Impending Tragedy

Impending tragedy as depicted with the depressing inevitability of death and the results of negligence, with regard to children, is a prevalent theme in this collection of short stories. An undercurrent of overpowering sadness runs through many of O'Connor's stories, perhaps because of the own fatal disease of lupus, which interrupts her life abruptly at an early age. In "The River" the reader is anticipating the horror of the ending but even knowing the inevitable does not forestall the sadness of the drowning of the young child, whose parents have neglected him so terribly. In "The Lame Shall Enter First," the righteous father is oblivious to the emotional needs of his own grieving son and considers the needs of a scoundrel delinquent more important until he finds his son dead by hanging in the attic. The reader hopes for a happy ending but O'Connor does not sacrifice...