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

The Unobtainable Good Things in OConnors A Late Encounter with the oppositenessI have Seen the Enemy and it is Myself . . . . . . . She wanted the General at her graduation because she wanted to show what she stood for, or, as she said, what all was behind her, and was non behind them. This them was not anybody in particular. It was just all the upstarts who has turned the world on its head and unsettled the counselings of decent living. (134) These are the thoughts of Sally Poker Sash, as offered by Flannery OConnor in the second paragraph of her story A Late Encounter with the Enemy. Sally, a sixty- 2 year old school teacher, is receiving a college degree that has interpreted her twenty years to earn. She should be proud of her accomplishment. Of course she should be proud. She proves true the old adages, its never too late and good topics come to those who wait. Isnt it possible though, that in some situations, the good things come too late and when they do arrive they are not so good? I think OConnor, through this story, is onerous to warn us (the readers) of that possibility. The first paragraph of A Late Encounter is told from the point-of-view of Sallys grandfather, General Tennessee Flintrock Sash. OConnor makes it very clear to us that the old man doesnt give 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 important to her that he live to see her graduation? In the above passage, Sally offers three ostensibly 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 instead to make for themselves a sullen past? Ironically, Sally is guilty of using this false past to impress the Dean and guarantee her degree.Graduation day arrives and Sally is ready for the good thing that she 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 charm on stage 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 gloat in front of him. Dammit Cheated out of triumph again. Sally Sash (whose substance name is after all Poker) had bet on the past and lost.