The story, "Parker's Back"," by Flannery O'Connor, is about the marriage of O. Parker to Sarah Ruth and the digression that brings them together. O.E. Parker believes that he'll find happiness by turning a deaf ear to God and focusing on materialistic things, rather than spiritual. Sarah Ruth believes that it's essential to follow the scriptures and to rely on God, first and foremost. Each character represents the concept that God and earthly possessions are unrelated and that there's a thin line between good and evil; who a person wants to be and who they really are.
Flannery O'Connor uses characters to challenge the opinion that man is unable to draw near to God and that God is reluctant to dispatch grace. "Parker's Back" reveals that, for O.E. Parker and Sarah Ruth, true fulfillment can only be achieved when they are bound together. .
Obadiah Elihue's resistance toward God is seen at an early age when he runs away from home as his mother tries to take him to a revival. O.E. had just became fascinated with tattoos and the very thought of anyone trying to get in the way of that was unacceptable. As stated in the story, "Parker had never before felt the least motion of wonder in himself " before the day he saw the man covered in tattoos. One could argue that Parker's obsession with tattoos is connected to his feelings of dissatisfaction and need for improvement. Along with the tattoos, came Parker's radical behavior for which his mother tried taking him to the revival. He was unconsciously becoming self-destructive by trying to fulfill his wonder and feelings of emptiness by getting tattoos, drinking alcohol and getting into fights. Though Parker's age at the time may have contributed to his behavior to some extent, he was certainly trying to fill a deficiency within his self.
The author gives examples of how, throughout Parker's life, he was always in need of something more as he was constantly seeking to fill every last empty gap in his physical state.
