waited too long to try and reconstruct her life.

6. The significance of the grandmother's to receive grace when she said to Misfit “why you're one of my babies. You’re one of my children because she used to manipulate people to get what she wanted and she never cared about people except herself, but at the end she did concern for someone other than herself maybe for the first time in her life. She thought if she said, Misfit, that he would have pity on her and not killing her the same way he kills Bailey family. For instance, when she heard the sound of the gunshot she just called "Jesus" and "Bailey Boy" later she tried to sermonize him to ask God for forgiveness while she never asked God for that.

When life hits us with problems and obstacles, we ask: “Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?” If we believe in God, we direct these questions to Him. In Classic Christianity, Bob George shows an example of this when he talks about a man preparing himself for a wildness trip. Each day he pushed himself harder to get ready. He wondered what his body would say about his preparations. “Why are you doing this to me?” “What have I done to deserve this?” Were the two thoughts that came to his mind. We do the same thing with God. We wonder why the Lord is punishing us. The Lord doesn’t punish us; He loves us unconditionally. The Lord is preparing us to face even greater challenges in life with perseverance and faith.

to go back to Jesus. But his answer was shooting her three times . As well as William Blake's poems and how he was wondering why and how god is responsible for good and innocence is at the same the one who inserts violence and evil in this world , and he indicated that he was unable to understand the

Vance, however, has doubt in God, similar to the doubt slaves feel in Jacobs and Douglass’ narratives, but still turns towards God as justifier for his tough situation, like Poe and Bradstreet. Jacobs recalls her heart rebelled against God when her family members died (1). Although her grandmother induces her religious views on Jacobs, she still does not put complete faith in God when adversity strikes. Douglass questions if there even is a God (959) while desiring the same freedom the ships in the bay have. Vance’s devotion towards God oscillates between complete trust and complete doubt, and like Jacobs and Douglass, the doubt is inflicted from hard times. After a family fight, he asks Mamaw if God loves them (85), showing his wavering trust in God. There is conflict between the religion they are exposed to and the harsh realities they are constantly hit with, whether it is death, slavery, or violent arguing. Still, Vance continues his faith because he “needed reassurance of some deeper justice, some cadence or rhythm that lurked beneath the heartache and chaos” (87) which connects to how poets dealt with their situations. In Bradstreet’s poem of

She begins saying things like “I Know you're a good man”, or “You wouldn't shoot a lady wold you”? Finally she even decided to bring God into the situation to help her convince the misfit not to harm her, “If you pray, Jesus would help you”. The grandmothers true personality was always revealed at a time she needed to be saved or wanted her way, no matter who what she had to bring into the situation to have it her way. The misfit served as a foil to the grandmother because, he clearly killed her entire family, including herself. He stopped their family trip from continuing, the misfit never helped them fix their car nor did he help them seek medical attention after the accident occurred. Also he did not let the grandmother get her way with him like she did with everyone else, by manipulating her way out of a situation or convincing him to help her at a moment where she was most vulnerable. The author of the story O’Connor used Biblical allusions to convey the meaning of the story when it was mentioned by the misfit “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead”. Meaning that the misfit did not consider himself a good man, nor was he interested in being one. He also did not have the ability to bring people back from the dead , nor did he

I've suffered plenty in my pre christ following life, but it was all in vain because it was for doing bad. When times are good we really don't think about our choices, our life. But when we suffer, we grow. It tests us to see if we really want this life. We realize things about ourselves. Are you brave or are you brave when things are easy.

As I reflect back on my life course God had guided and cared for me throughout every stressful period of time that I have experienced. A time that I know I couldn’t have made it through without God’s guidance and love for me was when I lost my nephew. I was morning the loss of someone who was a huge part of my life and I was feeling so many emotions that I attempted to push God away due to be angry that He allowed this to happen to me, my children, and my nieces and nephews. God continued to care for me and guide me back to Him by showing me that I couldn’t handle this situation without his guidance, love, and support. I believe it is difficult to allow God to be in control of the smaller day-to-day stressors in our lives because we feel a sense of responsibility and we are taught as children that we have to take

She believed that the whole story was centered on religion she strongly disagreed with bandy for equating the grandmother with misfit an anti-Christian sadist. She argued that the grandmother was a grace-bringer and that God used the grandmother to plant a seed of grace in misfit, she believed that the statement “why you are one of my babies. You are one of my own children” (245) made by the grandmother was out of compassionate murmur and not a manipulation as stated by bandy. She argued that spiritual matters are mostly awaken by personal crises. She said that bandy imposed on the story and on O’Connor a far intricate view of grace missing an important point that God is God; He can do anything he wants- even save people like the grandmother and the misfit she went ahead to quote that grace is something we somehow do not deserve a mystery that should be believed but can never understand (246). To buttress her point she likened the three bullets shot at the grandmother’s chest to symbolize the trinity meaning three a holy number that manifest the pervasive influence of the catholic God who they believe is responsible for the construction of the universe. Beathea saw misfit to be an anti-Christ and criticized O’Connor for making seem to be prophet who can be touched by both divine as well as evil. She pointed out a philosophical reversals towards the end of the story were misfit said if Jesus didn’t raise the dead there is nothing to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can and yet after killing the grandmother he realized that there is no real pleasure in life. His last statement contradicts his prior, stark anti-Christian affirmation of sadism. His rejection of earlier temporal location of pleasure may likely make him