Finding Your Name With Flannery O’Connor
Over the last academic quarter at Chapel Field, our 11th Grade Theology class spent time reflecting on the significance of names and faith. Through his exploration of O'Connor's "Parker's Back," student Micah McDuffie shares his perspective on how our identities are shaped by our relationship with God. (The Junior class voted Micah’s writing as their favorite student article in their class.)
Micah’s Article
My name is Micah Roy McDuffie. I never cared for my name until, when I was around 10 years old, my family was having dinner talking about where their names came from and what they meant. We all went around talking about what our names meant until it got to me. My aunt looked it up and Micah meant “one who is like God.”
After that, I didn’t think about my name until in my junior year in theology class we read Parker’s Back by Flannery O’Connor. In O’Connor’s short story, there is a character named “Obediah Elihue Parker.” Parker rejected his name at a young age, choosing instead to go by “O. E. Parker”. He rejected his name because it was a religious name and he didn't want to be known as the religious type. The first time Parker used his full name (the name that was on his legal documents) was when he met his future wife Sarah Ruth Cates. Sarah was a legalistic, joyless Christian but nevertheless she was religious.
It is interesting that the first time Parker accepts his identity is when he is in the presence of religion. This is telling because we find our identity through religion by learning about Christ. Christ is our identity and without Christ our identity means nothing. For Parker, his name means nothing without God. “Obadiah” means ‘servant of God’ and without God his name is quite literally rendered meaningless. “Elihue” means ‘my God is he.’ Here the same thing is happening. Without God, his name is void of meaning.
I have noticed in my life that without God nothing matters— not our names, nor our identities; nothing matters without God. Without God we are just matter— nothing more, nothing less. Flannery O’Connor explains this so well in “Parker’s Back.”
Later in the story, Parker has a quarter-life crisis where at the end of it, it seems like the Holy Spirit enters him and he decides to get a Byzantine Christ tattooed on his back. After this, he goes back to his house where he found the door locked by Sarah and she wouldn't let him in unless he said his full name, but this time his name meant something because he had Christ inside him.
After I read the story, I looked up what my full name meant. Then I thought of what my name meant without God… and got the same answer that all of you would—— nothing.
Micah Roy McDuffie,
Chapel Field Class of 2026
