“Parker’s Back”-Flannery O’Conner Tattooing the World-
Juniper Ellis
Flannery
O’Connor
·
Born March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia – August 3, 1964 (Age
39) in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia, US
·
Novelist, short story writer, essayist
·
Writing Period1946-1965
·
Genre writer of Southern Gothic
·
Literary Movement member of Christian Realism
·
Subject Interest include Morality, Catholicism, grace, and
Transcendence
·
Most well-known pieces
are Wise Blood, The Violent Bear it Away,
A Good Man is Hard to Find, Everything that Rises must Converge
Discussion
Questions
1.
Parker explains that his tattoo is the link between his wife and
him initially meeting. Parker showcases his tattoo in a form of courtship with
a Western image of masculinity (Flannery Para 427). How does this differ from
Ellis’s Chapter 1 “Tatau and Malu”
and its purpose in courtship and gender roles?
2.
“He stay in the Navy for five years and seemed a natural part of
the grey mechanical ship, except for his eyes, which […] reflected the immerse spaces
around him as if they were a microcosm of the mysterious sea […] Everywhere he
went he picked up more tattoos” (Para 428). Does Parker’s career as a sailor
explain his fascination with the traveling or Oceania tattoo culture?
3.
“He did not care much what the subject was as long as it was
colorful…Parker would be satisfied with each tattoo for about a month, then
something about it that attracted him would wear off” (Para 428). Does the tattoos’
insignificance clash with Samoan’s tattoo philosophy of genealogy and
sacredness?
4.
Saved
from a burning tractor, Parker decides on a tattoo of Christ on his back. His
interaction with his tattooist is depicted as comical. “The artist agreed. Any
one stupid enough to want a Christ on his back, he reasoned, would be just as
likely as not to change his mind the next minute, but once the work was begun
he could hardly do so” (Para 436) How does this account showcase the
differences between a tattooist in America and a tattooist in Oceania
collaborating to create tattoos with the person being tattooed?
5.
Similarly
Queequeg from Moby Dick experiences a
life threatening experience that prompts him to re-crave his image upon wood.
“After Quequeg recovers from his own life-threatening fever, he carves portions
of his tattoo into his coffin, copying the designs into the wood that will form
Ishmael’s lifebuoy” (Ellis p 61). Is there connection among life, death, and
tattooing?
6.
“White
men who chose to acquire the marks necessary to gain standing in the Pacific
often returned to their homelands only to emphasize the necessity and deny the
choice behind their tattoo” (Ellis p 155). When someone tattoos outside the
context of Oceania culture is it cultural appropriation, a political contract
of loyalty, or a fashion trend of the unknown?
Works Cited
Ellis, Juniper. Pacific
Designs in Print and Skin: Tattooing the World. New York: Colombia U, 2008.
Print.
Gooch, Brad. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor,
2010. Print.
O'Connor, Flannery.
"Parker's Back." Everything That Rises Must Coverage. New
York: Signet Classic, 1965. 425-442. Print.
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