High School Literary Criticism Papers

Valdosta State University instructors, VSU Archivist Deborah Davis, and Janice Daugharty collaborated with high school English teachers at Valdosta High School, Lowndes High School, Echols County High School, and Clinch County High School to instruct high school students for three days about engaging in the writing process, conducting  literary and historical research on primary sources, regional identity themes, Southern authors, the writer's role as an observer, and writing literary criticism.

Students were prepared for the project activities by reading a Janice Daugharty's short story "Shorn Glory" and by reviewing a CD handout created by the project developers containing primary and secondary sources and literary criticism related to Daugharty's short story. 

On day one of this project activity, Deborah Davis presented a tabletop exhibit and a multi-media show on Daugharty, and discussed the VSU archive collection of Janice Daugharty, and her writings including various drafts of her works. She also demonstrated how the archive collection can be used as a primary resource in studying a piece of literature.

On day two instructors, Daugharty, and students, discussed Daugharty's short stories, the writing process, and sense of place as it related the stories.      

On day three instructors taught students about how to use historical and literary research; and instructed students about how to incorporate what they learned about sense of place into their critical essays.

As part of this project activity, approximately 100 high school juniors and seniors submitted literary criticism papers for evaluation and nine were chosen for this journal. The nine students whose essays were chosen presented their papers at the Janice Daugharty Festival, a regional writing conference, held on April 29, 2004. The conference was an additional event emerging from the project.

A Literary Analysis of “Shorn Glory”

by Patrick Lasseter

In line with many of her authors of inspiration, Janice Daugharty demonstrates a keen sense of regional identity that enhances both the characters and plot development in her work. In her short story, “Shorn Glory,” Daugharty utilizes such means in her literary efforts. Daugharty accurately depicts a southern summer and the plight of a wandering man named Clifford. Not only does Daugharty introduce this character, she indirectly reveals his true nature. Daugharty’s unique ability to incorporate a regional identity into “Shorn Glory” creates a dynamic and intricate character such as Clifford.

Initially, the regional setting of the South establishes the basis for the actions of Clifford and the triplet girls. Daugharty begins her short story with detailed imagery of a southern summer. Through this detail, Daugharty provides a strong and realistic base for the story. Clifford wanders aimlessly inebriated until he comes upon the home of the triplets. Under bodily stress from alcohol and heat, he collapses under a tree and requests water from the girls. The driving circumstances of Daugharty’s story focuses around Clifford cutting the hair of the girls and discussing religion while doing so. Once again, Daugharty’s ability to place the story in America’s “Bible Belt” provides the perfect setting for her work.

Once the story develops, Clifford’s initial motives for cutting the girls’ hair reveals itself as a general rebellion against the religious South. Clifford easily overcomes the girls’ reluctance to have their hair trimmed by convincing the most dominant triplet, Gloriann. The first glimpse of Clifford going against the religious beliefs takes place when he refers to the Church of God as having “crazy beliefs.” Gloriann, whose mother belongs to the Church of God, agrees and decides to go through with the procedure. With great difficulty, she is able to convince her sisters to do likewise. Through his disrespect for the religious practices and beliefs of the Church of God, a representative of all the strong religions of the South, Clifford gains a sense of self-satisfaction that spills into a deeper sense of gratitude for his behavior. More specifically, Clifford’s sense of personal revenge on religion includes a need to gain a small victory against childhood memories of his dead mother. During the cutting of Gloriann’s hair, Clifford says that his “own Ma used to have hair like this,” (128). This revelation prompts a drunken sobbing and a flood of memories to come back to Clifford. Whether Clifford gained a victory over his memory or achieved closure through cutting the girls’ hair is not clear but his interaction with the girls provides an interesting conflict within Clifford.

Through his actions, Clifford comes to a realization of his own life and motives. Clifford gains this realization when he begins to cry thinking of his mother while with the girls. Fighting through a drunken façade, Clifford genuinely feels both relief and disappointment in his own life. Daugharty’s ability to portray all this in a single character contributes to the impact of the transformation that Clifford undergoes. Although, through all of the action, Clifford still fits the notion that “man is still, in the main, theological,” (O’Connor 44). The character Daugharty creates grows in his own self-realization but does not do so in an area that he does not associate with his religiously based view of his mother. In a bonus use of symbolism, Daugharty makes Clifford undergo a change in direction. He comes to the family’s farm heading west. Following the events of his day of revelation, Clifford leaves the girls and travels east. Not necessarily a regional specific, Daugharty’s understanding of her characters’ surroundings allows her to integrate small, but meaningful details into her works.

Not only does Clifford affect his own life in the story, his brief encounter influences the lives of the triplets as well. The question exists as to whether or not Clifford gives or takes away the identity of the girls whose hair he shears. Clifford gives each girl a different haircut in order to provide each triplet her own special look. The question exists because their religion is part of their identity. The girls’ religious beliefs include that “any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same as if she had her head shaved. For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off,” (1 Corinthians 11:5-6). The Bible provides the girls’ strong basis that “if a woman has long hair it is her glory,” (1 Corinthians 11: 15). Once Clifford has disregarded the religious rights of the young girls, the impact of the decision looms large in the lives of the girls. While Clifford treks on, the girls will be left to face their mother and their religion.

Overall, Daugharty’s ability to provide such depth to Clifford’s character is unique. Through a single act Clifford affects his own life and the lives of others while gaining self-fulfillment. Daugharty accurately and skillfully uses her regional setting as a strong base for her tale about Clifford. The setting is like none other and Daugharty fulfills her own statement about her writing. She says, “Once I’ve written about a place, it is mine,” (34). She is correct in that statement. In “Shorn Glory,” Daugharty does make the setting and the characters all her own in a unique and profound manner.

Works Cited

Daugharty, Janice. “Shorn Glory” Going Through the Change. Princeton: Ontario Review Press. 1994.

Daugharty, Janice. “Write Where You Know.” Writer’s Digest, 77:5. May 1997, 32. Galileo.

O’ Connor, Flannery. “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.”

Mystery and Manners. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 1962.