A View of the Woods
Flannery O'Connor is a very complex writer in terms of her use of symbolism in addition to the elements of the grotesque and blackly humorous. O'Connor’s story, "A View of the Woods," is symbolically complicated. The story focuses on the relationship of Mary Fortune Pitts, a little girl, and her grandfather, Mr Fortune. The story is one of conflict that mounts to tragedy in the end. The conflict is basically between Mary Fortune and her grandfather over the sale of some ground that Mary Fortune finds important for her father's grazing of his cattle and for the view of the woods. You might look carefully at the woods in this story because they assume a symbolic significance similar to the woods in "Greenleaf."
In many ways I think the woods can be seen as the Garden of Eden. When they are sold, they are sold to a man called Tilman, and he is represented as a serpent:
Tilman was a man of quick action and few words. He sat habitually with his arms folded on the counter and his insignificant head weaving snake-fashion above them. He had a triangular-shaped face with the point at the bottom and the top of his skull was covered with a cap of freckles. His eyes were green and very narrow and his tongue was always exposed in his partly opened mouth. He had his chequebook handy and they got down to business at once. It did not take him long to look at the deed and sign the bill of sale and Mr Fortune signed it and they grasped hands over the counter. (76)
The idea here would appear to be that in selling the land to Tilman, Mr Fortune is actually handing the Garden of Eden over to the control of the serpent.
There is a lot made of their respective surnames earlier in the story, when the little girl and the grandfather are actually arguing over the land, and this supports this particular reading:
She turned and looked him straight in the face and said with a slow concentrated ferocity, "It's the lawn. My Daddy grazes his calves there. We won't be able to see the woods any more."
The old man held his fury as long as he could. "He beats you!" he shouted. "And you worry about where he's going to graze his calves!"
This book could be seen as a reversal of the Garden of Eden allegory. Teddy is an innocent boy in a garden, threated by a snake. Instead of getting kicked out of the garden, the snake is defeated, his innocence is preserved, and he remains in the garden.
The National Institute of Mental Health: Eating Disorders: Facts About Eating Disorders and the Search for Solutions. Pub No. 01-4901. Accessed Feb. 2002.
... of Adam and Even, who did not feel ashamed of their nudity before they ate the fruit (10). And as mentioned before, Golding concludes his Eden allusion when he brings about the “beast” as the snake that sets the boys on the fast track towards evil, while stranded on the island.
The “Fall of Man” story in The Bible, better known as the “Garden of Eden “story or “Adam and Eve”, is the story of how sin entered the perfect world that God had created.According to the Genesis 3, the book and the chapter in which the story is located, God gave Adam and Eve, the only two humans ever to be created at the time, a perfect place to dwell, a paradise called the Garden of Eden . This garden contained everything they needed and it was good. They had only one condition, they could not eat from the tree that was in the center of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because God said that if they ate it the would “ surely die”. Well one day a snake came along, or should I say Satan disguised as a snake, to tal...
Derenne, J. L., & Beresin, E. V. (2006). Body image, media, and eating disorders. Academic Psychiatry, 30(3), 257-61. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.waketech.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/196508089?accountid=15152
The creation story in Genesis refers to a serpent classically interpreted as an evil entity. If we consider God’s warning that eating fruit from a certain tree would result in death the same day and that the record indicates that the only two humans on the planet did not, we must reconsider the role of the serpent and reevaluate the roles of good and evil and how they apply to ...
The setting of the forest is that of darkness, dreariness, disillusionment, perhaps symbolizing one's path for the journey through life. Faith, Goodman Brown's wife, is a symbol of Goodman Brown's actual faith and purity at the start of his journey. Brown wants to believe he can live his life the way he wants, but investigate "sin," and then come back to Faith when he is ready. This is signified by the statement, "Well; she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one ...
Anorexia is an obsessive desire to control ones bodily appearance. It often starts with the refusal to obtain a healthy body weight. “This disorder is associated with under nutrition of varying severity with resulting secondary endocrine and metabolic changes and disruptions of bodily functions” (Kontic et al. 2013). An Anorexic person has a distorted view of themselves which can lead to devastating measures of self-starvation due to an immense fear of weight gain. In the same way, an individual suffering with Bulimia has a fear of weight gain, but goes about their technique in a different manner. Bulimia is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating or, consuming a large amount of food in a short time followed by guilt. This guilt is the leading factor to the purging stage where the individual will rid themselves of the physical and emotional discomfort. The ridding stage can invo...
The Garden of Eden album is composed of six stories and poems, all about the Genesis story about Adam and Eve in the garden. Each story and poem have different writers and poets, telling their own rendition of the story of Adam and Eve. Each writer has their own ideas of what may have happened in the garden some may be true and some may be false, but there is great deal of uncertainty within the Genesis story.A common theme among the Garden of Eden album is the lack of information and how the reader has to create their own meaning from the lack of information.
Muise, A. M., Stein, D. G., and Arbess, G. (2003). Eating disorders in adolescent boys: A review of the adolescent and young adult literature. Journal of adolescent Health, 33, 427-435.
Oates uses a metaphor to the Garden of Eden to emphasize Arnold Friend’s deceptive and malevolent ways and how his deception made Connie imagine things. Throughout the story, Connie proves to be so naïve to the dangers in her world, that all she sees is the fact that a guy is paying attention to her. You see this in the beginning of the story (Oates 505-508) when Connie and her friends go to the drive-in restaurant, and a boy named Eddie invites her to go get something to eat. She becomes so engulfed in the moment that a guy noticed her that she doesn’t realize that a guy with shaggy hair is staring at her. When Connie finally comes back down to Earth she realizes him looking at her and he sneers and tells her “Gonna get you, baby.” Connie turns away and continues as she was. Later on in the story when we find out that this shaggy haired guy is Arnold Friend, you start to see him show characteristics like that of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. On a Sunday when Connie was by h...
Shapiro, C. M. (2012). Eating disorders: Causes, diagnosis, and treatments [Ebrary version]. Retrieved from http://libproxy.utdallas.edu/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/utdallas/Doc?id=10683384&ppg=3
Garden of Eden, where the power of naming everything and creating a world that fit into
Whether technological integration has positive or negative impacts on teaching and learning has been paid increasing attention and a numerous research has done to explore the issue. Regarding the issue, the question of if training teachers in the use of technology in classrooms contributes to students’ outcomes is still an endless argument. This essay will explain two reasons why such training brings about positive academic achievements for learners and a number of training guidelines that can be followed.