The Unstable Tattooed Man Essay

"Parker's Back" is the last story from the late amazing Flannery O'Connor, and it details the main character O.E. Parker, tuggle war for the love of God and religion. The main character, O.E. Parker, purposely run away from the one-way road to The Almighty and did not take any opportunity to find that road. Instead, he went about finding himself in odd ways, starting at the age of 14, when he saw a man at a fair covered in tattoos, all of which had beautiful colors that made up nature's best to offer and amazing forms of life. From that point on Parker fell in love with the idea of covering his body with tattoos, striving to look like the man at the fair. The fair was a turning point in Parker's unstable life, the tattoos were now meant to give him a sense of purpose, which he did not have before. The first of many tattoos for parker was an eagle, which symbolizes pride, freedom and power. However, after each tattoo, Parker became unhappy with himself, because of by the way the designs on his body seemed to connect with the others, giving off an unwanted effect, nothing like what he saw in the man at the fair. Parker was not happy with them because of the essence of them. He tried and tried but only dissatisfaction came from his desire to be more like the man at the fair.
Parker's most significant struggle with God came when he met Sarah Ruth, a Bible junky, who was the complete opposite of any and everything that was Parker. Parker met Sarah outside of her house where his car broke down. Parker pretended to be hurt, because he could sense when a woman was around and right on cue out came Sarah, who heard Parker's frantic foul mouth cry continuously cursing the Lord's name in vain. Being the extremely religious woman Sarah was, she knocked some sense into Parker for his use of language. It's understandable because she comes from a religious family, as her dad is a preacher so Sarah probably has spent most of her life around church. Being the anti religious person that Parker is he has not and right away he knows there is nothing that attracts him to Sarah but something keeps pulling him into her. This is probably the work of God, as many people who are somewhat religious knows that God doesn't always give you what you want but more so what you need. Sarah checks on Parker to see if he is injured in anyway, but finds no marks on him, similar to after the crucifixion when their were no visible nail marks on Jesus. Parker and Sarah would soon get married and in the marriage Parker is unhappy and wants out, but he feels stuck. Parker's marriage to Sarah was a mystery but so is faith in a way. It almost seems like Sarah is a test from God