Popular Culture Review Vol. 2, No. 2, July 1991 | Page 69

Displaced People and the Frailty of Words

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The old man didn't seem to hear her. His
attention was fixed on the cock who was taking
minute steps backward, his head against the spread
tail. "The Transfiguration," he murmured.
She had no idea what he was talking about. "Mr.
Guizac didn’t have to come here in the first place,"
she said, giving him a hard look.
The cock lowered his tail and began to pick grass.
"He didn't have to come in the first place," she
repeated, emphasizing each word.
The old man smiled absently. "He came to
redeem us," he said . . . .(5)
The dialogue, which results only in confusion for both Mrs.
McIntyre and the priest, relies on the ambiguous pronoun "he": he
"didn't have to come here," says Mrs. McIntyre, meaning Mr. Guizac
(not understanding that according to Catholic doctrine, Christ, too,
"didn't have to come here" or choose a martyr's life). He "came to
redeem us" refers both to Christ and, as a reader learns later in "The
Displaced Person," Guizac himself.
When Guizac eventually dies violently, Mrs. McIntyre is so
deeply affected that she ultimately loses her farm. The immigrant
and the prophet from Nazareth are both outcasts, but the two who
profess to know them best (Mrs. McIntyre and the priest, respectively)
are oblivious to the revelation. A man in awe appears "idiotic" to
Mrs. McIntyre; Mrs. McIntyre's lack of compassion and distrust of
others are revealed in her labeling Guizac an "extra" person in her
world. The priest, who speaks only to himself of the significance of
the life of Christ and his transfiguration, has no desire to connect
with Mrs. McIntyre (beyond "blandly" reaching for her hand).
O'Connor tells the reader directly that Mrs. McIntyre "had no idea
what he was talking about." Later, the dialogue between them
becomes more adversarial:
"For," he was saying, as if he spoke of something
that had happened yesterday in town, "when God
sent his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord"—
he slightly bowed his head—"as a Redeemer to
mankind, He. .."