‘Why Do the Heathen Rage?’ stands out as a peculiar piece within Flannery O’Connor’s Complete Stories (1925-64). As the most concise narrative in the anthology, it resembles more of a fragment than a full-fledged tale. This story is, in fact, an early iteration of what would have been O’Connor’s third novel. The manuscript of this unfinished work has been released in full—albeit incomplete—posthumously in 2024.
The short story initially appeared in Esquire magazine in 1963 and revolves around a mother grappling with her son’s reluctance to step into the role of the man of the house following his father’s stroke.
Summary
Tilman, the patriarch, has suffered a stroke and is being transported home in an ambulance, beginning the arduous journey of recovery. During the ride, Mrs. Tilman observes her husband’s face, particularly noting a flicker of his former self in his left eye—a gaze that, according to the third-person narrator, “burned with rage.”
Accepting the grim reality that her husband may not have much time left and will never reclaim his old self, Mrs. Tilman finds solace in the hope that Tilman’s decline might finally jolt their son, Walter, out of his lethargy. Upon arriving home, they find their two children: Mary Maud, their daughter who works as a teacher, and Walter, their twenty-eight-year-old son who spends most of his days buried in books at home. The household also includes a black servant named Roosevelt.
Mrs. Tilman harbors hopes that Walter will take on the responsibilities of the man of the house, including instructing Roosevelt on what needs to be done around the home. However, Walter seems hesitant to embrace this new role. To his mother, he appears idle and fixated on trivial matters. While she had once thought he aspired to be an artist or philosopher, he has yet to produce anything of substance.
Instead, Walter occupies his time writing letters under various pseudonyms, which he sends to newspapers. When Mrs. Tilman stumbles upon a passage from a book her son is reading, she is struck by its eloquence and realizes it is a letter from St. Jerome, one of the early Church fathers, addressed to Heliodorus, admonishing him for abandoning the desert, where he had been establishing a hermitage with Jerome.
This passage contains a reference to a General, from whose mouth emerges a double-edged sword, poised to cut down anything in its path. Initially perplexed by this text, Mrs. Tilman suddenly comes to the startling realization that the General with the sword in his mouth, marching forth to enact violence, symbolizes Jesus.
Analysis
O’Connor’s story derives its title from a biblical quotation found in both the Old and New Testaments: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” (Psalms 2:1); “Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?” (Acts 4:25). The reference in the Acts of the Apostles pertains to those who rebel against God, with ‘rage’ specifically denoting horses that buck and toss their heads before being tamed by their riders.
In the New Testament context, the ‘heathen’ refers to the Romans, while the ‘people’ symbolizes the Jews. By selecting this quotation as the title of her story (and the unfinished novel), O’Connor compels us to ponder: who are the ‘heathen’ within the Tilman family?
The most apparent answer is that the title implicates Walter’s parents rather than Walter himself. Although they belong to a devout Christian family in the American South—consistent with O’Connor’s recurring themes—it is Tilman, the waning patriarch, who displays ‘rage’ in his left eye, while Walter embodies a noncommittal nature, an even-handedness that borders on inaction. The narrator succinctly captures Mrs. Tilman’s critical perspective, noting that it is nearly impossible to discern Walter’s opinions on anything. His reading material appears irrelevant, and he is characterized as a man devoid of innocence and conviction, who “courts good and evil impartially,” resulting in his inaction.
Mrs. Tilman fears that such an attitude may invite evil to take residence within him; after all, as the proverb suggests, the devil finds work for idle hands. Ironically, it is Mrs. Tilman and her husband who harbor a deep-seated rage. This rage is suggested to have been a defining trait of Tilman prior to his stroke—his left eye, burning with rage, being the last remnant of his former self. When Mrs. Tilman reads a highlighted passage in one of her son’s books stating that ‘love should be full of anger,’ she acknowledges that her own love indeed harbors this fury.
In essence, Walter identifies with St. Jerome—monkish, hermit-like, content with the act of writing rather than taking action. Like Jerome, Walter spends his days composing letters to others that oscillate between the private and the public (or published). In contrast, Mrs. Tilman and her husband could be likened to Heliodorus, having strayed from their rightful path. While she would likely consider herself a good Christian and one of those ‘good country people’ featured in O’Connor’s well-known story with that title, it is only at the conclusion of ‘Why Do the Heathen Rage?’ that she begins to question her assumptions.
Walter has been engaged in profound theological introspection, while she has been preoccupied—perhaps excessively so—with the mundane responsibilities of managing the household and overseeing the black servants. Furthermore, Mrs. Tilman’s antiquated views on gender roles lead her to overlook her daughter, Mary Maud, who is older and perhaps more suited for managing domestic affairs. Instead, she insists that Walter—despite his evident unsuitability for such a role—should take charge simply because he is male.
Another Interpretation
Nonetheless, Flannery O’Connor’s narratives often brim with irony and invite multiple interpretations. It is worth noting that she chose for her title a biblical quotation framed as a question. Is it rhetorical, or does it invoke genuine inquiry? One might argue that the ‘heathen’ like Mrs. Tilman ‘rage’ because they are forced to maintain the household while their indulgent sons engage in literary pursuits and theological musings.
William Empson, a noted critic, cleverly argued that while monks may opt out of procreation, someone else must continue to have children to ensure the world’s supply of monks. In a similar vein, we could interpret ‘Why Do the Heathen Rage?’ through this lens: O’Connor may appreciate Walter’s soul-searching endeavors, but this does not preclude her from critiquing Mrs. Tilman’s inability to comprehend her son. Life—and by extension, exceptional fiction—is inherently complex, brimming with nuanced characters and contradictory motivations.