Last post, I looked at the ways that Flannery O’Connor confronts the Lost Cause Narrative in “A Late Encounter With the Enemy.” Today, I want to expand upon that discussion some by looking, specifically, at the end of the story when we see Sally and George at her college graduation. In this scene, which takes up the latter quarter of the story, George sits on the graduation platform in his Confederate general’s uniform and looks at the crowd, hearing comments on history but forgetting them.

Over the course of this section, O’Connor uses the word “black” as an adjective thirteen times. The deployment of “black” in this manner reminds me, in a lot of ways, of Ernest Hemingway’s use of “black grasshoppers” in “The Big Two Hearted-River” and Ernest Gaines’ use of “they” in “The Sky is Gray.” In all of these instances, the words extend outwards beyond the physical context of the scene, relating to the ways that the individuals see the world. George, looking out at the crowd, sees them in “black procession” decked out in “black robes,” walking into his space. Coupled with the story’s commentary on the Lost Cause and the narratives of history, we must read these moments as George fearing recently freed African Americans after the war and calls for social progress at the time of the graduation.

“The General,” as he is referred to following the premier of Gone With the Wind, sits on the stage and repeatedly feels “as if there were a little hole beginning to widen in the top of his head.” He can’t remember anything, and even as he listens to the speaker talk about “Chickamauga, Shiloh, Johnston, [and] Lee” he gets everything confused, even questioning what battles he served as general, even though we know he was never a general. He listens to the speaker tell the crowd, “If we forget our past . . . we won’t remember our future and it will be as well for we won’t have one.” The speaker expresses Lost Cause rhetoric, proclaiming that the “true” history of the Civil War rests on the ideas of a valiant and disrespected South, not on the sins of the region. The General embodies all of this in his construction at the premier and his continued use of the rank of general in his appearances and in Sally’s discussions of him.

Looking out at the crowd, and the hole begins to form his head, the General notices the “procession that came to meet him,” thinking on its familiarity and thinking it meant he was part of a parade celebrating him and the Lost Cause. However, as he stares, he notices something different, he notices the robes, and “he didn’t like a black procession.” When he sees the “black procession,” he becomes irritated, because he equates a procession with floats, and bands, and more. He sees the “black procession” as a threat, as an affront to himself and history. The narrator states, “It must be something connected with history like they were always having. He had no use for any of it. What happened then wasn’t anything to a man living now and he was living.”

For the General, history means nothing to the present, even to himself, who lived through the Civil War, because it happened in the past. Yet, history impacts the present, and he sees, in front of him, a “black procession” flowing into a “black pool” as a “black figure” steps up to the podium to begin his oration. As the figure speaks about history, the General “made up his mind he wouldn’t listen”; however, the words made their way into the hole in his head. The words came at him fast, and “[h]e couldn’t protect himself from the words and attend to the procession” because of the speed that they encountered him. The “black figure” continues speaking, playing into the Lost Cause narrative throughout his speech, but this narrative ultimately doesn’t succeed.

We can, and I would argue must, read the use of “black” at the end of the story in relation to social progress, or at least the start of it; however, we must also read it as death approaching the General because he dies at the end of the story after getting off of the stage. Through this lens, the use of “black” becomes symbolic of the undefeated death, but also corresponds to the death of the Lost Cause narrative. If the General embodies the Lost Cause narrative, and if his mind recoils at the thought of “black slow music,” a figure in a “black robe,” or a “black pool” of individuals before him, then it signifies that the General is afraid of the true narrative of the Civil War and progress. He exists, as do the others around him including Sally, in a fever dream of victimhood and honor that distorts history and reality, crafting a false narrative of the South and its actions during the Civil War, Reconstruction, and beyond.

We can even look at the title of the story and see this. Who is the enemy in the title? Is the enemy history? Is the enemy progress? Is the enemy the “black procession”? Again, while the use of “black” definitly symbolizes approaching death, it also symbolizes the death of the Lost Cause narrative. It makes me think of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction where he methodically dismantles the Lost Cause narrative of the Dunning School. This reading of history engaged, as Du Bois wrote, in “a deliberate attempt so to change the facts of history that the story will make pleasant reading for Americans.” The Lost Cause is palatable because it places the South’s actions in vainglorious terms and positions the South not as aggressors and wrongdoers but as victims.

The story does not contain a specific “enemy,” but it contains a narrative and rhetoric that exists as an “enemy” to history, to reality. The General embodies that “enemy” and he gazes out on the crowd at the graduation and sees the “black procession” approaching to confront him, leading him to his death. We see the ways that myths such as the Lost Cause arise. We see it today with the rewriting of the January 6 insurrection. We saw it even before the dust settled on that day back in 2021. Myths that seeks to rewrite history are dangerous, and O’Connor’s “A Late Encounter With the Enemy” engages with just such myths in its confronting the Lost Cause narrative.

What are your thoughts? As usual, let me know in the comments below. Make sure to follow me on Bluesky @silaslapham.bsky.social‬.