When the artist asks him if hes gone and got religion, Parker ...

[mrsjacobs44]

When the artist asks him if hes gone and got religion, Parker says, Iaint got no use for none of that. A man cant save his self from whatever it is he dont deserve none of my sympathy (paragraph 119). What does this attitude illustrate about Parkers personality? By his own standard, how much of his own sympathy does he deserve?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Why does Sarah Ruth refuse to recognize Parker by his initials? What isthe significance of his whispering his name through the keyhole, and what effect does doing so have on him?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[mcabuhat]

Answer to Question 1

• This is a confusing response to a seemingly honest question from the tattoo artist. Despite his chosen tattoo, O. E. Parker remains a stubborn man who enjoys ridiculing religion, especially when hes away from Sarah Ruth. He deserves no ones sympathy, not even his own.

This rebellious attitude is especially noticeable in the barroom/pool room scene, which occurs immediately after the tattoo artist finishes the Byzantine Christ tattoo on Parkers back. Finally, his upward progress is clear, not only in his seeking the Christ tattoo for Sarah Ruth, but also in the development and refinement of his motivations in doing so.
Although he seems concerned to find one that she will not, in spite of herself, be able to resist, in the end it is Parker himself who cannot resist the all-demanding eyes on his back. After the barroom fight leads him to examine his soul deeply for the first time in his life, he determines that she would at least be pleased. It seemed to him that, all along, that was what he wanted, to please her (par. 151). From wishing to subjugate her to his will, to wanting to give himself over to her wishes, his feelings toward Sarah Ruth parallel his feelings toward Christ, and thus prefigure his salvation.

Answer to Question 2

• Sarah Ruth dislikes her husbands initials because she prefers his given name of Obadiah Elihue Parker with its biblical associations. Obadiah is the name of an Old Testament prophet, and it means servant of God; Elihu (the more common spelling) is one of Jobs comforters, and his name signifies my God is he.

Parker, however, hates his original names because their oddity left him open to ridicule throughout his life. His substitution of initials for his names at some level also symbolizes his rejection of the biblical Christianity of his parentsor so it seems to Sarah Ruth. Her insistence that he whisper his full name, therefore has a symbolic importancean acceptance of who he truly is. But he soon discovers that despite his acceptance of his name and his tattoo (which suggests his own mysterious and muddled turn toward God), his wifes religion gives him no peace or comfort.
The couple end at a terrible stalematepsychologi cally and theologically. The tattooed Christ with its all demanding eyes is like a shrine complete with crucifix erected next to their little embankment house. For Sarah Ruth, so long as her marriage survives, there can be no escape now from awareness that Jesus Christ is both God and Man; and for O. E. there is the realization that there is a God who must not be resisted as His eyes arequite literallyon his back, following him everywhere. Sarah Ruths deepest fears about traditional and orthodox Christianity come to haunt her through her husbands tattoo, and her only defense is to beat him. O. E., despite the scorn for religion he expressed both to the tattooist and the men in the pool room, has unwittingly stumbled and fallen over the very thing he didnt want to know.
The Stephen Sparrow essay quoted earlier is worth consulting in its entirety. The text can be found online at Comforts of Home, a site dedicated to Flannery OConnor: www.flanneryoconnor .org.