Arms and the Man

In O'Conner's "The Artificial Nigger" the essences of prejudice and degradation are captured to a great extent.   Reality shows us with needless consistency people who need to feel better about themselves and only achieve it by being better than someone else.   Mr. Head, the grandfather, is an example of one of these people.   He is in competition with seemingly everyone he encounters.   Racism is just one of the forms he utilizes to demean others, while elevating his own self-image.   O'Conner's depiction of a southern, prejudice, and close-minded person goes into the extreme depths of what constitutes as well as motivates an adherent racist.                                                                    
Mr. Head, a self-proclaimed missionary, plans on taking his grandson Nelson to Atlanta City.   Intending to introduce Nelson to the focal point of his prejudice. However, Mr. Head's sub- conscious motives are to have Nelson believe his grandfather's existence in his life is indispensable.   He hopes Nelson dependency upon him strengthens.   Doing so would not only make himself feel superior but also satisfy his own dependency needs.   He's content with the thought once Nelson has had the opportunity in experiencing the city he will "be content to stay at home for the rest of his life" (251).   His only comforting thoughts, as he lay to sleep before the day of the trip, were not of turning Nelson into a racist, but "thinking how the boy would at last find out that he was not as smart as he thought he was."
Degradation towards anyone, including his own grandson, is another way by which Mr.Head can feel minutely satisfied with himself.   He welcomes and anticipates the point in which Nelson questions his own intelligence.   Towards the beginning of the story Mr. Head belittles Nelson's rationalizing once arriving in the city "he will've been there twict,"(250) considering Atlanta was his birth place.   Logically Nelson made sense, nevertheless "Mr. Head had... [continues]

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