Jenny In Flannery O 'Connor's The Predicament'

After reading “The Predicament” it is obvious that jenny is definitely the most culpable person involved in the entire episode, and number one on my list. Without her making the choice to use the purchased paper nothing could have come of the entire situation. Also, the idea that, “she was too exhausted at the end of the day to complete her course work” is not only a farce, but simply an excuse. If you are truly set on achieving being tired is not going to get in your way. Her continued sloth and mishandling of the situation resulted in a very negative outcome. She should have been filling that free time she had to complain with course work.
Gloria did nothing to help her friend on this one, and earns herself the number two on my list. She definitely encouraged her to do the wrong thing. While not forcing Jenny to do anything, she planted the seed and even encouraged it by sending her the paper. Louise is nearly as at fault for supplying the paper to begin with, which lands her at number three. Her poor morals and decisions led her to drag Jenny down and eventually led to Jenny’s predicament.
I feel that Tom, number four, was only slightly more to blame than Dean Brown, number five, because it was his decision to adjust Jenny’s work schedule that led to the whole situation to begin with.
Dean Brown had the final say on whether or not Jenny’s paper violated school policy and chose to punish her. Professor Poe is the least culpable person on this list and ranked at number six. He tried to do everything he could without violating his own ethics, in the end he passed the paper on, hoping to be allowed even more room in which to work with Jenny. I feel he would have done anything he could have to help
her. In the future I would suggest that Jenny stick to hard work and better time management in order to succeed in class. Were I in her position, I would immediately submit a letter of apology to the Dean and Professor Poe, Reiterating my position, and explaining that I would do everything in my power to make it up in the future. She needs to repair her damaged reputation and prove that she is not going to try and do anything like this again. Maybe in the future she should try to wake up earlier in order to have time to work on her course work in the mornings. She could also set aside times at lunch in which to work on course work. If work is going to be her main impediment she will simply have to find ways to schedule around it.