The River to Nowhere

The River To Nowhere

            In Flannery O’Connor’s “The River” we are introduced to a broken boy from a damaged home life. Later, the boy encounters God or salvation—or rather a false illusion of it. Many textual evidences are posed that support the claim that God did not save the boy and that the entire belief is a façade: “He’s a healer. He couldn’t do nothing for Mr. Connin though” (215). The ominous tone of the novel is set concretely through strong uses of imagery and diction: “…glum and limp in the middle of the dark” (213), “their faces were solemn” (218), and “the preacher didn’t smile” (220).

            It is quite obvious that the events covered throughout this short story were the boy’s first encounter with Christianity; he, “would have thought Jesus Christ was a word like ‘oh’ or ‘damm’ or ‘God’ or maybe somebody who had cheated them out of something sometime” (217). Not only does this evince to the notion that the boy’s relation to Christianity is lackluster if not completely obsolete, but it attests to his poor home life where it seems that his parents exclaim those words in a fit of rage.

 Moreover, the believers seem to have an extremely strong affinity for not only their religion, but the preacher: “there’s no better preacher around” (221).  It is as if they are blind by their admiration and worship. In fact, when the “healer” fails to cure Mr. Connin, they reason that Mr. Connin “didn’t have enough faith” (215) and, therefore, he was not healed.

Aside from the dark tone and imagery spread throughout the short story, there also lies the element of foreshadowing. During his speech, the preacher proclaims “there ain’t but one river and that’s the river of life…That’s the river you have to lay your pain in” (218). This excerpt from his speech can be taken quite literally and applied to the boy’s life; he was baptized, hence rebirthed into life, in the river, and he also died I the river, cue the palpable pain he felt during that unfortunate experience.

Above all else, the most significant symbol and support for the illusion of Christianity lie in the boy’s name. His real name is Harry, but in an impromptu moment, he calls himself Bevel. Like his self-appointed name, his religion is a lie. Throughout the entire process of discovering Christianity, he is living in a lie. He takes the identity of Bevel, and, in a sense, is baptized and rebirthed under that pseudonym. However, when Bevel returns to his real life—that of brokenness and neglect—he realizes nothings changed: “his expression changed as if he were gradually seeing appear what he didn’t know he’d been looking for. Then all of a sudden he knew what he wanted to do” (223). Having felt meaningful and wanted at the revival, he set out to return to the river, only to enter and drown. The preacher’s speech was proven correctly in that the river was the “river of life” and “the river you have to lay your pain in” (218). More importantly, Harry was not saved by Christianity: “the river wouldn’t have him” (224).