ho arrives late the next afternoon is nothing like Asbury imagined he would be. Father Finn is elderly, blind in one eye and deaf in one ear but he sees straight through Asbury immediately, as soon as the latter attempts to engage the priest in a superficial debate. In reply Father Finn delivers a hectoring stinging lecture, shouting dogma at him and finishes by telling him he’s “a lazy ignorant conceited youth," but nevertheless he gives Asbury his blessing before leaving and says they "can have another little chat" some other time. Dogma by definition admits of no other explanation. One eyed perhaps? Deaf to alternatives maybe? Like Father Finn? Another example of O’Connor dishing out medicine to the ‘patient’? Let’s also look at the character names she has chosen. Surely there’s irony in the doctor being called Block or Asbury’s family name being Fox. A doctor who’s no blockhead and Asbury a none too smart fox.Asbury also wants to say goodbye to the two coloured farm workers before he dies and persuades his mother to bring them to his room but this time it is Mrs Fox who relishes the situation. The farewell is a disaster with neither Morgan nor Randall feeling comfortable and they spend the time telling Asbury how well he looks and that it won’t be long before he’s up and about. Mrs Fox eavesdrops, obviously enjoying his discomfort but there is a portent lurking in the Negro dialogue and the irony only surfaces when several hours later Dr Block pays a visit and a beaming Mrs Fox enters Asbury’s room with the doctor behind her.“Guess what you’ve got sugarpie!” Mrs Fox shrills. Without waiting for a reply she prattles on, telling Asbury that Block has discovered the cause of his illness; undulant fever and that it will keep coming back but that it won’t kill him. Now it’s Dr Block’s turn and Asbury’s comfort...
