The Displaced Person Themes
Visions of America
In "The Displaced Person" Flannery O'Connor focuses on the ill treatment of a Polish refugee seeking shelter on a farm in the American South during or shortly after World War II. The story presents...
Religion
Flannery O'Connor was conscious of being a "Catholic Writer in the Protestant South" (that's the title of one of her essays). "The Displaced Person," like all of O'Connor's stories, is written from...
Language and Communication
In her essay "The Regional Writer" O'Connor states that "Unless the [writer] has gone utterly out of his mind, his aim is still communication and communication suggests talking inside a community"...
Foreignness and 'the Other'
In "The Displaced Person," Flannery O'Connor focuses on how the arrival the Guizac family –a family that has fled Poland during or soon after World War II – impacts the small farm where...
Racism
Open a random page of "The Displaced Person" and you'll probably find a racial slur or a racist comment. The story includes two black characters, Astor and Sulk, who work on a white woman's farm. A...
Warfare
Thought the exact dates are hazy, "The Displaced Person" is set either during or just after World War II, probably in the early 1940s. The story begins when the Guizacs, a Polish immigrant family,...