In “A
Temple of the Holy Ghost,” Flannery O’Connor focuses on an unnamed adolescent
girl, “the child,” who is visited by her two boy-crazy, unintelligent
cousins Susan and Joann (O’Connor
describes them as “positively ugly” – just like her description of the name and
character of Hulga in “Good Country People”). After coming up with silly ideas
of how to keep her cousins entertained, the child’s mother takes her up on the
idea of spending the evening with Cory and Wendell Wilkins, as the girls would
be “perfectly safe” with those boys.
It
is evident that O’Connor comments on their Church of God upbringing and desire
to be ministers when they sing “Old Rugged Cross” and “Jesus is a Friend.” The
girls interrupt them with the much more traditional, mature “Tantum Ergo.” This
highlights the rift between Catholicism and another breed of Christianity that
seems to be less mature. Especially when one of the boys comments, “That must
be Jew singing.”
One
of the main points that I think O’Connor makes with this story is the
difference between the Wilkins and Alonzo’s faith in a church where sin must be
eradicated and harbors of sinfulness, such as the fair, must be shut down, with
a church founded to be a hospital for sinners, in O’Connor’s eyes. She
complicates this with the cousins who do not exactly display the best traits of
Catholics or an understanding of the church’s teaching (exhibited by their
scoffing at the notion of their bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost). However, O’Connor sides with the notion
of a faith in which there is not much distance between God and humanity, in
spite of evil that does take place. To me, there are parallels between O’Connor
herself in her struggles with lupus and the “Freak” at the fair who accepted
that God made her that way. Neither one are perfect, but they accept their
affliction and aim to be content being what God made them to be. Additionally,
the child ultimately realizes that she is in the presence of God during adoration
at the convent. O’Connor reveals that the church is an imperfect place, filled
with imperfect people but its members must accept how they were created and
live their lives in pursuit of God.
It is interesting to me that O'Connors stories have so many similarities between them. As Allie mentioned, "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" and "Good Country People" even have similar character descriptions ("positively ugly"). O'Connor obviously really wants her readers to understand and accept this idea of the world (and the church) as an imperfect place.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out the girl's realization at the end that she is in the presence of God. I think this really demonstrates O'Connor's Catholic understanding of the world. She believes that we are close to God here on Earth rather than Him being far off. This also adds to the contrast between Catholics and Protestants that you pointed out.
ReplyDeleteLooking back on this now, the idea of imperfection is not only present in Flannery O'Connor's works but in some of the other works we read as well. What comes to mind first is The Power and the Glory and the whiskey priest. Though the whiskey priest serves as a Christ-like figure and the girl protagonist in "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" is most definitely not, the flaws of each character show that imperfection exists even in the creation of God.
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