A Late Encounter with the Enemy

“He liked parades with floats full of Miss Americas and Miss Daytona Beaches and Miss Queen Cotton Products. He didn’t have any use for processions, and a procession full of schoolteachers was about as deadly as the River Styx to his way of thinking.”

The contrast of parades and processions in this quotation contrasts contemporary America with Sally’s graduation. While contemporary America is superficial and commercial—personified by the beauty queens sponsored by commercial products—the procession concerns schoolteachers. Schoolteachers are associated with the process of educating the future generation, an inevitability that makes the General uncomfortable. A history class may present the past with greater context than the General has the capability of understanding in his old age, something that makes him favor the past that he cannot quite remember in full. Further, this quotation foreshadows the General’s death at the graduation—the River Styx was crossed to enter the underworld in Greek mythology.

“She wanted the General at her graduation because she wanted to show what she stood for, or, as she said, ‘what all was behind her,’ and what was behind them. This them was not anybody in particular. It was just all the upstarts who had turned the world on its head and unsettled the ways of decent living.”

This quotation establishes Sally’s character and primary motivation in the story. She feels disrespected and belittled by the younger professionals she encounters at the college, and she deals with these feelings by convincing herself that she is more deeply connected to a noble Southern history than they are.

“He didn’t remember the Spanish-American War in which he had lost a son; he didn’t remember the son. He didn’t have any use for history because he never expected to meet it again. To his mind, history was connected with processions and life with parades and he liked parades.”

This quotation is an example of Vanity as an Obstacle to Grace. The General coldly states that he does not remember his son and that he does not care that he has forgotten him. The General has no empathy and feels no connection with other human beings. He instead views himself as a symbol of the past and desires only to be praised for his status.

“Out there they have so many beautiful guls that they don’t need that they call them a extra and they don’t use them for nothing but presenting people with things and having their pictures taken.”

This quotation aligns modern society with emptiness, superficiality, and misogyny. The women are “used” like objects; they are not required; and they are presented like tools rather than human beings. Further, they are used for the superfluous task of taking photos—they are merely images without depth or personality. The general’s comic misunderstanding of the filmmaking term “extra” captures an underlying truth about how the movie industry turns people into commodities.

“It drew up under the marquee at exactly the right time, after the big stars and the director and the author and the governor and the mayor and some less important stars.”

The order of arrivals suggests a hierarchy of importance. What Sally believes is “the right time,” is after the people who have power and influence in contemporary society. Sally has claimed a connection to the General’s fame, and moments like this have contributed to her empty sense of entitlement.

“Sally Poker looked down at her feet and discovered that in the excitement of getting ready she had forgotten to change her shoes: two brown Girl Scout oxfords protruded from the bottom of her dress.”

This is a key moment in Sally’s character development. She has been unable to assert her own agency and desires and is instead swept away by current events. This leads to her being embarrassed and dressed in a way she feels is inappropriate for the context.

“There was nothing about him to indicate that he was alive except an occasional movement in his milky gray eyes, but once when a bold child touched his sword, his arm shot forward and slapped the hand off in an instant.”

This quotation exemplifies O’Connor’s use of the grotesque and encapsulates the General’s relationship with future generations. The General is introduced here as a living corpse—the boundary between the living and dead is blurred. Further, he slaps away the hand of a child, which symbolizes his violent rejection of future generations and change. The General won’t look forward and entertain the idea of the new generation.

“John Wesley, a fat blond boy of ten with an executive expression, guaranteed to take care of everything.”

This description of John Wesley establishes him as the personification of the future and contributes to the story’s exploration of Modernity and the Fetishization of the Past. John Wesley’s blond hair aligns him with the host of the film premiere, who also has blond hair, while his “executive expression” evokes the values of commodification and business. His assertion that he will “take care of everything” despite his young age suggests future generations have a false sense of self-importance and arrogance.

“The graduates in their heavy robes looked as if the last beads of ignorance were being sweated out of them. The sun blazed off the fenders of automobiles and beat from the columns of the buildings and pulled the eye from one spot of glare to another.”

At Sally’s graduation ceremony, the intense heat is used to symbolize exposure to and entry into modern society. In this quotation, the sun not only drains the students’ ignorance but also draws attention to modern commodities such as the cars. The dichotomy of such heat—that it illuminates and exposes everything while also causing extreme discomfort, reveals the ambiguity that characterizes contemporary American and social progress.

“They called his name and the fat brat bowed. Goddam you, the old man tried to say, get out of my way, I can stand up!—but he was jerked back again before he could get up and take the bow.”

This quote is another example of the grotesque while also being the moment when society’s focus shifts from the General to John Wesley. The General is trapped in his own body and unable to move. John Wesley, instead, has the spotlight and bows in the General’s place.

“‘If we forget our past,’ the speaker was saying, ‘we won’t remember our future and it will be as well for we won’t have one.’”

This quote is spoken by the commencement speaker. It establishes a reasonable position to take concerning history and addresses the inevitability of facing the events of the past in order to move forward. The General rejects both options, wishing to stay stagnant in time, even aging longer than most to hold firm to his position in the world. Further, the quote contributes to the story’s broader exploration of Modernity and the Fetishization of the Past while also suggesting a more productive relationship between the past and the future.

“Then suddenly he saw that the black procession was almost on him. He recognized it, for it had been dogging all his days. He made such a desperate effort to see over it and find out what comes after the past that his hand clenched the sword until the blade touched the bone.”

This is the moment of the General’s epiphany and also his death. He realizes he is unable to escape the past or the relentless passage of time. He dies desperately trying to see “what comes after the past”—a phrase that signals his understanding of the commencement speaker’s words: Only by facing the past can society move into the future.

“As Sally Poker, who was near the end, crossed, she glanced at the General and saw him sitting fixed and fierce, his eyes wide open, and she turned her head forward again and held it a perceptible degree higher and received her scroll.”

At the moment of her great success, Sally looks over at the General, believing that her prayers have been answered: All her “upstart” rivals have seen her family’s glory embodied in her grandfather. At that point, unbeknownst to her, the General is most likely already dead. Thus, the gaze that had given her such a sense of pride was empty.