THE DISPLACED PERSON

CHARACTER LIST

Mrs. McIntyre
Mrs. McIntyre is about sixty, a widow and twice married after that. The farm belonged to her first husband, a judge she once worked for who was much older than her. They actually had a few good years, and after he died and she discovered that he was nearly penniless, she became determined to make something of the only thing he left her: the family farm. She is always looking for decent hired help, fires people often, and has recently been convinced by a local priest to try hiring a family displaced by the war in Europe. Mrs. McIntyre can't turn down a good deal, but she does have a sense of propriety.

Mr. and Mrs. Shortly
The Shortlys are the hired help at the start of the story. Mr. Shortly is the dairyman--slow and a bit lazy--and Mrs. Shortly has been a friend to Mrs. McIntyre. Mrs. Shortly is distrustful, knows which side the bread is buttered on, and has bee impressed by pictures of the death-camp victims in Europe. She considers all Europeans barbarians, and distrusts the new help from Poland. She is excitable, heavy, and a bit dim-witted.

Mr. Guizac and Family
The Guizac's are from Poland, and are very grateful to be placed with Mrs. McIntyre. Mr. Guizac is hard working, honest, and barely speaks English, though he probably understands more than he lets on. He sees things very practically, and does not understand Mrs. McIntyre, always, or her preferences, but is deferential and bends to his work. His hard work puts a lot of money into Mrs. McIntyre's hands, and he knows this.

Father Flynn
The old priest is happy to find a place for the Guizacs, and would like to convert Mrs. McIntyre. But he is very nonconfrontational. He won't discuss problems with Mrs. McIntyre. He would rather admire her peacocks. He idolizes their beauty.

Sulk and Astor
The two hired Negroes are supposedly half-lazy, but the older one (Astor) is very aware of what is going on--he's been on the farm since before Mrs. McIntyre. He keeps his mouth shut, but knows the score. The younger man, Sulk, is more gullible, but he knows the probable outcome of his deal making with Guizac as well. He is not so clever with Mrs. McIntyre.

CONFLICT

After Mrs. McIntyre finds out that Mr. Guizac is planning to marry his niece (who has been in a detention camp) to Sulk, and that Sulk has been giving him money, she wants to fire him for the very indecency of the idea. But Mr. Guizac makes her a lot of money, and she has trouble actually dismissing him.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Money would have to be the main antagonist in this story. Both Mrs. McIntyre and Mr. Guizac could be protagonists, as both have something to lose, and both try to do the "right" thing--according to their own evaluation.

Climax

When Mrs. McIntyre and Mr. Shortly see a tractor role towards Mr. Guizac, rather than shout a warning they let the tractor role over him and he dies.

Outcome

Mr. Shortly leaves the farm immediately, and Mrs. McIntyre suffers a slow decline, until she no longer cares what happens to her farm or her money.

SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis)

PART I

Mrs. Shortley climbs a hill, with a peacock following her, and watches as a black car pulls up to Mrs. McIntyre's house. Astor and Sulk watch, too, from behind a tree, but they don't see Mrs. Shortley watching them.

An old priest gets out of the car, and then a family: a woman and two children (a boy and a girl), and a man with a sway-back. He's the Displaced Person they've all been hearing about, a Polish refuge, and Mrs. McIntyre is hiring him. Only the boy speaks any English, and she watches him translate. She and Mrs. McIntyre have been calling this family the Gobblehooks, being unable to pronounce the name. The two women have been fixing up one of the farm shacks for the family to live in. Mrs. McIntyre has said they will have to make do with what little she can give them.

Mrs. Shortly wonders if these new people know about anything regular, like colors--can they recognize colors? She's seen newsreels of the war, of all the bodies over in Europe, where the Gobblehooks come from: all twisted and stacked like wood. They were not very advanced over there, not like here. If they did those things over there, whose to say they wouldn't come here and do the same thing?

Mrs. Shortley moves forward and Mrs. McIntyre introduces her and asks where Mr. Shortly is. Mrs. Shortley says he doesn't have time to rest or visit. Mrs. McIntyre calls them the "Guizacs" now. Can't put anything over on her! Mrs. Shortley points out Astor and Sulk, doing nothing in the bushes, watching. She mentally compared the Guizac children to her own: she had a son at bible school, and he wouldn't be piling up any bodies. No telling what these Poles believed in.

The priest catches sight of the peacock, and exclaims that he is the most beautiful bird he's ever seen, with suns in his tail! Mrs. McIntyre thinks he's daffy--the priest looks like an amazed little boy. The priest drives the Guizacs to their new shack-house, and Mrs. Shortley finds Astor and Sulk behind the tree and asks them what they think. They'd never heard of the Displaced Person, and want to know what the word 'displaced' means. Mrs. Shortley explains that it means they have nowhere to be. Astor asserts that they are here, and that's someplace. Mrs. Shortley thinks Negroes are daft. She tells them to get to work or they will be replaced by people like the Guizacs.

Then she goes into the barn to tell her husband about the new people--he's smoking, which Mrs. McIntyre doesn't allow. Mr. Shortley is a veteran. They agree that Negroes would be better than those shifty Europeans.

Three weeks later Mr. Guizac has done so much work, and accomplished so many tasks, that Mrs. McIntyre is enthralled. Mr. Guizac even catches Sulk stealing a turkey and turns him into Mrs. McIntyre--she tells him that Negroes are just like that. He is puzzled that she doesn't seem to care much about the theft.

Mrs. McIntyre is glad to have a real worker at last. She tells Mrs. Shortley that she is tired of white trash who don't do the work, and that the Displaced Person is her salvation. Mrs. Shortley doesn't say much, but she hints that the Guizacs are from the devil, and she won't say any more. Not that she's religious. But she has plenty to think about. She tells Mrs. McIntyre that those people are going to want more money for all that hard work. Mrs. McIntyre says they are worth it. Then she asks after Mr. Shortley, who has been sick. Mr. Guizac has been doing his work, too.

Mr. Shortley, truthfully, has another job: he runs a still. Mrs. McIntyre doesn't know this, but Mrs. Shortley wonders if the Pole has found the still and will tell Mrs. McIntyre. She tells Mrs. McIntyre that no one works as hard as Mr. Shortley. Every time she looks at Mr. Guizac, she sees all those stacked bodies, that evil.

She then tells the Negroes that they better watch out or they will be surely be replaced. After all, Mrs. McIntyre replaced the mules with machines. Astor tells Sulk not to worry, that they are too low to be replaced. Then Mrs. Shortley, at night in bed, tries to tell her husband that Mr. Guizac is evil, that all those European people needed the American's help and now they want to come over here and replace the Negroes and she's going to stand up for the Negroes. Her husband just wants to sleep, and pretends to ignore her. Mr. Guizac didn't fool her, shaking the Negroes' hands like normal people. She would not let that priest displace the Negroes with Guizacs.