Identity In Faulkner's Savage By Flannery O Connor

In the name of the protagonist are prefigured tensions and polarities that span the life of the character and also their society of origin. On one side is Clare, clear, and the other is Savage, wild, a term associated with darkness. She is the daughter of a "more white" father, descended from English planters, and a "rather dark" mother. This original tension between a father who seems to be able to "pass" for white and a mother who feels closer in their acceptance of black heritage, will be decisive in many moments of her life. It is for her resemblance to the father, for example, that the mother leaves her with him in America. Country that does not get used and she decides to go along with her youngest daughter who like her is a little darker. …show more content…
The departure of the Savage family to the United States, driven by the parent who wants to improve their economic situation, mark the start of a double exile for Clare Savage: exile from her homeland and exile of her mother, both inextricably related figures in the novel. After the departure (which for Clare seems like an unexplained and painful abandonment) of the mother and sister, Clare left alone with her father, who encourages his daughter to refine strategies to pass, assimilate and become increasingly more American. But it is precisely in America where she learns to see her mirror image in another, one that accentuates her curly hair, darker skin tone and accent with other English speakers. If in Jamaica, a country where the majority is black, she passed for white, in the US the situation is reversed. This point is very interesting because it shows the relational, historical and biographical nature of personal