The Symbolic Meaning Behind the Black Procession in OConners A Late E

The emblematic Meaning Behind the Black Procession in OConners A new Encounter with the Enemy Czechoslovakian philosopher and political mind Vaclav Havel, in his sermon The Power of the Powerless, talks about the danger of living within a lie (84). He argues that individuals who refuse to develop a strong experience of self and instead merge with the anonymous crowd and flow well along with it down the river of pseudo-life (38) inevitably experience a profound crisis of gentle identity (45). Havel was speaking specifically of communism, but more broadly of the kind condition. His warning is similar to moral subject matter of Southern writer Flannery OConner in her short stories, specifically A Late Encounter with the Enemy. OConner, unlike Havel, sends her message through her fictional characters. They frequently live in contrived worlds the cut down the realities of their lives. OConner operates on a highly symbolic and ironic level to abut this to her readers. In A L ate Encounter with the Enemy, the General is typical of OConners characters, nonvoluntary to reveal his actual self. But when he is faced with the black patterned advance at graduation, it reminds him of his true, forgotten bypast, and it is this truth -- the enemy -- which ultimately leads to his death. The General refuses to mark the past. He refers to it as a dreary black procession (399). The past is of no importance to him because he is only concerned with the present. All he cares for are parades and beautiful guls (400). The General is able to justify his avoidance of the past. OConner tells us that he didnt have any use for history because he never expected to meet it again (399). There is only one second base from the... ...he gives about him, giving the reader a clear picture of what split up of character he is. But he is weak in his scent out of self, content to live as a symbol of a divine past rather than as a true human. OConner exploits this weakness a nd tardily breaks the General down through the course of the story. She demonstrates the dangers of living a lie, of fit someone that one is not. Her message is that the fate of the General will be the fate of all man if he chooses to live within a lie. OConner warns that life lived without human identity is comparable to Havels river of pseudo-life. Only she uses the image of a black procession -- dark, solemn and resulting in painful death. The analogies are really different, but the message is the same. Works Cited Havel, Vaclav. The Power of the Powerless. trans. Paul Wilson. Hutchinson Educational, 1985.