Child abuse is something that is very evident in the world, but it is something that people find difficult to talk about. Flannery O'Connor's short story "The River" is about a young boy Harry who is not very well taken care of and has a difficult life. Harry is taken out of his familiar city life, into an unfamiliar country life and quickly learns that what he knows is not what the real world is like. Harry notices little things in the world around him. Harry notices the beauty of the sky, the sun and the birds flying all over the sky. Harry's parents don't really know how to raise a child. They spend their days partying and drinking. Harry is mentally and physically abused. He has no real diet and the food he eats, he just finds it and eats whatever looks good to him. He doesn't take life seriously because his parents don't take life seriously. Because of this, Harry really doesn't know how to be a real child or how to behave. He takes life as a joke and doesn't think it's anything really serious, and originally he told everyone his name was Bevel. When Harry arrives at the river for his baptism he meets a very strict preacher and Harry doesn't know how to talk to him, Harry says, the preacher didn't smile. His bony face was rigid and his narrow gray eyes reflected the almost colorless sky. There was a loud laugh from the old man sitting on the bumper of the car and Bevel grabbed the back of the pastor's collar and held him tightly. The smile had already disappeared from his face. He suddenly had the feeling that this wasn't a joke. Where he lived, everything was a joke. From the preacher's face, he knew immediately that nothing he said or did was a joke. (O'Connor167) At that moment, Harry realized that what he was doing was... middle of paper...... s, and everyone around him. He notices the little things around him and all the changes in the preacher's eyes that let Harry know what to expect and how to react, even if he doesn't actually understand what's happening. The pastor was not very understanding with Harry, so Harry died, but in dying it is better for him to leave this lifestyle of child abuse and neglect the people who should love and care for him . Was it better to die than to return to this house? Are children who live in similar homes today and who run away doing better? This is a question that many people ask themselves daily. Works Cited O'Connor, Flannery. “The river. » The complete stories. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977.157-174. Print. "A reaction to Flannery O'Connor's short story, "The River" Yahoo Contributor Network. Web. February 15. 2014