Essay about Parker’s Redemption

In the essay by Leslie Jamison, “Mark My Words, Maybe” She communicates to her audience about getting this tattoo to represent a new era for her after an emotional breakup. The tattoo being “homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto” or in English translation, “I am human: nothing human is alien to me.” Jamison talks about how she felt as deserving as any other for the pain that she has felt during the relationship. As the essay reads on, Jamison deals with the conflict of interest from others based on the meaning of her tattoo. She also goes about her thought process for finding the true meaning of her tattoo.

From a young age the protagonist, Obadiah Elihue Parker, despised religion and finds comfort in tattoos. It starts of as a small act of rebellion to becoming a release for all the religion that surrounds him. After Parker sees a tattooed man, the story says,

Throughout the piece people approach Jamison inquiring about the tattoo and each time giving a response that she doesn’t want. Whenever she explains the translation of the tattoo, the inquirer immediately questions the motives behind it and gets offended by her claim to understand humanity and understand everything that is wrong in the world (Jamison 459). Except, they don’t know what Jamison has been through and don’t understand the personal meaning it holds. Although it wasn’t her initial intention, Jamison learns to accept the attention she receives from it. She explains that the purpose of her tattoo is to attract attention, be aspirational, and cause admiration. But, she also claims that it also serves the purpose of the opposite of all of those things (Jamison 460). Jamison tells this story to demonstrate the significance and symbolism of a tattoo and how a simple phrase can mean so much more about a person’s identity and how it represents people.

Outcasts in society are in need of love and compassion. In the book Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle, Father Greg gives gang members an opportunity to better themselves by providing them with jobs. Attention makes gang members realize they are worthy.

Tattoos are a source of self-expression, and there are countless of ideas that one can forever ink on their body. There are people whose life story is captured and told by the inking that scatters their physique, yet there are others who believe this is a representation of a bad character. When I began digging, I knew that starting off with an individual's clashing experience with their tattoo would be

As most of O’Connor’s stories, we are not presented with an easy account of redemption. It is not clear if Parker has made an actual commitment to Christ and if there is significance of the tattoo on his back or the suffering of the hands of his wife. Her intentions are not to offer a complete account on how to enter the life of faith, but to show insights in the mysterious working of grace, which is what I found very interesting about Flannery O’ Connor and why I enjoyed reading her short stories, especially “Parkers Back”.

Cynthia Ann Parker was only nine years old when she was kidnapped and taken away by Native Americans also known as the Comanche warriors. She was taken away from her home, her family, and her heritage.

It appears he is trying to hide behind all the tattoos so no one will focus on him. They are like battle scars to him and he knows the story of each in exacting detail even though they have no significant meaning to any other person. Parker is very frustrated because of his wife’s inability or unwillingness to see him as he sees himself. He is continually running away from his problems with the final destination being a Tattoo parlor and some more liquor to help wash his problems away. His wife finds the tattoos disgusting and doesn’t even want to see his body in the light because of them. He struggles to understand why she dislikes them and even wonders why she married him. How many times do we want the world to see us through our eyes instead of viewing and accepting actuality? Parker’s struggles in life never lead him to peace. Any relief he receives is for only a brief period. He is always trying to discover another way to please his wife and always makes the wrong decision. The accident on the tractor should have been a wakeup call to him. He came very close to losing his life. He was tried by fire as the tractor overturned and burned, catching the tree on fire also. He lay on the ground with his shoes on fire but again made a bad decision. His decision would carry him farther away from where he should be and increase the division between him and Sarah Ruth.

Flannery O’Connor’s last story “Parker’s Back” is written about Parker’s struggles through life. Parker turns to tattoos for comfort most of his life, but on day this changes after getting a tattoo of the, “Byzantine Christ with all-demanding eyes” (Epperson 576). O. E. Parker marries Sarah Ruth who does not approve of his lifestyle. Sarah Ruth worries about her husband and knows what, “...the judgement seat of God would be like if he didn’t change his ways” (Epperson 575). The theme O’Connor is expressing to the reader is that God’s unfailing grace can still be given to an unwilling sinner.

Should William Penn be a heroic figure to American history? Throughout British proprietary colonization of the Americas, there were many different motives for claiming American soil by those whom were audacious enough to consider the prospect of funding a distant statehood. Penn claimed to see his colony as a “holy experiment” (page XIII); who differed from its “peers” in the respect that it had intent to provide refuge to those whom faced religious persecution, even so, the “devout” Quaker, eventually allowed to fall into a state of neglect and sink to the level of its peers. Ironically the people of Pennsylvania became so intolerant of other religions, that, not even after four decades, Paralleled their English “oppressors”. Eventually,

There are multiple reasons for individuals to tattoo their bodies and the reasons are usually individualistic and subjective. The experience of being tattooed is intricately bound up with one’s character,

Living in a Christian culture, writers employ imagery of Christ in many types of literature. But, images of Christ can’t be limited to the typical “Savior” view. Writers can twist the traditional image of Christ to convey their message.

Parker sought his redemption for his “dissatisfaction” in himself and the world around him through tattoos, drink, and women (430). Throughout the short story Parker deals with life’s challenges by asserting control over the one thing he had control over and that was his mind and body. Parker only “worked… to pay for more tattoos” and in turn the tattoos

They are ubiquitous, having entered the circle of glamour and the main stream of fashion, and they have become increasingly common feature of our urban youth”

The tattooing of criminals sustained through the Middle Ages and spread across Europe, making the social practice of marking bodies go hand-in-hand with delinquency, deviance and social outcasts. The practice of marking bodies was later used during the colonization projects in Africa and Asia, and like the branding of criminals, it was used as a means to exert ownership and power over the locals (Fisher, 2002). With such a dark history, how then did the act of tattooing become intended and commoditized?