It seems that in “The Lame Shall Enter First” and “A View of the Woods” Flannery O’Connor sends a very clear message that relates to the American Dream. In each story, the main character has a very clear goal that they are pursuing earnestly. Fortune wishes to mold his granddaughter in his own image and get her to denounce and betray her father and her family name. Sheppard believes he can “save” Johnson and (in a way) his son. In each case, the character obsesses over their goal, eventually taking extreme measures when things start to not go their way. Clearly however, neither achieve their goal, and instead their efforts result in unspeakable tragedy. It seems O’Connor is sending a cautionary message about obsessively pursuing one’s ambitions, especially when they are unrealistic (in this case because they involve not material things but changing the minds of people). This sends a message we have seen before– one coming from Fitzgerald through The Great Gatsby. Both Fitzgerald and O’Connor seem to be cautioning against pursuing something that cannot be guaranteed: the ability of one’s mind to change.

One aspect of “The Lame Shall Enter First” that really stood out to me was the inclusion of Johnson’s club foot. Though I didn’t realize it initially, I think the club foot tells a great deal about Johnson, Sheppard, and the relationship between the two. While Johnson is quite proud of his club foot and makes no attempts to conceal / fix it, Sheppard does a great deal in an attempt to successfully conceal the deformity and pretend like it doesn’t exist. While Sheppard thinks Johnson will be grateful to Sheppard for his efforts to get him a new boot, Johnson is angry at the attempt. I think this interaction reveals Sheppard’s intention of “fixing” Johnson in the way that he sees fit  to make himself feel good, with no regard for how Johnson feels or what Johnson wants for himself.

After reading both short stories, I was struck by the similarity between the two. In “The Lame Shall Enter First” there was a father figure who idealized a boy named Johnson and ignored his son Norton. He could only see the good in Johnson and the bad in Norton. In “A View of the Woods” the grandfather adored his granddaughter Mary and went above and beyond to make sure she only had the best. In both stories, the author talks about all the things the two adult figures would give to the favorite child. Sheppard bought a telescope and a new set of shoes for Johnson so that he could walk right, but he did not want anything to do with that. Johnson was very set in his ways and refused to take “hand-outs”. Similarly, in “A View of the Woods” Mr. Fortune tried to buy Mary’s forgiveness with a new boat, but she too refused. In the eyes of both Sheppard and Mr. Fortune, expensive things were an obvious solution and could make anyone happy. As we see, that is definitely not the case. All Mary wanted was a view of the woods and her front lawn. Both stories end with the child morphing into a devil-like creature and lashing out. While reading the works, I struggled to find a connection to the American Dream. However, after some thought, I think the author is trying to convey the sense that materialism is not the key to happiness. Happiness is something that stems from things that money cannot buy.

The last scene in this short story after Fortune has killed his own granddaughter, Mary Fortune Pitts, stuck out to me. Fortune throughout the story must always be in control of Mary Fortune and everything around him. His sense of control and constant anger all foreshadow his death as he is an old man with a heart condition. In the beginning of the story, Fortune was always in control from the house, to how Mary Fortune acted. The last scene of him “on his back” surrounded by nature and no one to help allude to the sinister consequences of thinking you can control human nature. Mary fortune was bound to grow up and become an individual person with her own ideas and mannerism aside from her grandfather. Because Fortune could not accept this and saw her opinion about the “lawn” as different from his, he saw himself quickly losing control over the person that had grounded him for so many years. Just as he thought his heart would never give out and he could keep on fighting with Mary Fortune, he kills the spitting image of himself and is left alone with only nature.

I found O’Connor’s depiction of nature in the South to particularly compelling in her short story “A View of the Woods.”  In her first paragraph she sets the scene for the story set between “the red corrugated lake” and the “black line of woods” (54). Her focus on dirt and clay is apparent throughout the story and I found O’Connor’s description of Mary Fortune on pages 58 and 59 as “being thoroughly of his clay” and with “very fine, sand-colored hair” to be especially interesting.  I also found O’Connors varied description of the pine trees to be interesting from “sullen” (69) to “hellish” to witnesses at the end of the story (78).

This story’s central issue is “the lawn” which Mr. Fortune wishes to sell to Mr. Tillman to build a gas station in the name of progress (and also spite Mr. Pitts).  Marie Fortune strongly opposes (which is an understatement) Mr. Fortune on his plan as she plays with her siblings on “the lawn” and her father grazes her calves on it.  But most importantly she says, “we won’t be able to see the woods across the road” (63).  Mr. Fortune is confounded by her insistence on the importance being able to see these woods.  These conflicting ideas of nature come to a head on page 70 when Mr. Fortune looks out upon the view of the woods; “every time he saw the same thing: woods – not a mountain, not a waterfall, not any kind of planted bush or flower, just woods….A pine trunk is a pine trunk, he said to himself, and anybody that wants to see one don’t have to go far in this neighborhood” (70).  This quote reflects Mr. Fortune’s inability to find beauty in all nature.  For him nature ought to be either grand and majestic lie a mountain or waterfall or under man’s control to render it beautiful and orderly.

I wonder what you all think of O’Connor’s emphasis on nature in this piece and what moral message she is trying to express with this conflict over the view of the woods?

Throughout The Lame Shall Enter First, Sheppard continually references the joy he feels when “helping” others. For example, O’Connor notes regarding Sheppard’s work, “On Saturdays he worked at the reformatory as a counselor, receiving nothing for it but the satisfaction of knowing he was helping boys no one else cared about”(146). At first, this seems benign, After all, Sheppard is helping forgotten people in need. Further, after Sheppard sticks up for Johnson in the face of policeman, “[Sheppard’s] spirits were soaring. This is exactly what he needed”(179). Again, the pleasure Sheppard derives from helping Johnson is not inherently negative. However, as the story unfolds, Sheppard clearly does not have Johnson’s best interests in mind. In fact, he goes so far as to ultimately despise the child. Thus, O’Connor seems to be posing the question: How can one reconcile the joy they feel when helping others? At what point does this joy become counterproductive? Is helping others ever truly selfless?