The Artificial Nigger by Flannery O'Connor
"The Artificial Nigger" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor that explores themes of identity, experience, and the complexities of human relationships. Set in rural Georgia, the narrative follows Mr. Head and his grandson, Nelson, as they embark on a pivotal journey to Atlanta. Mr. Head perceives the trip as a moral mission to teach Nelson about the city, while Nelson is motivated by a curiosity about his origins. The story juxtaposes their differing perspectives as they navigate encounters that challenge their understandings of race and morality.
As they travel, Nelson's experiences in the city evoke a mixture of wonder and confusion, especially when confronted with a black woman who represents a new and conflicting realm of feelings. The dynamics of their relationship shift dramatically, particularly when Mr. Head denies responsibility for Nelson after an incident with a woman in the city. This betrayal marks a significant turning point, leading to a deeper exploration of their connection and individual struggles. The story culminates in a poignant encounter with a statue that symbolizes their shared pain and the complexities of human experience. Ultimately, "The Artificial Nigger" serves as a powerful commentary on the intersections of race, morality, and personal growth within the framework of familial bonds.
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The Artificial Nigger by Flannery O'Connor
First published: 1955
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: Probably the 1940's or 1950's
Locale: Atlanta, Georgia
Principal Characters:
Mr. Head , a sixty-year-old man living in rural GeorgiaNelson , his ten-year-old grandson
The Story
Flannery O'Connor's own favorite among her stories, "The Artificial Nigger" is really two stories in one: the saga of Nelson's initiation into the world of experience and the tale of Mr. Head's fall from righteousness to emptiness. The two journeys parallel each other, just as the railroad tracks, which play an important part in this story, parallel each other; unlike the tracks, however, which never intersect, Mr. Head's and Nelson's journeys coalesce in their shared visions of the mysterious statue that provides the title of the story.
In the opening scene, Mr. Head and Nelson, who live together in rural Georgia, are preparing for a trip to Atlanta, each motivated to make this monumental expedition for different reasons. Mr. Head, proud of his independence and omniscience (he does not even need an alarm clock to awaken him), sees the trip as a "moral mission" during which he will guide his grandson through the complexities of the city, helping him see everything so that Nelson will never again want to visit the city and will, instead, be content to live forever with his grandfather. Nelson, for his part, wants to see the city where he believes he was born; for him, the trip is a journey into his past.
Traveling to Atlanta by train, the pair experience their first shared event—an event that, ironically, separates them. Mr. Head has been warning Nelson about seeing "niggers," telling him that the city is full of these people, who were run out of the county two years before Nelson was born. Nelson, confident that he will be able to identify a black person when he sees one, observes but does not recognize the first black man he sees on the train. Mr. Head asks him, "What was that?" and Nelson responds, "A man." Pushed to be more specific, Nelson says that the man is "fat" and that he is "old," but never does he identify him as black. As Nelson tries to rationalize when told by his grandfather what he was supposed to have seen, "You never said they were tan. How do you expect me to know anything when you don't tell me right?" Mr. Head, the guide, righteously enjoys his knowledge at the expense of his grandson's ignorance.
The next episode continues to distinguish the guide from the follower. The two weigh themselves on a scale in front of a store, and though the machine is inaccurate in its numbers, Mr. Head is sure it is accurate in its words because the ticket says that he is "upright and brave" and that all of his friends admire him. Nelson's fortune, by contrast, is ominous: "You have a great destiny ahead of you but beware of dark women."
As the two pursue their journey, Nelson becomes increasingly enamored of the wonders of the city, horrifying his grandfather by his positive reaction to the place Mr. Head believes is evil. To shock his grandson, Mr. Head takes Nelson to a sewer entrance and forces him to look into the depths of the underground system. Explaining to him the terrors of that underbelly, Mr. Head unknowingly teaches Nelson that there is indeed a dark underside to the wonders of existence. The lesson, however, requires more experience before Nelson truly understands its implications.
One of these experiences occurs when Nelson and his grandfather, lost in the city, meet a black woman whose presence confuses Nelson because of her maternal yet sensuous presence. Wanting to be comforted and seduced by her, a feeling he has never had before, Nelson nearly collapses from the sensation, remembering the fortunes on the scale that told him to beware of dark women but told his grandfather that he was upright and brave. Nelson decides to trust his mentor once again.
His mentor, however, betrays that trust. In a subsequent episode, Nelson collides with a woman, knocking her down and incurring her wrath. She accuses Nelson of breaking her ankle and tells Mr. Head that he will have to pay the doctor's bill. When Mr. Head responds that Nelson is not his boy, that he "never seen him before," the biblical echoes of Peter's and Judas's betrayals resound. Nelson is devastated.
Guide and follower are now separated by a monumental chasm. The relationship between the two is literally and figuratively severed, with Mr. Head walking ahead of his grandson, the young boy trailing behind. As the two individuals proceed in this fashion, they see a statue whose image and significance provide the climax of the journey and the story. A plaster figure of a black boy about Nelson's size, the statue has "a wild look of misery," and its misery, viewed by two human beings who are themselves miserable, becomes the vehicle by which Nelson and Mr. Head transcend their particular situation. Grandfather and grandson sense that they are "faced with some great mystery, some monument to another's victory that brought them together in their common defeat. They could both feel it dissolving their difference like an action of mercy."
The two return to their life in rural Georgia, Nelson having been initiated into the world of good and evil, Mr. Head having been initiated into the world of humanity. Each recognizes his need of the other; both realize that they do not understand the mystery of a world that contains sewers and illuminating visions.
Bibliography
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Asals, Frederick. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find": Flannery O'Connor. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1993.
Caruso, Teresa, ed. "On the Subject of the Feminist Business": Re-reading Flannery O'Connor. New York: Peter Lang, 2004.
Lake, Christina Bieber. The Incarnational Art of Flannery O'Connor. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2005.
O'Gorman, Farrell. Peculiar Crossroads: Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Catholic Vision in Postwar Southern Fiction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
Orvell, Miles. Flannery O'Connor: An Introduction. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991.
Paulson, Suzanne Morrow. Flannery O'Connor: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1988.
Rath, Sura P., and Mary Neff Shaw, eds. Flannery O'Connor: New Perspectives. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
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Spivey, Ted R. Flannery O'Connor: The Woman, the Thinker, the Visionary. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1995.