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Similes
Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Hulga’s Religious Moment:
In an example of situational irony, the educated and atheistic Hulga believes that she will help the uneducated and religious Bible Salesman develop a “deeper understanding of life,” only to herself come to a deeper (and semi-religious) understanding of life during an intimate moment with him.
The following passage—which comes after the Bible Salesman tells Hulga that he sees how she “ain’t like anybody else”—captures the ironic spiritual transformation that Hulga experiences in this moment:
There was nothing about her face or her round freezing-blue eyes to indicate that this had moved her; but she felt as if her heart had stopped and left her mind to pump her blood. She decided that for the first time in her life she was face to face with real innocence. This boy, with an instinct that came from beyond wisdom, had touched the truth about her. When after a minute, she said in a hoarse high voice, “All right,” it was like surrendering to him completely. It was like losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his.
O’Connor’s earnest and romantic tone in this passage sets it apart from the rest of the story (which has an ironic and humorous tone throughout), suggesting that something significant is taking place. The rich descriptions also communicate the spiritual significance of this moment, with the narrator noting how Hulga “felt as if her heart had stopped and left her mind to pump her blood” and how it was as if she was “losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his.”
This last description in particular enters a religious register, as Christians are expected to lose their lives and find them again in Christ. Here, then, Hulga proves that she is not as rational and atheistic as she believed herself to be, and that she is not the one impacting the Bible Salesman on a deep level, but the other way around.
Related Themes:
