The Unobtainable Good Things in O’Connor’s A Late Encounter with the En

The Unobtainable Good Things in OConnors A new-fangled take place with the EnemyI have Seen the Enemy and it is Myself . . . . . . . She wanted the cosmopolitan at her graduation because she wanted to show what she stood for, or, as she said, what all was git her, and was not behind them. This them was not anybody in particular. It was just all the upstarts who has dark the world on its head and unsettled the ways of decent living. (134) These argon the thoughts of chap Poker Sash, as offered by Flannery OConnor in the second split of her story A Late Encounter with the Enemy. Sally, a sixty-two twelvemonth old school teacher, is receiving a college degree that has taken her twenty geezerhood to earn. She should be proud of her accomplishment. Of course she should be proud. She proves true the old adages, its neer too late and good things come to those who wait. Isnt it possible though, that in some(a) situations, the good things come too late and when they do arrive they a r not so good? I think OConnor, through this story, is stressful to warn us (the readers) of that possibility. The first paragraph of A Late Encounter is told from the point-of-view of Sallys grandpa, General Tennessee Flintrock Sash. OConnor makes it very clear to us that the old man doesnt feature two slaps for her graduation. Surely, his attitude is apparent to Sally, too. Sally is aware of his attitude, too. Why, then, is it so classical to her that he live to see her graduation? In the above passage, Sally offers three seemingly simple, but in actuality, complicated explanations for her prayer.Sally states explicitly that she wants her grandfather to attend her graduation because she wanted to show what she stood for. This is very ... ...tory, opting preferably to make for themselves a false past? Ironically, Sally is guilty of utilise this false past to impress the Dean and guarantee her degree.Graduation sidereal day arrives and Sally is ready for the good thing that s he has waited so long for to arrive. Alas, if it is her grandfather that she wants to prove something to, she is out of luck. OConner cheats Sally out of her moment of glory. We learn at the end of the story that the old man dies while on full stop at the graduation, oblivious to Sally receiving her diploma. Afterwards, her young nephew, the crafty scout john Wesley Poker Sash, hastily bumped the corpse out the back way so that he could get to the Coca-Cola machine thus depriving Sally of her moment to gasconade in front of him. Dammit Cheated out of triumph again. Sally Sash (whose gist name is after all Poker) had bet on the past and lost.