"A View of the Woods" Sees Nature and Industrialism Clash
Many of Flannery O’Connor’s writings have an extremely religious undertone, but this one focuses on extraction and the battle between using land for natural, sustainable, recreational purposes, as the Pitts do, and for unnatural, self-serving purposes, as Mark does. This clash of whether or not to develop the land relates heavily to modern debates over resource extraction: how far can humans go to fulfill their own greed? How far can they push the boundaries of morality for their own sake? I was incredibly surprised to find such a relevant piece in the catalogue of a typically religious author.
Visualizing the Clash
The visualization I made includes two word clouds, accompanied by a personal picture of the woods I took in Sitka, AK, as well as a gas station, one of the ultimate goals of Mark Fortune's development plans, to represent the natural and industrial. On the surface, “A View of the Woods” is a story about industrialism, and thus, I was surprised when a tallying of words associated with nature and with industrialism revealed more associated with natural features and processes (grazing, trees, calves, lakes, pines, etc.). Though Mark closes the deal and sells his land to have the gas station developed, that victory is not reflected within the word count. The word clouds indicate which words are most common for each category, being “lot” and “woods,” representing the two opposing forces of land being developed and land unclaimed for development.
In the story’s first section, where Mark and Mary Fortune genially sit and discuss their lives, and Mark first proposes the idea of developing the land into a gas station, the count between natural and industrial words is extremely similar (43 vs. 41). This discrepancy expands, however, when Mark resolves to sell the land and receives backlash from his family, progressing to 25 vs. 18, still in favor of natural words. As he cements the deal and sells the land, the discrepancy remains great, 10 natural words compared to 3 industrial words. The story concludes unexpectedly, with Mark going berserk and killing Mary Fortune in a rage when she attacks him for selling the land. However, the scuffle results in him suffering a fatal heart attack. As he passes away, heavy emphasis is placed on his natural surroundings, representing his final realization about nature’s supremacy and the futility of his land development endeavors. The discrepancy now shifts to 10 natural words and 1 industrial word for this last page, the greatest discrepancy yet, both in terms of percentage and number. The changing values of natural and industrial words were reflected in a line graph, mapping the general structure of the story alongside the word counts.
Creating the visualization involved closely reading the story and counting how many times each “industrial” or “natural” word occurred in order to develop a sense of their usage throughout the story. On the industrial side, these words included any of Mark’s personal development terminology (“progress, improvement, lot”), while the natural side saw any word associated with agriculture or foliage. For the final line graph, this was simply counting how frequently these words occurred within four primary plot segments of the story. The shifting counts provide some commentary on the significance of developing land and wealth relative to living sustainably and with your family. As Mark dies of a heart attack due to the shock and exertion of killing his granddaughter, he is surrounded by natural terminology, with only one industrial word remaining, “monster,” a metaphor for a bulldozer carrying out construction on his property. This monster being the only thing that remains following his death is undoubtedly representative of the fate of those who place too much emphasis on land development and personal greed relative to the needs of those around them.
Bilbiography
B., Nikhil. “HP Petrol Bunk 31102016.” Wikimedia Commons. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HP_Petrol_Bunk_31102016.jpg.
O’Connor, Flannery. “A View of the Woods.” The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1971. pp. 335-356. Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.dan-gittik.com/salon/media/OConnor_A_View_of_The_Woods_1957.pdf.