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Kylee Emert
May 5, 2014
English 575
Fowler
Displacement of the Displaced People
Following the end of World Word II, there was a significant amount of European
refugees, prisoners, and slave laborers who immigrated to the United States. These immigrants
were defined as displaced people in the U.S., due to both the literal and figurative displacement
of place, culture, and community. The influx of these displaced people diversified American
social composition and therefore stimulated a significant change in the American way of life.
The flood of European refugees especially affected the southern region the U.S., forcing a
substantial adjustment upon the Southern style of living. Being racially white, the displaced
people threatened the established hierarchy of the South and the effectiveness of Jim Crow laws1.
Flannery OConnors short story, The Displaced Person, exposes the true nature of southern
lifestyle in the late 1940s. OConnor illustrates the relationship between the southern white
Americans and the displaced people and examines the struggle the Southerners faced in attempt
to preserve pre-established white hierarchy. In The Displaced Person the white characters
artificially create difference in order to maintain their own authority.
Mrs. Shortley artificially creates difference between her and the displaced people by
dehumanizing them. She views the displaced people as foreign invaders who threaten the way of
life that she knows and to which she is accustomed. She is disgusted by the foreignness of their
language, religion, and culture and imposes her attitude openly so that she may feel superior. In
an effort to maintain her perceived superiority, Mrs. Shortley brutalizes the displaced people.
She refuses to see any similarities of human nature between her and the displaced people. Mrs.
Shortley pictures the displaced people to look like bears, walking in single file, with wooden

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shoes on like Dutchmen and sailor hats and bright coats with lots of buttons (209). When she
first sees the displaced people, she is surprised that they appear to look like other people (209)
and were dressed like anybody from around here (209) but continues to view and treat them as
intrinsically different. She believes that they cant talk (210) and criticizes their very names as
something that sounded to [her] like something you would name a bug (209). She
continuously emphasizes their lack of communication skills in an attempt to other the displaced
people and reduces the foreigners to a nonhuman form, as people who were all eyes and no
understanding (222). She sees the Polish words as dirty and all-knowing, and unreformed
(225) and views the Polish language as filthy and infectious, flinging mud on the clean English
words until everything was equally dirty (225)2. Mrs. Shortley refuses to refer to the displaced
people by individual names, or even the Guizacs, and instead calls them Gobblehooks, a term
that not only mocks the foreigners but also implies creature-like mannerisms as opposed to
human3. By creating a contrived image of the displaced people, Mrs. Shortley degrades the
human worth of the foreigners and further displaces them. Mrs. Shortley goes as far as to
disparage the displaced people to animal-like characteristics, comparing them to rats with
typhoid flees (211) who bring their murderous and unreformed ways to America and impose
them on her culture. Mrs. Shortley dehumanizes the displaced people in order to maintain
authority over them4.
Mrs. Shortley artificially creates difference between her and the displaced people by
comparing them to the devil. She describes them as the kind of people you had to be on the
lookout every minute (222) and disdainfully likens them to something only the devil could be
responsible for. By relating the displaced people to the devil, Mrs. Shortley explicitly expresses
that the foreigners are unreformed, wicked, and full of crooked ways (225) which in tern is a

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threat to her and the other workers on the farm. Because Mrs. Shortley perceives the displaced
people to be an exponent of the devil, she believes their mannerisms are evil. She imagines Mr.
Guizacs smile as Europes mysterious and evil ways stretched out across his face as the
devils experiment station (223). By artificially creating difference, Mrs. Shortley makes the
foreigners become both physically and culturally displaced5.
Mrs. Shortley imposes her synthetically created disparity towards the displaced people
onto the black workers in order further create difference. She wants the black workers to see the
same difference she sees in order to maintain her own authority. She indicates that there is a
significant distinction between the two groupings of people (the Americans and the foreigners)
and that the displaced people they belong back over yonder where everything is still like they
been used to (214). She implies that the displaced people are not to be trusted because they
have been run off their native land for unknown reasons. She warns the black workers that the
displaced people are displaced from the rest because they aint where they born at and theres
nowhere for them to go (214). She believes that if she threatens the black workers into seeing
the displaced people as different she can maintain her authority and reduce the threat that the
displace people impose on her culture. She must have the black workers on her side in order to
maintain this authority and preserve the established white hierarchy of the South6. Again, she
describes the displaced people as foreign intruders, threatening her life and her culture, and
pictures seeing the ten million billion of them pushing their way into new places over here
(215). By informing the black workers of the displaced people Mrs. Shortley simultaneously
imposes her own perception of them onto the black workers as well as asserts her own authority.
If Mrs. Shortley had not othered the displaced people, falsely defining them as different, it would

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be difficult to maintain her own authority. Furthermore, the structure of traditional southern
hierarchy is at risk of its own displacement if a new group of people is added to the setting.
Mr. Shortley artificially creates difference because there is no clear or apparent difference
between himself and the displaced people. As a war veteran he views the displaced people as
unnatural inhabitants that do not belong in his country. He scorns the displaced people for
knowing his language and looking like his people. He wishes to see difference both physically
and culturally between himself and the displaced people as he would between himself and
Chinese people or African people so that you can tell right away what the difference is between
you and them (261). Mr. Shortley others the displaced people because he does not want to see
any similarities between himself and them. He detests that physical difference between himself
and the displaced people is not apparent, like it has always been in the South between the whites
and blacks7. Mr. Shortley cannot discriminate against the displaced people because they appear
to be racially equivalent to the white southerners and the only way you can tell is if they say
something (261). He argues further that one cant always tell [the difference] because about
half of them know the English language and believes that letting the displaced people use the
English language is a mistake because the foreigners are then able to take advantage of whatever
they wish. Mr. Shortley therefore artificially creates difference where there is no difference. He
believes thered be a heap less trouble if everybody only knew his own language (261) because
then the displaced people would not pose such a threat. Mr. Shortley is threatened by the lack of
difference (both physically and linguistically) between himself and the displaced people. Mr.
Shortley cannot see difference, which is how he has previously maintained his authority, so he
creates difference in order to feel superior. This notion relates directly to the racially determinant
hierarchy of southern culture.

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Mrs. McIntrye artificially creates difference once she believes the displaced people are a
threat to her authority. While she does not initially criticize the Poles for their differences, Mrs.
McIntrye succumbs to othering the displaced people in order to remain in control8. When Mrs.
McIntrye sees the displaced people intermixing with her black workers she feels threatened. She
instantly imposes an artificially created difference when she finds out Mr. Guizac has been
receiving money from Sulk to pay for half of the fare to bring Mr. Guizacs cousin to America
and marry her. She is infuriated and asks Mr. Guizac what kind of monster are you!(246)
implying that Mr. Guizac and the other displaced people are colluding against her. Mrs.
McIntrye believes that the displaced people are conspiring against her authority as well as the
structure of racial hierarchy. She asserts her authority and tells Mr. Guizac maybe it can be done
in Poland but it cant be done here (247). Mrs. McIntrye concludes that her moral obligation
was to her own people (254) and differences the displaced people so she can remain in control
and maintain her moral obligations. She asserts her white authority over the displaced people
by saying this is my place (248) and implies defiance against the displaced people who intrude
on her farm and her view of acceptable social order9.
Flannery OConnor illustrates how whites in the American south artificially create
difference in order to maintain their superiority over the displaced people. Mrs. Shortley, Mr.
Shortley and Mrs. McIntrye other the displaced people in an attempt to subvert them from
gaining any authority. By dehumanizing them, imposing evil and wicked perceptions of
them, and assaulting their dignity, the white characters artificially create difference between
themselves and the displaced people. The white characters use the tactic of creating difference
where there is no difference which enables them to impose their own discriminatory laws or
rules onto the displaced people because the Jim Crow laws could not. They falsify the

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differences of the displaced people and separate them from the other workers on the farm
because the displaced people are a threat to the established southern order. By othering the
displaced people, the white Americans exploit their white superiority in a blatant attempt to
terrorize the foreigners into subordination.

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Endnotes
1

Taylors article examines the purpose of Jim Crow laws as a way to maintain a discriminatory

system and a stable economy of difference that ensured the preservation of white social and
biological purity from black contamination. The arrival of the displaced people, who were
racially white but also viewed as racially different, undermined the effectiveness of the Jim Crow
laws. The displaced people could not be perceived as racially different, but their foreign blood
and foreign language threatened the privilege of whiteness.
2

Caroll argues that this image captures an insidious shift of culpability so that the displaced

people become the perpetrator and Mrs. Shortley becomes the victim.
3

Boltons article argues that Mrs. Shortleys view of the Guizacs transgresses the boundary

between human and animal.

4

Boyagoda argues that Mrs. Shortley cloaks her anxieties in a paranoid mishmash of relgion to

conceal her fear of losing position and power. She expresses complete hatred towards the
displaced people because of her fear of losing her presumptive portion of authority on the farm.
5

Burke argues that the immigrants strange foreignness disturbs the established order.

Furthermore, the displacement of human beings occurs not only in relation to place but also in
relation to community.
6

According to Taylor, the South relied on Jim Crows laws which were constructed to perceive

difference and establish hierarchy according to racial features and skin color. Jim Crow laws
were therefore not applicable to the new immigrants rendering the whitened immigrant
essentially invisible to the Southern regime of racial discipline. Mrs. Shortley remains superior
to the black workers simply because of her race but seeing as the displaced people are also white,

they threaten her ultimate authority. It is important to Mrs. Shortley that the black workers retain
their loyalty to her in order for her constructed societal hierarchy to remain stable.
7

Taylor argues that the new immigrants presented an insoluble problem to the polarized racial

order which was unable to parse the social position of these not non-whites.
8

Kane argues that Mrs. McIntryes attachment to Mr. Guizac had solely been on the pecuniary

gain that he represented. She therefore was able to change her opinion towards him easily once
she saw him as an outsider intruding onto her settled world.
9

Carolls article suggests that Mrs. McIntryes change in opinion could be a result of the

persistence of unresolved conflicts of the past and the return of the repressed in the form of the
uncanny. The displaced people are that class of the frightening which therefore leads Mrs.
McIntrye back to what is known of old and long familiar.