Chapter 6:

Summary

Here It Comes: A good writer plants dragon's teeth along the way of their writing which Clark defines as "any seed--detail, dialogue, place name--that will sprout into something significant later in the story" (79). During an initial reading, dragon's teeth may supply a sense of foreboding (a town named Toombsboro, for example, can be seen as creepy) since the reader does not know what will be happening. During a following reading, that same dragon's tooth gives the reader a sense of foreshadowing what's to come (knowing that death will occur, a town named Toomsboro makes the reader shout, "Don't go there, the word tomb is in the name!").

O'Connor's Cat: This concept is fairly simple and Clark describes it perfectly: "You shouldn't put a cat in the backseat of a car unless your plan is to have that cat jump out at a most inopportune moment" (81). In O'Connor's "Good Man," the family cat comes along on their trip and ultimately drives part of the plot by having it jump. Do not just place a character (including animals) in a story for no purpose, a good writer will give everything a purpose, even if it seems small.

Name Game: Names should have some background or reasoning to them and not just randomly named "John Smith." Clark uses O'Connor's character of Joy Hopewell to drive this point. The name Joy Hopewell gives off a sense of beauty and happiness, but the character renames herself Hulga, an objectively ugly name, driven home by a u sound that isn't exactly pleasant. O'Connot emphasizes this point by using words like hull, ugly, and stumped in association with the character.

Tweaking Story Forms: Stories are filled with stock characters, but manipulating the stereotypes can make the story much more interesting. O'Connor tweaks these in "Good Country People" by making the travelling salesman not go after some young, naive farmer's daughter (as expected) but instead for Hulga, who is a drastic counter to the farmer's daughter stereotype. By doing this, O'Connor made her story more interesting and challenges the reader's expectations. She uses stereotypes but alters them to fit her needs.

Writing lessons

1. To combine foreboding and foreshadowing, plant dragon's teeth along the path of the story. A dragon's tooth is any narrative seed that bears fruit toward the end. Make sure you vary them and spread them out across the story.
2. Remember that most readers will experience foreboding in real time, as the story is being read. To experience foreshadowing may require multiple readings. On a second reading, the reader should be able to recognize these hints, leading perhaps to come inevitable conclusion.
3. Play with personal names and place names to differentiate characters, but also use them to reveal a virtue or vice in a particular character. Remember that the "good man" in O'Connor's story is named Red Sammy Butts.
4. When inspired by stereotypes or stock characters, such as traveling salesmen and farmer's daughters, you may have to balance two contradictory goals: to satisfy the requirements of a pattern and to surprise the reader with variations from the norm.
5. Find physical objects, or what Tom Wolfe describes as "status details," that represent traits of character or reveal strengths and weaknesses, such as the hollow Bible, an emblem of the salesman's hypocrisy. As Hulge dresses for her seduction, O'Connor notes, "She wore a pair of slacks and a dirty white shirt, and as an afterthought, she had put some Vapex on the collar of it since she did not own any perfume." That she would use a mentholated ointment to stand in for perfume says much about Hulga's economic status and lack of romantic sophistication.

Critique

The concept of dragon's teeth is incredibly easy to incorporate into a high school English class, as it is present everywhere, not just in Flannery O'Connor's texts. This means that a teacher can teach the concept with ir without the use of O'Connor. Other concepts, such as "O'Connor's Cat" narrow down the need for an O'Connor text, but as she is critically acclaimed, this should not be terribly hard for a teacher to incorporate into a class. Students may even enjoy writing assignments based around these concepts as they're playing with names and forms, and mapping their stories out ahead of time, knowing how everything will happen, including any crazy shenanigans (such as cats jumping out of cars).

Two habits of mind from the "Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing" are shown prominently in this chapter: creativity and persistence. The purposeful choosing of names and altering character stereotypes fall firmly in the category of creative writing. Persistence exists in the actual laying of the dragon's teeth. A writer has to keep up with their piece of writing and know what to place where to guide the reader along the way of the story to get them to the intended outcome. They have to keep with it and not get too deterred.

This chapter does not lend itself to writing nonfiction. Everything in this chapter lends itself to fiction writing ranging from character creation to narrative structure.