The Genius by Frank O’Connor Essay -- Genius Frank Oconnor Essays

The Genius by outspoken OConnorThe boys personality and his intelligence argon fleetly established inthe opening paragraph. His mother is presented as being a healthfulinfluence on him and appears as a kind of helper against the roughchildren savages as she describes them that live and play in thearea. It is clear that she encourages him to respect himself asdifferent and separate from them, merely it is equally obvious that heis not anxious to associate with them anyway. He describes himself asa bisexual by conviction and says that he regarded the idea of fightingas some(prenominal) unattractive and dangerous. He avoids rough games andprefers the company of girls to boys only because they tire outt fight somuch.Religion seems to play an signally important role in his life and itseems probable that this is a notice of his close relationshipwith leave out Cooney. He himself uses our Blessed Lord as a kind ofdefence against bullies who might otherwise hammer his earthoe uvre on thepavement. It is evident from the way he uses argument that he is signally articulate for his age, and this is a reflection of both hisnatural intelligence and his strong preference for adult company.The fact that his mother has told him about geniuses makes it clearthat she has gamey ambitions for him. This is reinforced by the factthat sheWorried herself endlessly finding answers to my questions.Miss Cooney, however, plays an important role in encouraging andfeeding the boys sense of himself as someone special. Although avery curious and even unstable woman, she recognises hisintelligence and, by making her religious books freely available tohim, seeks to plant and foster the growth of the idea th... ...y life, but also to Frank OConnorsdiscussion of the short baloney in The Lonely Voice (1963). OConnorcompares the novel and the short account statement whereas the novel can adhereto the classical concept of civilized society, of man as an animal wholives in a commun ity...the short story rest by its very natureremote from the community - romantic, individualistic, andintransigent. The relevance of aspects of this leave echo through mydiscussion of a story by Tobias Wolff in the final section of mypaper.For OConnor, the short story is concerned with individuals who aremarginalised, or who marginalise themselves these individuals areoutlawed figures wandering about the fringes of society...As aresult, there is in the short story at its most signsomething we do not often find in the novel - an animated awareness ofhuman loneliness.