I seem to recall reading somewhere that there was a psychiatric hospital in her
home town, and that O.T. might have stood for "Occupational Therapy", and E.T.
for something similar...

To: flanneryoconnorfanpage@...: freehome1@...: Wed, 7
Jan 2009 06:51:27 -0800Subject: Re: [Flannery O'Connor Fan Page] Q: O.T. and
E.T. in "Greenleaf"



My best guess is that they were given initials instead of real names to
underscore their simplicity; this of course juxtaposed by the existence of their
fancy french wives. I think a lot of her stories came from real life events and
their may have been a neighbor with initials from whom she drew inspiration.
Initials were an may still be a very popular naming custom in the South, for
example: E.W., S.T., O.W., E.J., J.R. to name a few I know personally. Hope
this helps. I can't really come up with any real significance for these
particular initials. Does she disclose the full names in the story? I can't
remember. I think Parker in "Parker's Back" is ashamed of his real name, but I
can't remember what it is either. Good luck.--- On Tue, 1/6/09,
darienslibrarian <darienslibrarian@...> wrote:From: darienslibrarian
<darienslibrarian@...>Subject: [Flannery O'Connor Fan Page] Q: O.T. and
E.T. in "Greenleaf"To: flanneryoconnorfanpage@...: Tuesday,
January 6, 2009, 11:37 PMHelp a gal out... what is the significance of "O.T."
and "E.T." in"Greenleaf"? I know those initials are in there for a reason,
butdarned if I know what it is. Are there some branches of
Protestantdenominations with names that have those initials? ("O.T." was how
Iused to abbreviate "Old Testament" in religion class notes, butsomehow, I don't
think this is quite right.)Thanks, in advance!Laura[Non-text portions of this
message have been removed]






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