The Artificial Nigger

“The Artificial Nigger,” written in the fall of 1954, is the sixth story in Flannery O’Connor’s collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find. According to Brad Gooch’s biography, O’Connor’s inspiration for this story derived from an instance where her mother, upon asking for directions to the home of a cowman, was told that “‘you go into this town and you can’t miss it ’cause it’s the only house in town with an artificial nigger in front of it.’ ‘So I decided I would have to find a story to fit that,’” O’Connor later remarked (qtd. in Gooch 253). When she submitted the story to John Crowe Ransom at the Kenyon Review, he immediately marked the story’s title as problematic. However, in response to Ransom’s fear that the title would “insult the black folk’s sensibilities,” O’Connor “insisted that ‘the story as a whole is much more damaging to white folk’s sensibilities than to black.’ Her jarring title stuck” (253). However, O’Connor struggled greatly with the story, having to rewrite it twice before feeling satisfied with it and sending it to the Kenyon Review, who published it in the magazine’s spring 1955 issue. Later, two collections published the story, including The Best American Short Stories of 1956 and Fiction in the Fifties, compiled in 1959. Additionally, while O’Connor wrote the story, she and her editor Robert Giroux began compiling the stories that would make up A Good Man Is Hard to Find, with a tentative publication date in spring 1955. In the midst of constructing the collection, O’Connor, who “was especially pleased with ‘The Artificial Nigger,’” reflected that the story was “my favorite and probably the best thing I’ll ever write” (qtd. in Gooch 254).

While “The Artificial Nigger,” perhaps O’Connor’s most controversial story, serves as one of her most important dealings with racism, O’Connor ultimately conveys a Christian message emphasizing grace. Literary scholar Bryan Giemza begins by establishing this story as O’Connor’s open acknowledgement of “hard-line segregation” (175). Academic Ralph C. Wood considers the widespread uproar and controversy surrounding the story’s title by stating that “in secular and religiously affiliated colleges and universities alike, the title ‘The Artificial Nigger’ is so offensive to most people that the story is rarely taught” (143). However, while the story’s racially-charged elements have resulted in considerable literary scholarship, O’Connor combines race with Christian theology, specifically through one interpretation of the statue of the smiling African American. As scholar Robert H. Brinkmeyer explains, “on some deep level both Mr. Head and Nelson have come to see that their fate is integrally related not only to this statue of a suffering black man but also to the suffering of all blacks, and even more generally, that of all fallen humanity” (77). Therefore, Brinkmeyer connects race and Christian theology through establishing the statue as a racial symbol of suffering and a divine symbol of grace. Wood argues that, by using the story’s racial foundation to produce the overarching focus on grace, “O’Connor corrects the inveterate Southern use of Scripture to justify slavery and segregation” (4).

Although scholarly responses emphasize the influence of race on the story’s structure and outcome, essayist Carol Shloss argues that, due to “O’Connor’s willingness to assume the full privilege of omniscient author,” which leaves “no room for a reader’s misinterpretation,” the reader “is told straightforwardly that the statue has evoked a religious experience and that Mr. Head’s epiphany occurs in the terms of traditional Christian theology” (80). O’Connor therefore unequivocally establishes the theological focus in “The Artificial Nigger” that matches many of her other stories. Considering race and theology in terms of O’Connor’s identity as a writer, author and scholar Alice Walker records that “essential O’Connor is not about race at all, which is why it is so refreshing, coming, as it does, out of such a racial culture. If it can be said to be ‘about’ anything, then it is ‘about’ prophets and prophecy, ‘about’ revelation, and ‘about’ the impact of supernatural grace on human beings who don’t have a chance of spiritual growth without it” (53). Despite the undeniable and influential positioning of race in “The Artificial Nigger,” O’Connor ultimately uses the story to concretize a theologically-based purpose that focuses on grace.

To engineer the story’s pivotal ending, O’Connor first characterizes Mr. Head and his grandson, Nelson, as prideful. Speaking with an authoritative air, Mr. Head tells a fellow passenger on the train into Atlanta that Nelson has “‘never seen anything before,’ Mr. Head continued. ‘Ignorant as the day he was born, but I mean for him to get his fill once and for all’” (“Artificial,” 254), thus establishing Mr. Head’s pride that causes him to dominate Nelson. Mr. Head further confirms his pride through fixation on teaching Nelson a lesson. Mr. Head first tells the same fellow passenger that “‘the thing to do with a boy,’ he said sagely, ‘is to show him all it is to show. Don’t hold nothing back’” (254). Later, when Mr. Head abandons Nelson on the sidewalk, Mr. Head “justified what he was going to do on the grounds that it is sometimes necessary to teach a child a lesson he won’t forget, particularly when the child is always reasserting his position with some new impudence” (264). Ultimately, Mr. Head shows his pride through establishing himself as the authoritarian over Nelson while simultaneously refusing to admit that he, too, might be “ignorant,” such as when Nelson confidently points out they are lost, and Mr. Head retorts with proud confidence, “If you want to direct this trip, I’ll go on by myself and leave you right here” (261). As a result, academic John Desmond concludes that by “the end of the story, the old man’s arrogant self-righteousness has been thoroughly exposed” (31).

To establish Nelson’s pride, scholar Lorna Wiedmann similarly notes that Nelson’s “pride is that he was born in Atlanta and seeks a triumphant return” (35). After Mr. Head accuses Nelson on the train to Atlanta of ignorance, Nelson demonstrates his pride by arrogantly returning that “‘I was born in the city,’ he said. ‘I was born there. This is my second trip.’ He said it in a high positive voice” (“Artificial,” 254). Nelson then asserts his pride in Atlanta while he and Mr. Head walk through the city where Nelson conceitedly exclaims, “‘I was born here!’ [...] There was a sweaty brightness about his face. ‘This is where I come from!’” (259). Later, Mr. Head and Nelson’s prideful natures climax when both refuse to ask for directions: “‘Whyn’t you ast one these niggers the way?’ Nelson said. ‘You got us lost.’ ‘This is where you were born,’ Mr. Head said. ‘You can ast one yourself if you want to’” (261). Therefore, by first establishing Mr. Head and Nelson as equally consumed by pride, O’Connor makes way for the story’s revelatory ending, which condemns their prideful natures.

O’Connor uses Old Testament scripture to condemn Mr. Head and Nelson’s pride but develops their moment of grace through New Testament scripture that emphasizes mercy. Numerous Biblical verses and passages, specifically in the Old Testament, censure pride. For example, the Bible outlines the negative outcomes of pride by stating that “when pride comes, then comes disgrace” (Prov. 19.23 ESV), that “pride goes before destruction” (Prov. 16.18 NLT), and that “pride ends in humiliation” (Prov. 29.23 NLT). Proverbs 16:5 concludes that “everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (ESV). However, while an Old Testament reading of the Bible condemns pride and arrogance, a New Testament reading focuses on mercy and forgiveness, as echoed in the story’s conclusion, thereby driving O’Connor’s theologically-based purpose of using the statue as a symbol of divine grace. As a result, Brinkmeyer points out that “the God of this story is less the stern and all-demanding Yahweh than the New Testament God of mercy and forgiveness, and it is his mercy that saves Mr. Head and Nelson and reunites them” (76). Jesus, for example, emphasizes mercy through his instruction to “be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6.36 ESV). James, the brother of Jesus, adds that “mercy triumphs over judgement” (James 2.13 ESV). Peter, a disciple of Jesus, explains the importance of God’s mercy in emphasizing Jesus’ resurrection and proclaiming that “it is by [God’s] great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus from the dead” (1 Pet. 1.3 NLT). Ultimately, O’Connor uses a Biblical foundation to first establish Mr. Head and Nelson as prideful characters and then supply a symbol of redemptive grace in the statue.

Upon seeing the statue of the African American, Mr. Head and Nelson experience a transformation, deriving divine, redemptive grace from the symbol of the statue, which fulfills O’Connor’s purpose in demonstrating the transformative power of God’s grace. Literary scholars generally agree with O’Connor’s description of “The Artificial Nigger” as a “story in which there is an apparent action of grace” (The Habit of Being, 160). Scholar Jeffrey Walker clarifies that the statue specifically “is supposed to represent God’s grace” (31), allowing for Mr. Head and Nelson to be, according to academic Davis J. Leigh, “partially transformed by sharing the suffering of each other and of the people embodied in the plaster Negro” (372). Wiedmann even supposes the statue to be a Jesus-figure by describing him as “the Negro Christ shouldering man’s misery via atoning grace” (36). When Mr. Head and Nelson first see the statue, they notice that “he was meant to look happy because his mouth was stretched up at the corners but the chipped eye and the angle he was cocked at gave him a wild look of misery instead” (“Artificial,” 268). Brinkmeyer concludes that “what they see in the statue is a mirror image of themselves: a figure supposedly happy but frozen in misery” (80). Therefore, Mr. Head and Nelson experience transformation when “they stood gazing at the artificial Negro as if they were faced with some great mystery, some monument to another’s victory that brought them together in their common defeat” (“Artificial,” 269). The “great mystery” that Mr. Head and Nelson encounter refers to the mystery of God’s grace, which Paul defines as “the mystery made known to me by revelation” of the “promise of Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3.2-6 ESV). As a result, God’s grace as a “monument to another’s victory” potentially refers to Jesus’s resurrection and triumph over evil. Therefore, Mr. Head confirms his transformation by reflecting that he “felt the action of mercy touch him again but this time he knew that there were no words in the world that could name it. [...] The action of mercy covered his pride like a flame and consumed it” (“Artificial,” 269-270), thereby revealing O’Connor’s purpose in demonstrating for readers the ability of God’s redemptive grace to transform.

The story’s dramatic ending allows O’Connor’s message of the mystery and power of God’s grace to resonate with readers, supporting Jeffrey Walker’s claim that “the dramatic ending is a surprise, and it achieves the effect of shocking both the characters and the reader into an awareness of their infirmities” (21). Scholar Margaret Earley Whitt supports that Mr. Head’s realization of the “healing power of mercy” allows for the “deeper point that O’Connor wishes to drive home: Only God’s mercy can burn away pride” (63). Therefore, readers relate to the shortcomings of Mr. Head and Nelson, but O’Connor pushes the point that God’s grace redeems shortcomings, potentially in unexpected ways, as shown by the shockingly disruptive sight of the statue. In addition, O’Connor deeply reflects upon her purpose for “The Artificial Nigger” in a letter, where she writes that “the action of grace changes a character. [...] Mr. Head is changed by his experience even though he remains Mr. Head. He is stable but not the same man at the end of the story. Stable in the sense that he bears his same physical contours and peculiarities but they are all ordered to a new vision. [...] All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless, brutal, etc.” (Habit, 275). Ultimately, therefore, O’Connor confirms her purpose for the story in demonstrating for readers the magnificence and mystery of God’s redeeming grace, which produces transformative changes in both characters and people.

Works Cited

Brinkmeyer, Robert H., Jr. The Art and Vision of Flannery O’Connor. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State UP, 1993.

Desmond, John. “Flannery O’Connor and the Idolatrous Mind.” Christianity in Literature, vol. 46, no. 1, fall 1996, pp. 25-35. MLA International Bibliography, https://doi.org/10.1177/014833319604600104.

ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version. Translated by Crossway, ESV text ed., Wheaton, Crossway Bibles, 2011.

Giemza, Bryan. Irish Catholic Writers and the Invention of the American South. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State UP, 2013.

Gooch, Brad. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor. New York, Little, Brown, 2009.

Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Translated by Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Tyndale House Publishers, 2015.

Leigh, Davis J. “Suffering and the Sacred in Flannery O’Connor's Short Stories.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, vol. 65, no. 5, fall 2013, pp. 365-79. MLA International Bibliography.

O’Connor, Flannery. “The Artificial Nigger.” The Complete Stories, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971, pp. 249-70.

---. The Habit of Being. Edited by Sally Fitzgerald, New York City, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.

Shloss, Carol. “Epiphany.” Modern Critical Views: Flannery O’Connor, edited by Harold Bloom, New York City, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986, pp. 65-80.

Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. 1983. Open Road Integrated Media, 2011.

Walker, Jeffrey. “1945-1956: Post-World War II Manners and Mores.” The American Short Story, 1945-1980: A Critical History, edited by Gordon Weaver, Twayne Publishers, 1983, pp. 1-34.

Whitt, Margaret Earley. Understanding Flannery O’Connor. Columbia, U of South Carolina P, 1997.

Wiedmann, Lorna. “Flannery O’Connor's Six Protestant Conversion Tales.” Flannery O’Connor Review, vol. 12, 2014, pp. 33-53. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26671270.

Wood, Ralph C. Flannery O’Connor and the Christ-Haunted South. Grand Rapids (Michigan), W.B. Eerdmans Publ., 2005.