Thelma

This story is based on a woman named, Thelma and her encounter with a man named, Harvey. Thelma an ordained missionary knocks on Harvey’s door and he thought Thelma came to save his soul. He was not ready for that but he still invited her in. He saw her presence as “An angel of God sent as a special delivery for him” (Oates 647).

Oates takes us into the mind of a dark and twisted individual. Purposely not telling Thelma his correct name, he told her his name is Flash. He engaged in conversation with her, but was unsure if he wanted to receive the word of God. Thinking to himself “Offer them drinks, but no…this is an opportunity to confront goodness and it should not be violated” (Oates 648). It’s very clear that Flash was a conflicted individual;

She roused her daughter and carried her to the door. I felt myself feeling happy for Thelma, as she was getting away from this evil man. Flash attempt to get up from is chair and was unable to. He thought to himself that the gin in his lemonade did something strange to his legs. Evidently he drank the lemonade that was drugged, instead of the one with the gin. This was the reason Thelma did not drink her lemonade, as she tasted the alcohol.

What a coincidence, that Flash drank the drugged lemonade, I believe that God was on Thelma’s side. As Thelma got to the door, she said “Help is needed here, Satan is in this house” (Oates 657). He tried to get out of his chair but fell to the floor. He used his harsh remarks to see if he could stop her from leaving, but was amazed that it did not affect Thelma. She continued to leave with her head held high, he suddenly felt terrified and I think he realized at that moment, God was winning against the evil.

Making his way to the driveway, he fell to his knees. Feeling the wickedness of Satan in him, he said out loud “Satan speaks through me, don’t leave me here to die and begged for Christ’s love” (Oates 658). It was at that moment Thelma turned back, keeping her distance from him; she prayed out loud. Her final words to him were, to love God and abhor

At that moment, he renounced Satan, grounding his bare knees into the gravel; bleeding all his impurities away. He wanted his knees to scar, so he can be reminded of this very moment, when he accepted God. It’s clear that Flash is someone obsessed with religion, he first believed that Satan lives in him and now he’s purposely hurting his knees to show that God lives in him.

When Flash’s sister returned home, she spoke to him in a certain manner, “What the hell happened to you? What the hell is this?”(Oates 659-660), as she waved the religious pamphlets in his face. It seems like Flash knows there’s evil within his sister, and his response was to leave him alone and shut the door on her way out. His sister was angry by her brother’s behavior towards her; she went to the back yard to smoke.

She cursed and laughed at the same time, while smoking. “She frequently laughed when she was anger, and she laughed a good deal these days” (Oates 660). Her description of cesspool that was located too close to the surface soil can be a correlation that there’s a sense of filth within the property. Her thought of setting the bamboo on fire can be viewed as the fires of hell, maybe the devil lived within his sister all along and she just imparted it onto him. By him telling his sister to shut the door on her way out, he’s now strong enough to expel the evil from his