A View of the Woods

O'Connor is a precise composite writer because of the use of her symbolism in addition to the elements of the dark humor. O'Connor’s story, is figuratively intricate. The story focuses on the relationship of Mary Pitts,and Mr Fortune. The story has a developing conflict. The conflict is between Mary and her grandfather, over the sale of some ground that Mary finds important for her father's grazing of his cattle and for the view of the woods. It is best to look carefully at the woods in this story because they assume a symbolic significance similar to the woods in Greenleaf.

Tilman was a man of quick action and few words. He sat habitually with his arms folded on the counter and his insignificant head weaving snake-fashion above them. He had a triangular-shaped face with the point at the bottom and the top of his skull was covered with a cap of freckles. His eyes were green and very narrow and his tongue was always exposed in his partly opened mouth. He had his
The impression here appears to be that in selling the land to Tilman, Mr Fortune is really giving the Garden of Eden to the governor of the serpent.

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She turned and looked him straight in the face and said with a slow concentrated ferocity, "It's the lawn. My Daddy grazes his calves there. We , I'd kill him."

A man seventy-nine years of age cannot let himself be run over by a child of nine. His face set in a look that was just as determined as hers. "Are you a Fortune," he said, "or are you a Pitts? Make up your mind."

Her voice was loud and positive and belligerent. "I'm Mary-Fortune-Pitts," she said.

"Well I," he shouted, "am PURE Fortune!" (74)

What is seem in this play of names, look at it in terms of the theological setting or context, is that the little girl is recognizing that she fits to the Pitts; that is, she fits to the world which is oversaw by God, and she admits being governed by God as designated by her authorizing her father to punish her. Mr Fortune does not believe in this, however; he believes in "fortune," the power of money.

The situation develops into conflict after the land has been sold (79). The little girl takes her glasses off and belts him, and as she belts him, there is a description of five claws going into the flesh of his upper arm so that the little girl almost becomes the figure of the devil. The tragic ending comes when the old man looks up into Mary's face as she sits on his chest, a face which is "his