The Facade of Tattoos In "Parker's Back" by Flannery O'Connor, the tattoos O.E. Parker receives are crucial to the reader’s understanding of him. Furthermore, O'Connor suggests them as major symbols throughout Parker's life. Parker, the main character in this story, goes through the actions of life without really knowing who he is and why he is on the earth. “Parker gradually experiences religious conversion and, though tattooed all over the front of his …showed first 75 words of 2154 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2154 total…descriptions of Parker's tattoos, one can make connections between the "pictures" he has "drawn all over him" and what goes on in his actual life. O'Connor uses the tattoo symbols to reveal the growth of the protagonist, for it takes him years to get past his outer image of his body, to examine his own soul. One begins to sympathize with this man, "Obadiah Elihue," as he searches for himself and finds peace with God.