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Witouski 1 Dayton Witouski Dr. Brown English 101, Section 138 7 November 2019 Paper 3 Final Draft The Complex Cycle of Authority in Flannery O’Connor’s “A View of the Woods” Flannery O’Connor’s “A View of the Woods” is a short story that was published in the late 1950s. The story is narrated in the first person and tells a story about an estranged and broken family. The main characters, 79 year old Mark Fortune and 9 year old Mary Pitts, share a close yet complex relationship. Mr. Fortune would prefer to have nothing to do with his daughter (Mary’s mother) and the Pitts family as he does not agree with their lifestyle or insinuations to take his wealth when he passes. However, Mary Pitts is a special girl and is the only granddaughter that holds a special place in his heart. Within the story’s underlying meaning, O’Connor presents multiple family relationships evidently engrossed by conflict. Through each and every conflict, the reader is more prepared to understand how each problem can build up and become so constant that conflict almost seems to be anticipated in the household. The analysis of each character in “A View of the Woods” as well as the nature of their relationships offers deeper personality reflections as well as a cohesive understanding of the complexity of power that is in the family and how that power is cycled and intermingled between the characters. Throughout the short story, Mark Fortune is eager to have control over the things and people that he is able to gain control over. He is a successful landowner who is intrigued by new invention in the desolate town he resides with aspirations to have his vast property revolutionized

Witouski 2 and turned into a scene of prosperity. His son-in-law, Pitts, is often infuriated by Mr. Fortune’s materialistic mindset because he is unwilling to sell the lots to his own family. However, Mr. Fortune strategically sells off lots as he feels that “anyone over sixty years of age is in an uneasy position unless he controls the greater interest and every now and then he gave the Pittses a practical lesson” (O’Connor 337) by doing so. This is a clear representation of the power that Mr. Fortune holds over Pitts. Not only does Fortune control how much land Pitts can own, he also controls the single lot they live on because they do not even pay for their own rent. The Pittses expect to gain control of Mr. Fortune’s wealth when he dies, because Mrs. Pitts claims that she takes great responsibility over his care and well being. Little do they know that Fortune has secretly “made his will and left everything in trust to Mary Fortune, naming his lawyer and not Pitts as executor” (O’Connor 337). Overall, Mr. Fortune’s maintenance of his wealth and property amounts to a very powerful stance above the Pittses in the sense that they cannot live how they have been without his assistance. They are unable to dictate who, what, when, where, and why Mr. Fortune spends his money and Mr. Fortune is very careful to keep it this way (with the power in his control). On the other hand, Mr. Pitts has power over Mr. Fortune’s greatest treasure: Mary Fortune. Mary holds a very close place in Mr. Fortune’s heart because “he liked to think of her as being thoroughly of his clay” (O’Connor 338). In other words, Mr. Fortune saw much of himself in Mary and he often chooses to ignore the fact that she is half Pitts. Mr. Pitts senses the old man’s love for his daughter and he uses this adoration as fuel to amplify the hate he has towards Fortune. Most nights during dinner, Pitts gets the urge to beat Mary as he would give her an instantaneous glare and command her to come with him as ritual before every torturous session.

Witouski 3 This was agonizing to Mr. Fortune as he knew that “this was Pitts’s revenge on him” (O’Connor 341). Being 79 years old, Fortune was too weak and prone to heart attacks to stand up to Pitts himself, therefore leaving Pitts with the upper hand every time he chooses to give Mary the oh-so-familiar glare. The rest of the Pitts family are also too intimidated to stand up to Mr. Pitts so this became a seemingly expected and accepted routine of action. Mary never did anything wrong, yet she always seems to feel that she is liable to take the beatings every time her father needs to blow off steam. This becomes Mr. Fortune’s main topic of vexation against the child as he felt that her inability to stand up to Pitts “was her one failure of character” (O’Connor 343). Consequently, Mr. Fortune tries everything in his power to gain control of the situation. He fights with Mary several times, he questions the actions of her siblings and mother, and he even goes as far as threatening to kick them off his land. Pitts simply fires back with “‘Put me off and you put her off too. Go right ahead. She’s mine to whip and I’ll whip her every day of the year if it suits me’” (O’Connor 341). Mary Fortune is the singular piece of “bait” that Pitts dangles over Mr. Fortune and it is clearly an infuriating position for Fortune to be in. Ironically, both Pitts and Fortune hold great power over each other's actions which reflects upon a very complex cycle of dominance in “A View of the Woods”. Mary Fortune’s nature of relationships in O’Connor’s “A View of the Woods” is arguably the most complex of all characters in the short story. Most recognizably, we see that Pitts has at least a physical domination over Mary. He beats her very often and has never stood up to him for doing so. Ironically, whenever her grandfather asks her why she lets him treat her this way, she is very much so in denial as her consistent response is “‘nobody has ever beat me...and if anybody tries it I’ll kill him’” (O’Connor 354). Perhaps the young girl is in denial

Witouski 4 over the choice of words that Fortune uses to say that Pitts “beats her”. By this, she could be refusing that any man has figuratively beat her. In other words, she will never be broken down to the point where she feels that someone has taken a part of who she is. Rather than thinking about the situation in a literal perspective, Mary arguably could just be considering the figurative nature of being “beaten” by someone. This would also makes sense because she has a stubbornly competitive personality, like her grandfather. She, like her father and grandfather, wants to be authoritative in whatever ways she is able. Accordingly, because it is hard to show authority at such a young age, this could explain why she feels that she is in control over the beatings she is subjected to and intrinsically denies that she has been or ever will be beat. Additionally, Mary holds a bit of influence over Mr. Fortune. Though it may not be as dominating and manifesting as the power Pitts holds over him, it is steadily prevalent throughout the story. Mr. Fortune would be able to diminish all of his problems with Pitts if he kicked them off of the lot, yet, Mary is the sole reason that he is unable to do so. Even with his materialistic mindset, the central point of stress and happiness in Mr. Fortune’s life revolves around Mary. With her in his life, he is constantly fighting with Pitts over property and child abuse while having to submit in someways to spending time with them resentfully over dinner. But, without her in his life, he has no one; “she was the only member of the family he had any respect for” (O’Connor 336). This influence has much more of a mental impact than a physical one; it is not to be confused with Mary having an influence in every single aspect of her grandfather’s life. For example, Mr. Fortune sells off the lot across from his property to a gas convenience store owner even when Mary begs for him to not touch “the lawn”. Yet, “when he opened his eyes in the morning…[to] the empty ceiling” (O’Connor 349) rather than to Mary waking him up, he is

Witouski 5 genuinely discomforted by her absence. This explains her indirect influence on her grandfather without particularly calling it “power held” over him. Consequently, this shows that Mary has power over Mr. Fortune’s reactions and emotions more so than his actions and decisions. In its entirety, Flannery O’Connor’s “A View of the Woods” portrays a wide range of character relationships and their influence and dominance over one another. From young to middle aged to elderly, every main character in the short story has an impact on another’s actions or mentality. This cycle of authority allows for us to understand the complexity of the nature of each relationship as well as building into a more reflective analysis of each character and their progression throughout the story....