Short Biography: Flannery O Connor

Fitzgerald, Sally. “On Faith.” Letters of Flannery O’ Connor, The Habit of Being, edited by Sally Fitzgerald, Macmillan, 1988, page 90.

Flannery O’Connor was an American author who often wrote about characters who face violent situations. These situations force the characters into a moment of crisis that awakens or alters their fate. Her short stories reflect her Roman Catholic faith and frequently discuss questions of morality and ethics. O’Connor’s Catholic upbringing influenced most of her short stories, often accumulating criticism because of her harsh portrayal of religion. O’Connor incorporates the experience of a moment of grace in her short stories to contribute to the meaning of her works and to represent her faith.

In class, we have read a couple of Flannery O’ Connor’s short stories which include A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, and Revelations. After reading these stories, I noticed that Flannery O’ Connor changes the story but in a sense keeps the same main characters in every story. The main things that change between these characters are how they decide to handle a situation and their names; the things that do not change are often the outlook that they have on the world. I noticed the grandma from A Good Man is Hard to Find and Ruby Turpin from Revelations follow the criteria that I listed above. Throughout this paper, I am going to discuss the similarities and differences between the grandma and Ruby Turpin.

Mary Flannery O’Connor is considered one of the most successful short story writers in history. She composed her works during a period of prosperity and economic boom following World War II. Although the economy was thriving, the 1950’s were a period of struggle for women’s rights, as well as other minorities. (Digital History) Based on her success, one could conclude O’Connor exceeded all barriers against women during the fifties. Flannery O’Connor’s life experiences based on her faith, her novels, and the time period of the 1950’s contribute to her unique writing style.

To the casual reader, the writing of Flannery O'Connor can seem cold and void of emotion. Her storylines are like a misty fog in the dead of winter, enveloping the reader with a harsh even violent atmosphere. Her short stories regularly end in traumatic, freak deaths or, at the very least, a character's emotional destruction. An analysis of “Greenleaf,” “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” or “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” will leave the reader feeling empty. The imagination of the reader is not engaged on any level. There is an under current of anti-religion which is intensified by cruelty. O’Connor’s writing is filled with symbolism which is camouflaged by her writing style. Although her writing style is not considered by experts as

The main recurring theme in Flannery O’Connor’s stories is the use of violence towards characters in order to give them an eye-opening moment in which they finally realize their true self in relation to the rest of society and openly accept insight into how they should act or think. This theme of violence can clearly be seen in three works by Flannery O’Connor: A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, and Everything That Rises Must Converge.

Flannery O’Connor was a short story author from Savannah, Georgia. She has produced many critically acclaimed pieces and has won several awards for them. Two distinct pieces she wrote are titled The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Good Country People. While both of her stories are unique, the underlying storyboard and character creation process that O’Connor used is the same throughout her stories. Her stories usually involve one or more self-centered woman, a younger person who become the victim of egregious crime, and a conniving male driven by his own motives. Good Country People and The Life You Save May Be Your Own do not stray from this rule. In either story, the narrative is driven around a shocking tragedy that is very unexpected. Even though in the tragedies committed in the book always have a belligerent and a victim, it is not easy to discern who amongst the two are the antagonist and the protagonist. In either of these narratives, the tragedy that occurred within the stories blurs the line between antagonist and protagonist.

The short story "Greenleaf" shows us some of the central themes of Flannery O'Connor's literary work.

Flannery O’Connor believed in the power of religion to give new purpose to life. She saw the fall of the old world, felt the force and presence of God, and her allegorical fictions often portray characters who discover themselves transforming to the Catholic mind. Though her literature does not preach, she uses subtle, thematic undertones and it is apparent that as her characters struggle through violence and pain, divine grace is thrown at them. In her story “Revelation,” the protagonist, Mrs. Turpin, acts sanctimoniously, but ironically the virtue that gives her eminence is what brings about her downfall. Mrs. Turpin’s veneer of so called good behavior fails to fill the void that would bring her to heaven. Grace hits her with force and

Flannery O’Connor, undoubtedly one of the most well-read authors of the early 20th Century, had many strong themes deeply embedded within all her writings. Two of her most prominent and poignant themes were Christianity and racism. By analyzing, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” these two themes jump out at the reader. Growing up in the mid-1920’s in Georgia was a huge influence on O’Connor. Less than a decade before her birth, Georgia was much different than it was at her birth. Slaves labored tirelessly on their master’s plantations and were indeed a facet of everyday life. However, as the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began, slaves were not easily assimilated into Southern culture. Thus, O’Connor grew up in a highly racist area that mourned the fact that slaves were now to be treated as “equals.” In her everyday life in Georgia, O’Connor encountered countless citizens who were not shy in expressing their discontent toward the black race. This indeed was a guiding influence and inspiration in her fiction writing. The other guiding influence in her life that became a major theme in her writing was religion. Flannery O 'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family. The region was part of the 'Christ-haunted ' Bible belt of the Southern States. The spiritual heritage of the region profoundly shaped O 'Connor 's writing as described in her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South" (1969). Many

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. New York, NY, Norton & Company, 1985.

Brutality, humor, religion, and violence are a few themes portrayed throughout many of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. In many of her short stories, O’Connor exposes the dark side of human nature and implements violent and brutal elements in order to emphasize her religious viewpoints. In the short stores “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation”, O’Connor explicitly depicts this violence to highlight the presence and action of holy grace that is given to a protagonist who exudes hypocritical qualities.

O’Connor borrowed these characteristics from her life and used them in the complex characters she would later create. Her Catholic faith is another point that drove O’Connor’s writing, especially given that she grew up in a Protestant-majority region. “Flannery O'Connor put much conscious thought into her dual role of Catholic and fiction writer” (Galloway). Her devout faith plays a huge role in her writing, as most of her characters grapple with salvation and grace. O’Connor’s influences in life were so powerful, they became the same topics that impacted her philosophy in writing.

To the uninitiated, the writing of Flannery O'Connor can seem at once cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent. Her short stories routinely end in horrendous, freak fatalities or, at the very least, a character's emotional devastation. Working his way through "Greenleaf," "Everything that Rises Must Converge," or "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the new reader feels an existential hollowness reminiscent of Camus' The Stranger; O'Connor's imagination appears a barren, godless plane of meaninglessness, punctuated by pockets of random, mindless cruelty.

Upon initially reading Flannery O’Connor’s work, one would have no problem recognizing her use of shocking, violent, or despairing themes. It may not be as easy, however, to completely accept or understand her style. According to Patrick Galloway, one must be “initiated to her trademarks when reading any of her two novels or thirty-two short stories (1).In many of her works, she paradoxically uses styles that are grotesque and brutal to illustrate themes of grace and self-actualization. As O’Connor herself says, “I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to