What is it about?
The centerpiece of Flannery O'Connor's "A View of the Woods," first published in 1957, is a monstrous excavating machine. This excavator, trapped in its red clay pit, is Dante's Lucifer, eating but never satisfied. It is Allen Ginsberg's Moloch, "whose mind is pure machinery!"
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Many critics have mistaken the story's central machine for a bulldozer. It is instead an excavator, likely one of the hydraulic models common to construction sites in the U.S. after World War II. Properly named, the machine and its movements come into distinct view, and its theological implications become discernible. The grotesque excavator digs a foundation akin to the pit of the Inferno, where it has ensnared itself like Dante's fallen angel.
Perspectives
I presented an earlier version of this essay in 2016 at a Society for the Study of Southern Lit. roundtable titled "The Objects of O'Connor" and organized by Gina Caison of Georgia State University. I am most grateful to her, our roundtable-mates, and our perceptive audience.
George Piggford, C.S.C.
Stonehill College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Flannery O'Connor's Excavator in A VIEW OF THE WOODS, The Explicator, October 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/00144940.2017.1379462.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
