Idealism In The Murderer, By Flannery O Connor

Idealist Prompt Delaney had a straightforward view of perfection that he adopted from the short stories that he read. These stories were basic and cliche, “School stories were what I liked best, and, judged by our standards, these were romantic enough for anyone” (O’Connor 209). In his idealist world honesty was honorable and was viewed as an act of heroism against mean teachers like The Murderer. Kids who lied to save their own butts were cowards, at least they were in Delaney’s eyes: “It was a lie, and I knew that the chaps in the stories would have died sooner than tell it” (O’Connor 211). Delaney’s goal was to be the one to fix his school and make it perfect like his wonderful stories. He had this vision of how this could be fulfilled: “But that wasn’t the sort of hero I wanted to be. I preferred something less sensational” (O’Connor 220). Delaney drove himself to insanity in order to build is own “Perfect” school. Because of Delaney’s constant strive for perfection, he showed traits of both realism and idealism. The school stories that Delaney read …show more content…
In Delaney’s school the kids weren’t the most well off, “The fellows in our school hardly ever stole, though they only got a penny a week, and sometimes not even that, as when their fathers were on booze and their mothers had to go to the pawn” (O’Connor). For these kids lying was a way of survival and Delaney came in and messed all of this up. He did realize at the end that it wasn’t the kids but the teacher and learned to use these flaws in his school system to his advantage: “By this time half a dozen of his pets had brought the Murderer the true story of Flanagan’s shilling, and if he didn’t feel a monster he probably felt a fool” (O’Connor). It is hard to try to press unrealistic expectations on people in the real world, because it will just cause more