The World's Misery

In spite of the fact that I have read Flannery O'Connor's famous story "The Displaced Person" a number of times in the past, and even taught the piece, I am always devastated by its theme--our inhumanity to each other. I reread it again yesterday. Basically, the story is rather typical of O'Connor's work in that it features the usual Southern notions of class, i. e., landowner, white trash workers, and African-Americans in that order. Into this mix, however, comes an immigrant from Poland who arrives with his family to live on the farm and work. The time is shortly after World War II.

After much wrangling and spying on the immigrant, "the displaced person," the white trash family soon becomes consumed with jealousy because of the excellent work ethic of Mr. Guizac. Eventually, Mrs. McIntyre, the land owner, decides to fire the immigrant family because of her extreme fear of miscegenation. It seems that Mr. Guizac is seeking a husband for his sixteen-year-old cousin and plans to marry her to one of the African-American workers on the farm.

When the Catholic priest in the story tells Mrs. McIntyre, "He has nowhere to go," she is unmoved. After all, she had earlier announced, "I am not responsible for the world's misery."

Unfortunately, the parallels of this O'Connor piece to the present day are still quite strong. After much discussion of the immigrant issue, America seeks to find a solution that will be satisfactory to the majority of us. It seems that our heads and hearts are as much in conflict with each other as ever. We, like Mrs. McIntyre, seem to have a fear still of what sociologists are calling "an upcoming browning of America." Our heads tell us we will lose our jobs since employers will value them more than they value us.

Our hearts, on the other hand, tell us as Christians that Jesus lived and died for all of us, not just Americans. We live in a global community where free trade and exchange of workers between countries is very popular. I scratch my head often and again want to ask, along with Rodney King after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, "Why can't we all just get along?" If we cannot, I believe our society will ultimately have the same type of tragic ending as "The Displaced Person," that leads to our own misery and displacement.