"I am a Temple of the Holy Ghost"

I can see why some readers find Flannery O'Connor offensive. She writes very frankly with her depictions of the characters and the characters' thoughts as well. Yet, I suppose it is "revealing their humanity" as characters, giving them a normalcy to relate to. O'Connor's southern qualities and devout Catholicism can clearly be seen throughout this whole story. These two things were prominent within her life and have given shape to this story as she presents it.

O'Connor is very blatant and pointed with her descriptions and it is easy to envision the characters. They don't really sound like, "pretty people." "Her fat cheeks and the braces she had in her mouth... He was an eighteen-year-old boy who weighed two hundred and fifty pounds...and he had a round sweaty chest..." She doesn't play up the characters at all, but gives us a good picture in our minds. I am not sure what to think of these raw descriptions, but I am taking them as is and using them to understand and picture this short story. I think they are okay as I take these descriptions in context. And along with the descriptions of people, the scenery she describes is clear to imagine as well. One of my favourite passages was as O'Connor paints the image of the beacon light "searching the air as if it were hunting for the lost sun." I imagined myself as I have looked and seen the beacon lights and this little moment just captured me to think of my own experience.

Throughout the story, the child was never given a name, even though this twelve-year-old is a main character. I think the child could have been representing Flannery O'Connor herself at a point in her life. Taking a look at Catholicism and questioning the importance of it. Or maybe this kind of "story" happened to O'Connor, or she felt like this at times. For example, she may have had annoying cousins or friends a little older than she and believed that she was smarter than all of them. Maybe she placed herself in this story as the child. Like the headnote said, as "an intellectual in a rural environment, she quickly began to see the world as sometimes annoying, but often amusing." I feel like I see this in "the child." For the most part, I think that writers write about what they know because it is something they are knowledgable or passionate about and I think this could be the case here.

The child had some interesting thoughts that we as the readers see. Some random and seemingly out of place, such as when she talks about the world war and imagining herself dying as a martyr. But a line that stuck out to me that goes along with the title was, "I am a Temple of the Holy Ghost, she said to herself, and was pleased with the phrase. It made her feel as if somebody had given her a present." I felt  that when she thought this, it gave her a sense of identity and security in who she was. She had a purpose and feels valued and important. It is just this child-like innocence that we are seeing. She likes this feeling, and maybe doesn't understand why, but is enjoying this moment of receiving this "present." And in turn, she begins to see others as "a Temple of the Holy Ghost too."
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