Parker's Back Symbolism

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Why are the colors of the tattoos important in the short story Parker’s Back? The tattoos represent O.E. Parker’s life and what he has been through. Each tattoo is a different color, representing the type of emotion Parker was feeling at that time of his life. The tattoos on Parker’s body are major symbols throughout Parker’s life. Parker goes through the actions of life without knowing who he truly is and why he has been placed on this earth. Parker experiences religious conversion, his entire body is covered with tattoos but Parker is drawn to having a Byzantine tattoo of Christ placed on his back. O’Conner used unusual symbols to represent her sense of mystery of god’s redemptive power. The tattoos help the reader see the major characteristics in Parker’s life and help understand Parker as he searches for his identity and finds god. Parker’s Back was written by Flannery O’Connor and it was published back in 1965. It was O’Connor’s last story before she died at the age of 39. All of O’Connor’s writings reflect from her religious background of Catholicism. She wrote stories that helped bring the issue or religious faith into clear focus. Most of her stories were usually shocking and bizarre. She loved to use color in her stories as well because it helped her show the type of feeling/emotion that the character was having. Parker’s Back starts off with O.E Parker talking about his wife. Immediately O’Connor states “The skin on her face was thin and drawn as tight as the skin on an onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like the points of two icepicks (510, par1)”. His wife was pregnant at this time of the story, so her face being thin and drawn like an onion is representing how she looks worn out and her grey eyes help the ... ... middle of paper ... ... of evil against you, for my sake. Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11-12). The attention to color changes from the color of his new tattoo to the color of his soul. “Turning his spider web soul into a perfect arabesque of colors” Color plays a huge role in Parker’s Back. Each tattoo is a different color, each representing a time in his life, each color showing what type of emotion Parker is feeling. O’Connor uses color in all of her stories, it’s how she expressed her characters emotion. O’Connor uses her religious background in all of her stories as well. She uses many of the same themes in her story also, her stories can sometimes be confusing, which is why she uses the tattoos and the color of the tattoos in Parker’s Back to help the reader understand her stories.

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