and watch them. There was one woman who came every Monday who wore a bathing suit that was split on each hip. At first he
thought she didn’t know it, and instead of watching openly on the bank, he had crawled into some bushes, snickering to himself, and
had watched from there. Fitzgerald, 1988: 44
7 When he’d got back to his room, he had taken the new jesus out the sack and, hardly daring to look at him, had laid him in the
gilted cabinet; then he had sat down on the edge of his bed to wait. Fitzgerald, 1988: 98
8 A man and woman sitting close together on a rock just off the highway were looking across a open stretch of valley at a view of
the city in the distance and they didn’t see the shaggy figure approaching. She, as soon as she turned her eyes, fled screaming
down the highway. The gorilla stood as though surprises and presently its arm fell to its side. Fitzgerald, 1988: 112
3.2 Violence
Grotesque elements that often shock the readers are the violence and the comic. Violence is often an element in O’Connor’s stories; in fact, she once said
that her own faith and illness made her conscious of the constant presence of death in the world. It explains the large number of deaths in her stories, and it may
account for the strong sense of danger in many of them. In “Good Country People,” for example, Hulga’s wooden leg is stolen by a dishonest Bible
salesman. In “Revelation,” Mrs. Turpin is attacked in the doctor’s office by a girl who has suddenly gone mad. Events and characters such as these are the source of
the charge that O’Connor’s characters are grotesque. O’Connors hero, Hazel Motes, sneers at communal and social experiences
of Christianity, sees the followers of itinerant, Protestant preachers as fools, and sets out to deny Christ as violently as he can. Against his individual attempts,
Hazel faces the tendency of all around him to identify him as a preacher.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
Violence could be defined as the use of physical force against a person or other living thing causing injury or against an object causing damage. Hazel
Motes is one O’Connor’s character who causes someone dead 9. Hazel’s violence is dramatized by a fact that he is a preacher. Hazel is a prophet who has
preached his church, but instead of forgiving, Hazel kills Solace Layfield, Hoover Shoat’s false prophet, who imitates him.
9 Haze gave him a hard slap on the back and he was quiet. He leaned down to hear if he was going to say anything else but he
wasn’t breathing anymore. Haze turned around and examined the front of the Essex to see if there had been any damage done to it.
The bumper had a few splurts of blood on it but that was all. Before he turned around and drove back to town, he wiped them of
with a rag. Fitzgerald, 1988: 115
Hazel rejects the existence of Jesus and he preaches his nihilist to people. However, when there is someone who imitates what he does. Hazel goes mad
because the man does it not because of his faith, but in order to get money. Hazel deny to have faith to Jesus, but when people use the faith to mock or get money,
he becomes angry. Hazel murders Solace and does not give him a chance to speak or defense at all.
10 “Take off that hat,” haze said “Listenhere,” the man said, beginning to cough, “what you want?
Quit just looking at me. Say what you want.” “You ain’t true,” Haze said. “What do you get up on top of a car
and say you don’t believe in what you do believe in for?” … “You ain’t true. You believe in Jesus.”
“Take off that hat and that suit”…”Two things I can’t stand, a man that ain’t true and one that mocks what is.”
”Never giver no rest. Stole theter car. Never told the truth to my daddy or give Henry what, never give him…,” he said through a
kind of bubbling in his throat. “You shut up now,” Haze said.
“Jesus…” the man said. “Shut up like I told you to now,” Haze said. Fitzgerald, 1988:
115
Universitas Sumatera Utara
The definition of violence often is widened to include threats of physical force and substantially abusive language and harassing actions. Most Hazel’s
actions are violent because he never gives attention while someone is speaking. Hazel is pictured as a violent person since the first chapter. He does not look when
Mrs. Wally Bee Hitchcock is talking to him and answers her impolitely 11 and 12. He also acts that could cause people irritating. He does not give attention to a
boy who is speaking to him in a used-car market 14 and rejects Enoch violently while Enoch wants to be his friend 13.
11 “I guess you’re going home,” she said, turning back to him again. He didn’t look, to her, much over twenty… he didn’t
answer her or move his eyes from whatever he was looking at. Fitzgerald, 1988: 3
12 “Are you going home?” Mrs. Hitchcock asked. He looked at her sourly and gripped the black hat by the brim.
“No, I ain’t,” he said in a sharp high nasal Tennessee voice. Fitzgerald, 1988: 5
13 “Look,” Haze said, “I’m going where I’m going, two doors from here. I got a woman, see? And that’s where I’m going, to
visit her. I don’t need to go with you… Get away from me.” “People ain’t friendly here. You ain’t from here but you ain’t
friendly neither.” Haze didn’t answer him. He went on with his neck drawn close to
his shoulder blades as if he were cold. Fitzgerald, 1988: 32
14 Haze started off toward the back of the lot where he saw a particular car. “Hey” the boy yelled. “You don’t just walk in here
like that. I’ll show you what I got to show,” but Haze didn’t pay any attention to him. Fitzgerald, 1988: 38
3.3 Absurd
