What is the basis of Parker’s fascination with tattooing? What kinds offeelings usually prompt him to get a new tattoo?

What will be an ideal response?



  • O. E. Parker is an unsatisfied man who seeks fulfillment and beauty with his tattoos. After his marriage, he becomes “gloomier than ever” and so “whenever Parker couldn’t stand the way he felt, he would have another tattoo” (par. 72). His life plays out a cycle of restlessness, as he imagines a new tattoo, acquires it, and remains satisfied with it for about a month: then the pattern repeats.



It is interesting to observe that despite the seemingly static nature of this procedure, there is some subtle but steady movement taking place throughout. As we see in paragraph 22, his tattoos progress from inanimate objects (anchors and crossed rifles) through animals (a tiger, a panther, a cobra, hawks) to humans (Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip—which demonstrates as well as anything could O’Connor’s contention that “He did not care much what the subject was as long as it was colorful”).
His encounter at age fourteen with the tattooed man at the fair marks the beginning of his discontentment with life and his wrestling with God. Like the prophet Jonah, Parker runs from the truth he knows intellectually but does not want to accept emotionally. It could be said that the final step in this progression is his leap from the human to the divine with the tattoo of Christ on his back. All of his previous tattoos have been where he could see them; perhaps in having his back tattooed for Sarah Ruth, he has broken free of the limits of his self-preoccupation by reaching out to another, which foreshadows his leap (by the story’s end) to seeking God.

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

"Constantly risking absurdity"--Lawrence Ferlinghetti Write a paragraph in which you trace the development of the central image of the poem. In each step, discuss how this image influences the reader's experience of the poem's action.

What will be an ideal response?

Language Arts & World Languages