Hey. It's Manley, Manley Pointer. You might be wondering why a "good old country boy" like me is telling a story about myself. But it's about time for ya'll to see why I became a bible salesman. Well tune in because you're bout' to get an ear full. When ya'll here this you might be thinkin', what in tarnation. But believe me I thought I was a little weird when I did it but it satisfies me. I have an obsession with prosthetic, things people rely on to live. I have stolen them from people, hurt people and even taken everything they worked for. Who cares I do it for myself to satisfy me and only me. You see, we good old country people ain't as good as what we seems. We hide our true selves behind what them folks thinks as perfect. I remember the day I found my "hiding place" just like it …show more content…
was yesterday. Now lemme tell ya how I did it. Listen closely. I walk into the living room and notice that my shelf full of prosthetics are getting quite full and decide to go to the hardware store around the corner. "Hey, Joe!" I say excitedly. "How's it goin', boy? Back for more wood planks to hold them books?" Joe asks. He ain't even know why I got them woods on my walls. At least I didn’t take his eye. I guess I liked him too much so I took sum other person's. I laugh, and say, "Haha, yeah my uhh... books." He goes to grab my wood and some screws and I see a woman in a wheelchair. I have to meet her. She's got them nice wheels on that wheelchair. I cain't help but notice that cane layin' in'er lap. Boy don’t that wheelchair looks fun to roll aroun' in. Did I mention that I had no toys as a little one? I create a diversion and yell, " Joe, Joe!". "What's up kid, why you hollerin'?" he asks. "I-I-I'm looking for an-another type of wood today. I won't be ne-needing your help today but thanks!" I stuttered lying. After he walks away, I stride to the lady with confidence. I watch her struggle reaching something but I don’t offer for help, cause she might think I was on to sumthin'. But I ain't saying that I ain't. The pretty lady huffs and gives up at reaching the screwdriver. She turns and waves me over. Little does she know I already started walkin' once we made eye contact. "Can you get me that screwdriver right there" the lady asked. "Sure" I said quietly. I grab the screwdriver and keep it in my hand and say " Come on, lemme walk you to the resister." I start slowly pushing her and quickly ask, "What's your name?" "Margot. What's yours?" she asks. "William. William James," I lie and pay for Margot's screwdriver to make her believe imma gentleman. I grab her things and start to walk Margot to her car and she interjects, "Oh! I don’t have a car. Why don’t you walk me to my house. It is right across the street ." While directing me towards where she lives and I realize she lives ten houses away from me. I'm getting closer and closer to what I want. We get to her house, I sit down and ask, "Can you walk on your own without that wheel chair?" She looks at me and says, "Barely. I use that cane over there by the fireplace." I become excited because I have two things to add to my collection not one. "Sit down. Make yourself at home," she nicely says. I sit down on the couch for a while and then ask her "Can you show me how ya' walk without yer wheel chair?" Margot looks at me like I got two heads and says, "Uhhh, I guess. But Imma need my cane. Lemme go ge-" "NO! I mean no. Lemme walk you to your cane." As she agrees, I walk her for about halfway and I drop her. "Ow. What are you doing?" She exclaims. I see'er rolling towards the sofa, but I dunno why. I run to grab her cane and sit in her wheel chair and start rolling around the house in it and then I ask, " What do you mean what am I doing? You're the one on tha floor, it ain't me." I ain't ever had this much fun since I stole that other lady's eye. I'm neva gonna stop rollin'. "Help me up you crazy boy" Margot screams out in agony. I avoid her pleas as I roll around in her wheelchair in circles with her cane in my hand. I'm lost in all of this fun so I just roll and roll. Then a sting on my head and I scream out, "Ay, what was that?". Then I turn around and see her standing up with another cane in her hand. "Where did you get that from?" I sneer, "Under the couch, you lunatic! I keep one there for crazy boys like you. Now, get out of my house." I run out of the house only keeping the cane and stopping before saying, "You aren't so nice after all, have fun looking for an extra cane," while wiggling the other in the air. I walk towards my house and see a man with a brief case and a bible who walks up to Margot's door. She opens it and he opens his mouth like he said this a million times before, "Good morning, Mrs. Jameson!" He had a tan suit on with black socks. He didn’t look too bad. He was easy on the eyes if you ask me. He sat his briefcase down on the ground and fixed his collar and his hat with a white and red ribbon. I hid behind a bush and quietly watch. "I'm Mrs. Margot," I hear her say. "Oh!" He said and pretended to look confused with sparkling eyes. "I saw Mrs. Jameson on the mailbox so I thought that was who you was." and he laughed and stepped in her home. She closed the door and I continue walking. I walk and repeat his words in my head over and over again. I then realize I am a good old country boy loving in a world where people will willingly invite you into their house when you have a bible in your hand and make good jokes. These missionaries hid behind these suits and create an alter ego when they put them on. The Bible. Maybe I should hide behind it one day. I walk inside the house and into my room.
I sit on my bed and ponder for a while. I need to get more prosthetics. I can't live without them, but how, how am I supposed to get them. I think back to that man with them Bibles and see a bright blue suit, yellow socks and a black briefcase. The only suit that I have. I'll call it my luck suit. A light bulb flashes on above my head and I jump up, put the suit on and grab the suit case and a bible. Nobody will ever catch me nor know who I am. I'll be the one and only Bible Salesman, but the one everyone forgets. Nobody will ever realize that I am hiding my obsession behind this Bible. I'll be a "fine Christian". One who "makes no mistake" and can "gain everyone's trust." Hah. What is trust? Well today that is my middle name. I run out the door and walk on the sidewalk like all is good and all is bright. I look for my next victim and settle my eyes on a house that lives a family that I know too well. I walk up on the front porch, hand in my pocket clutching my lucky prosthetic eye I stole, and gather my courage and knock on the door. The door opens, I plaster the fakest smile on my face and happily say, "Good morning, Mrs.
Cedars!"
He has qualities of “good country people” by selling bibles and “not attending college but devotes his life to Christian service” (178). His appearance and name is a great symbol that signifies of something that is not real which connects to Hulga’s name. Manley’s name has an impact towards Hulga because his name signifies a manly figure which is a missing part in Hulga’s life. On the other hand his last name Pointer symbolizes great divulge of something amazing that will stand out in Hulga’s way. However his name is seen as a false and in reality symbolizes the emptiness of a male presence and the revelation that her life consists of only falsities. O’Conner also used a great mirror description between a bible and his name. Manly pulled out two bibles though one “was hollow and contained a pocket flask of whisky, a pack of cards and a small blue box with printing on it” (192). O’Conner used this hallow bible filled with several profane and contrary items as a symbolism to expose the meaning of Manley’s true self character. Manley is seen as a true nihilist, and through his name, hollow bible and false Christian morals he has revealed himself towards Hulga, as a true meaning of simply believing in nihilistic
must stand up in my pulpit and meet so many eyes turned up to my as if
Later on into the story, a self-proclaimed Christian and country boy, Manly Pointer, came to the Hopewell Farm to sell bibles. He sold himself neatly to Mrs. Hopewell who believed he was a good country boy he portrayed himself to be however thought he was boring. Pointer then lures Joy to the barn the next day and while Joy thought she was going to seduce and educate Pointer, he had his own less than admirable agenda.
As a book that represents the very belief system of Christians everywhere, the bizarre man transforms a book that “ought to be in the parlor” into a book of faithless in order to represent his empty and irreligious belief system. Simply put, the man presumed to be Manley Pointer had beliefs as hollow as his bible and he used that lack of belief to exploit peoples’ assumptions of his character. That is to say that, when it comes to this “salesman,” there is more than meets the
I. Intro. - Imagine you are sitting home one night with nothing to do. Your parents have gone away for the weekend and there is absolutely no one around. So you sit around that night watching TV for awhile but find nothing on worth watching. You go on upstairs to your room and get ready for bed. Turn off the lights, lay down, and close your eyes. All of a sudden you here a crash of glass in your kitchen. You rush to your feet and put your ear to the door listening to what’s going on downstairs. You begin to hear the voice of two men as they start going through the living room, making their way to the stairs, right outside your room. What do you do? You aren’t going to confront them since its just you—remember you thought you heard two of them right? Well you are really stuck in your room and all you can do is sit there hoping that they leave soon and don’t harm you. Now if it were at my house things would be a little bit different. For starters I would get out my shotgun from my closet and begin to see what is gin on down stairs.
The short story focuses on the expectations of Hulga Hopewell and the irony of her encounter with a traveling Bible salesman. Hulga, with a PhD in philosophy and a wooden leg, sees herself as an uncompromising cynic in a world of fools, and she believes she has spotted a world-class fool in a Bible salesman, Manley Pointer. As her name implies, this is just wishful thinking: her certainty in her own brilliance and the stupidity of others leads her into a trap that reveals far more truth about herself and the world around her than she would have ever previously thought possible.
As talked about by David Sengeh (2014) in one of his TEDtalks about prosthetics, he stated how people from his country of Sierra Leone would not wear their prosthetic limbs because they were too painful to wear all the time. They just deci...
Although nothing can ever fully replace any part of our bodies, most people who have suffered the loss of a body part or who were born missing something that everyone else has and needs—like a foot or a hand—would agree that something is usually better than nothing. People have used all sorts of artificial devices probably from the beginnings of human history to help them compensate for the loss of a limb. Thus in very ancient times, the first and simplest prosthesis may have been a forked tree limb that was used as a crutch to help someone walk whose leg may have been badly damaged or lost in an accident or to a disease.
“okay what is this, a Bible what kind of sick joke are you playing with me what am I supposed to do with this bible, if I sell it I won’t get much for it, I can’t eat it, it’s made of paper, and it don’t even look appetizing. It can’t protect me; come on lady do you have anything of value here?
In the Personal Narrative ¨A Work In Progress¨ by Aimee Mullins, a young girl named Aimee Mullins was born with two amputated legs. She has to deal with not being able to do lots of things because she doesn't have ankles or legs. She overcomes this obstacle by working with many people to help her get new and improved legs that will be just like having regular legs. It says,¨ And so I started working with engineers, fashion designers, sculptors , Hollywood prosthetic makeup artists, wax museum designers to build for me¨(pg.406).This shows that Aimee wanted to try very hard to make sure that it doesn't even feel like she doesn't even realize
Saradjian, A., Thompson, R. A., & Dipak, D. (2008). The experience of men using an upper limb prosthesis following amputation: Positive coping and minimizing feeling different. Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation, 30(11), 871-883. doi: 10.1080/09638280701427386
A calm crisp breeze circled my body as I sat emerged in my thoughts, hopes, and memories. The rough bark on which I sat reminded me of the rough road many people have traveled, only to end with something no one in human form can contemplate.
A narrative sermon, according to Miller, “is a story which…binds the entire sermon to a single plot as theme” (103). Miller first presents a defense of narrative preaching as a “strong and advisable sermonic model” (103). Next, Miller examines some of the critiques and cautions of preaching narrative sermons. Finally, Miller seeks to provide a healthy model of narrative preaching as and within the sermon. In his chapter, Miller seeks to encourage the preacher to rightly utilize narrative preaching even though he is not unaware of the difficulties and the shortcomings that come with it. Miller implies that the benefits of using narratives while preaching often outweigh the negatives if done properly. For my own preaching, I am challenged by Miller’s well presented arguments for the use of narrative preaching. Not only is this model conducive to much of the Bible, but it is also advantageous to the story-oriented culture that we live and minster in. Miller also challenges my preaching ministry by reminding me that regardless of how I preaching my sermons “must stay in touch with an evangelistic compassion for the lost world for which God created the church” (111). Not only must my preaching reflect the teachings and passions of Christ, but as Miller suggest, “The best sermons…fit the tone of the passage they expose” (115). The word of God often helps dictate the proper manner in which it is proclaimed. Couple this fact with the statement of H. Grady Davis that “nine-tenths of (the gospel) is narrative” and I am reminded of the necessity to strive to become an all-around preacher
It’s 3:20 am. on a Friday morning, and pitch black out. The only things visible are the tree branches and pavement shining from yellow streetlights that carve out a path from the parking lot to the back door of my building. Living on campus at Towson I should’ve owned mace, but I clutched my car key instead, pointed outward ready to stab the eye of anyone deciding to come out of the dark after me. The brisk walk up the hill seems to take half an hour. Finally under the bright lights of the overhang I swipe my card quickly to get inside. The door bolt locks behind me with a loud click. I’m safe.
The image of the preacher that most resonates with me within our readings is that of Paul Scott Wilson. Wilson brings to light the image of the preacher as storyteller or moviemaker. “If we imagine that we are directing a film we allow ourselves to think and compose sermons in a visual manner- which is how most of us think in any case.” This resonates with me a lot because personally I am a huge fan of movies. I am a visual learner, and like many in my own generation who have grown up with television, the internet, and other forms of digital media, I have a limited attention span. For this reason, the preacher needs to assume the role of a storyteller who can paint word pictures within the sermon. These word pictures