How Does The Voice In The Violent Bear It Away

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“Listen, the stranger said, what would he want to come out here for—where there’s nothing? Tarwater didn’t answer” (O’Connor 35). Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear it Away, tells the story of Tarwater, a young boy who is kidnapped from his secular uncle Rayber’s home by his zealot great uncle, Mason Tarwater. Before his death, Mason teaches Tarwater the ways of a prophet, and leaves Tarwater with a series of tasks to complete once Mason has passed. Upon Mason’s death, a voice visits Tarwater and persuades him to escape his destiny as a prophet. Tarwater flees to Rayber’s home, and experiences an internal battle between his religious upbringing, the secular reform Rayber attempts to impress upon him, and the commands of the voice that …show more content…
A significant element in this description of the voice is the fact that this figure is depicted as wearing a hat. It is important to note this image due to the fact that the image of the hat appears several times throughout the novel, but as a lost object that belongs to Tarwater. A moment is described in the text in which Tarwater recalls travelling to the city with Mason to visit lawyers concerning the allocation of Mason’s property. At one point, Tarwater loses his hat amidst the chaos of the city, and fixates on the loss of his hat through the recapitulation of this moment. It is unclear as to why Tarwater is so obsessed with the loss of his hat, and this question is never resolved. The moment in which Tarwater first meets the voice comes after the recounting of the time he visited the city. The echoes of the loss of Tarwater’s hat are significant to highlight given the fact that his new friend not only wears a hat, but his friend is described as giving Tarwater the feeling that he had found a part of himself. Moreover, the fact that Tarwater’s friend’s eyes are not visible reflects the ambiguous feelings that Tarwater has for his new friend. Throughout the novel, there is a focus on the appearance of other people’s eyes—especially Mason’s, which are often described as a crazy, gray-blue. Based on the description of Mason’s eyes, the reader is able to glean more information about how Mason’s physical appearance contributes to the description of his personality. The look of someone’s eyes has the ability to convey the individual’s personality and intentions. The fact that Tarwater’s friend’s eyes are unable to be seen makes the friend’s intentions unclear to not only the reader, but Tarwater as well. Tarwater, who usually judges or analyzes others quickly (often taking their appearances into account), is unable to gauge
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