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INITIATION AND ITS TRAVESTY IN THE RIVER
BY FLANNERY O’CONNOR
——~o » —_—_
KATALIN G. KÁLLAY
ABSTRACT
My paper investigates the extent to which Flannery O’Connor’s story The River
is a deliberate travesty of the ritual of baptism and the extent to which the
initiation is indeed to be taken seriously. Can the fact that it happened in
search of the kingdom of Christ ease or alter the tragedy of a little boy’s suicide?
As the author, a deeply devoted Catholic writer of the American South claims,
most of her stories contain a “moment of grace.” The challenging question is
if and where this moment is to be found in this particular text. O’Connor’s
texts are imbued with a subtle humour and a sense of self-irony, which is also
highlighted in the paper. Her choice of symbolic names is examined as well,
and this leads to my suggestion in the conclusion of the paper.
Flannery O’Connor, a deeply devoted Catholic writer of the American South,
deals with the problem of initiation into the mysteries in many of her short
stories. She is also famous for her frequent themes of violence and tragedy,
which she handles with a special sense of grotesque humour. In “The River,"
Harry Ashfield, a four- or five-year-old boy, is taken to a religious meeting by
Mrs. Connin, his babysitter, at which he is ceremonially immersed in the river
by a faith healer, Bevel Summers, to be free and to “count.” The day after the
event, he goes back to the river by himself to repeat the immersion in search
of the kingdom of Christ, and he drowns. My paper investigates the extent to
which the text is a deliberate travesty of the ritual of baptism and the extent
1 All references to the text of the story are based on the following edition: Flannery O’Connor,
The Complete Stories. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1971, Forty-first printing, 1996,
157-175.
Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 285 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:24