Obadiah's Back

To many, the title “Parker’s Back” is interpreted to mean that the entire story will literally be about his back; however, when I was reading the story, I noticed the author’s play on words in choosing this title to mean something deeper. The text is more about a return of a former-self as opposed to an intense tattoo, but instead of the title “Parker’s Back,” I feel that a more appropriate title would be “Obadiah’s Back.” The entire story revolves around one man’s earnest search for an identity. He desperately wants a sense of self, a sense of who he truly is underneath the tattoo artist’s pen, but he spends his entire life growing away from the identity he was born with. Parker is unable to embrace his true self and unknowingly, continues to wander about looking for something which he has possessed all along. Although he goes by Parker, the name he was born with is something else, something he hates being called by. He uses any means possible to avoid explaining what the initials “O.E.” stand for, and when he finally says his name out loud, he makes sure it is in a whisper so that others won’t hear. In many ways, it is his biggest secret, but why? What about the name is so dreadful for him? I think it is just the fear of acknowledging his subservience to God. He only trusts his hidden identity to the woman he falls in love with, and for the entire course of the story, she is the only character who knows that he is really Obadiah Elihu, and not Parker. In many ways, Parker himself does not know that the lost identity he is searching for is simply Obadiah. Then, one day, due to a near-death experience, he decides that there must be a gargantuan change in his life. He becomes maniacal in his desperate attempts to find identity, running away from home without informing his wife and proceeding to decide that another tattoo is a necessity. After impulsively having the haunting eyes of Jesus dyed into his back, he attempts to return to his former life and finally goes home. The door is locked and when his wife asks who is there, he strangely responds “Obadiah.” After making such a fuss about the name and swearing to only go by “Parker,” he is suddenly able to embrace his real name, his real identity. There is no more hiding behind tattoos; finally, Parker finds himself. The way that the story is written indicates that his identity finds him, and not the other way around. He does not even realize strangeness in referring to himself as Obadiah instead of Parker, and does not register that he is a changed man. At the end of the story, Parker is no longer the character that was introduced to us in the beginning of the piece; instead, he is transformed back into the religious and God-fearing Obadiah. In the end, I think that the title “Obadiah’s Back” indicates a return of a former self which was lost in the turbulence of growing up (521).