Summary: Flannery O’Connor’s story “Parker’s Back” illustrates how people struggle to make sense of their lives, often resulting in fragmented stories. The protagonist, E.O. Parker, seeks wholeness through tattoos but remains dissatisfied until he recognizes his need for divine guidance. Ultimately, the story emphasizes that true peace and fulfillment come from listening to God’s direction in our lives.
human lives are like texts. We, internal autobiographers all, struggle to transform our streams of experiences into harmonious and even artful stories. (View Highlight)
when the time comes for us to lay down our pens once and for all, we exit as unfinished works. Our stories end before they’re completed. (View Highlight)
Fragmentation, O’Connor noted in one of her essays, is the hallmark of a bad story. It’s also the sign of a stunted, nonexpansive life. (View Highlight)
peace is more than an absence of conflict. It’s the opposite of fragmentation. It joins that which is broken; it ties together the loose and frayed strands of our stories. (View Highlight)
God’s also the first Editor, stepping in with the blue pencil of grace to clean up the messy texts we’ve made of our lives. (View Highlight)
What Parker longs for, of course, is what we all want—even if, like him, we can’t name it: a life of shalom, of fruitful, fulfilling expansiveness. We want to be whole, not chaotically fragmented. (View Highlight)