Parker's Back

E381597

"Parker's Back" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor that explores themes of faith, identity, and grace through the experiences of a heavily tattooed Southern man seeking spiritual meaning.

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Parker's Back canonical 2

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Statements (45)

Predicate Object
instanceOf short story
author Flannery O'Connor
character Obadiah Elihue Parker
Sarah Ruth
characterRole Sarah Ruth is Parker's wife
collectionAuthor Flannery O'Connor
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
criticalReception widely studied in O'Connor scholarship
educationalUse frequently anthologized in literature courses
firstPublicationForm posthumous publication
genre Christian fiction
Southern Gothic
religious fiction
hasTitleCharacter Parker
includedInCollection Everything That Rises Must Converge
language English
literaryMovement Southern Gothic
surface form: Southern Gothic literature
literaryPeriod 20th-century American literature
mainConflict Parker's inner spiritual struggle and his wife's rejection of his religious vision
motif religious imagery
tattoos
vision and seeing
narrativePerspective third-person limited
plotSummary A heavily tattooed Southern man seeks spiritual meaning and has an icon of Christ tattooed on his back, provoking a violent reaction from his fundamentalist wife.
protagonist Obadiah Elihue Parker
religiousContext Christianity
Protestant fundamentalism
settingLocation Southern United States
surface form: American South
style realist with symbolic elements
subjectMatter fundamentalist Christianity
grace and redemption
marital discord
religious experience
symbol Christ Pantocrator tattoo
Parker's tattoos as a search for identity
theme faith
grace
iconography and idolatry
identity
marriage and conflict
religious conversion
suffering
timePeriodOfSetting mid-20th century
tone ironic
serious

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Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.