The Doubles Motif in Flannery O’Connors The Violent Bear It Away :: Violent Bear It Away Essays

The Doubles Motif in Flannery OConnors The Violent hand over It Away In The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery OConnor makes use of the duplicate motif. The doubles motif occurs when one address looks at another char runer and sees or senses yet another characters heading. In this novel, Francis and Rayber not only serve as doubles for each other still also as a double for stonemason. Francis makes Mason Tarwaters presence felt by the way he talks and the fact that he, homogeneous Mason, never removes his cap. After Francis is with Rayber a few days, Rayber feels Masons presence. Rayber had never, even when Old Tarwater had lived under his roof, been so conscious of the old mans presence (189). Mason used baptism to gain control of Francis and to have him occupy out his mission after his death. Using baptism to extend his boundaries of self manage a wall around Young Tarwater, Mason simultaneously performs an act of regeneration and murder to be repeated later when Fra ncis baptizes/murders Bishop. Francis then becomes Masons immortal self. Francis provides Mason with a sense of existing, exactly he can only tolerate the boy as a double, not as an independent human being (Paulson 102). Mason clings to the idea of being a prophet and Francis clings to the idea of being born in a wreck, with no father, an orphan, because this makes him unique, gaining epic proportions in order to transcend the anonymous lot (Paulson 106). Francis denies the father the way that Mason and Rayber deny the mother. Rayber tries, as Mason does, to imbed his ideas within Francis. Both Rayber and Mason direct the explosive force of their actions toward Francis, being lost themselves. Their struggle to survive decimates their nephew (Paulson 106). Rayber condemned the violent act that Mason committed, winning Francis and Rayber both away from reality, but Rayber committed the violent act of severe to drown his own son. Rayber and Mason both use Francis and Bishop a s a way to keep the loneliness away. OConnor, though, draws a parallel betwixt them by making both men evangelical zealots (Paulson 102). Rayber is skeptical of holiness and Mason has a religious fervor. Rayber and Mason both try to determine Francis but they do not want to teach him the same things. It before long becomes clear that not only Raybers efforts at reconstruction but also Masons muddied baptismal waters jeopardize the freedom of Francis, who weakly perceives the devil prophet within them both (Paulman 103).