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Alliteration
Explanation and Analysis—Prophets and Profits:
As a character, Onnie-Jay sheds light on the intersection—and collision—between religion and moneymaking. Interspersing his dialogue with alliteration, oxymoron, and irony, O'Connor characterizes Onnie-Jay as a scam artist. He also acts as a foil for the brooding, tormented Hazel. Onnie-Jay provides comic relief but also shows that the aim of making money off of religious activities doesn't tend to coexist with sincere faith.
As the reader becomes familiar with Onnie-Jay, an ironic contrast distinguishes him from Hazel. Whereas Onnie-Jay attempts to convince the people around him to believe in his cause, Hazel attempts to convince the people around him—and most of all himself—that there's no cause to believe in. The two foils are both characterized by their dishonesty. But while Onnie-Jay lies to the public, Hazel primarily lies to himself. The former has a certain charm and delivers his money-making schemes in a compelling way while the latter mostly makes people uncomfortable. The two men's differences have an ironic effect: as Onnie-Jay attemps to co-opt Hazel's sincerity in order to make money, he disrupts Hazel's anti-religious message.
When Hazel tries to shake Onnie-Jay's pursuit in Chapter 9, Onnie-Jay becomes mad and threatens him. This threat contains a humorous and ironic moment of alliteration:
You watch out, friend. I’m going to run you out of business. I can get my own new jesus and I can get Prophets for peanuts, you hear?
Onnie-Jay's threats are ironic for a number of reasons. To begin with, Hazel was never interested in making money. This shows to what degree Onnie-Jay has misunderstood his new rival. The punchy alliteration "Prophets for peanuts," also adds to the irony of his line, as it shows that he only sees religion as a way to make money. To get back at Hazel, he claims that he can get a prophet for cheaper than he can. Additionally, the alliterative formulation contains another layer of wordplay, as prophets and profits are homophones. To Onnie-Jay, the main value of a prophet is that it's a way to make profit.
O'Connor similarly invokes wordplay in Chapter 13, when she uses an oxymoronic pairing to describe Onnie-Jay's new business partner:
On his second night out, working with his hired Prophet and the Holy Church of Christ Without Christ, Hoover Shoats made fifteen dollars and thirty-five cents clear.
The formulation "hired Prophet" has an oxymoronic effect, as prophets are supposed to be chosen by a divine being and driven by a genuine desire to share a religious message—rather than employed for wages. Once again, O'Connor drives home the cynicism at the heart of Onnie-Jay's seeming sincerity. Relative to him, Hazel is actually quite sincere—he just puts great effort into burying his sincere belief under a layer of cynical blasphemy.
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