“Long views depressed Parker. You look out into space like that and youbegin to feel as if someone were after you, the navy or the government or religion” (paragraph 36). What insights does this statement give us into Parker’s character—and, consequently, into his behavior?
What will be an ideal response?
- This quote provides an essential insight into O. E. Parker: he is very much a creature of the moment and does not want to think about the future. His existence has been a series of impulsive actions—he fled from a church revival to the navy, then fled from the navy, and so on—and he has thrashed his way blindly through his life. He is out of touch with his own inner needs and discontents, and nothing has ever touched that part of himself except the tattooed man at the fair and his own subsequent pursuit of tattoos: “Parker had never before felt the least motion of wonder in himself. Until he saw the man at the fair, it did not enter his head that there was anything out of the ordinary about the fact that he existed. Even then it did not enter his head, but a peculiar unease settled in him.
It was as if a blind boy had been turned so gently in a different direction that he did not know his destination had been changed” (par. 19). Parker’s indifference to the finer points of religious belief is part of a much larger indifference to just about everything beyond himself and his immediate needs and gratifications.
Language Arts & World Languages
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Language Arts & World Languages
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Language Arts & World Languages
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Language Arts & World Languages
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Language Arts & World Languages