30 THE FAITHFUL READER complimenting and questioning the irritable recluse in ways that her mother has long since given up. Joy’s icy exterior melts when she muses “that she would run away with” the young man, imagining herself as his true love, the center of his world. That vain dream leaves Joy vulnerable when the Bible salesman displays his true character as a cynical thief. Like Ruller, Old Dudley and Joy reveal the influence of self-centered ambition in our personal, private life. We want to be loved, which can lead us to fantasize about how important we are to our friends and family. We long for the people around us to see that we are unique, excellent, and praiseworthy. As a result, Ruller tears through the woods at a feverish pace, focusing on the turkey as the key to achieving his self-centered ambition: becoming the focal point of his family’s adoration. Sadly, the young boy’s wishful thinking draws him away from home, the best place to develop truly loving relationships with his parents. Old Dudley’s and Joy’s imaginations also cause them to ignore the people who truly care for them - his daughter and her mother. Flannery O’Connor’s short stories further portray self-centered ambition rearing its head in characters’ public interactions with strangers. “Enoch and the Gorilla” takes readers inside the mind of a young man who, living alone in Atlanta, “wanted to become something.” Enoch’s desire to “better his condition” takes physical shape when he sees children lined up to meet a movie star, who turns out to be a man wearing a plastic suit to play a gorilla. Enoch’s vision of his own potential exaltation becomes clear: “He wanted, some day, to see a line of people waiting to shake his hand.” The young man’s self-centered ambition pushes him down a brutal path toward his goal, as Enoch ultimately kills the actor and steals his gorilla suit. Enoch is not the only example of O’Connor’s characters yearning for the attention of a crowd. “A Late Encounter With the Enemy” introduces George Sash, a bitter, senile old man who pretends to be a veteran of a long-distant war so that he is honored in local parades. The elderly George “liked to sit on any stage,” even if it means deceiving the audience by wearing a false uniform. As his body fails and his relationship with his
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