Flannery O Connor Research Paper

These are elements of random foreshadowing that helped the reader understand why the grandmother believed so strongly that a good man is hard to find. This would be a prelude to the horrific events that would later unfold when the grandmother encounters the misfit who by all intense purposes was not believed to be a good man.

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.

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

Generally when a person writes a story, they use past experiences and adventures in their life to help create a plot for their stories. Usually these events create a base for which the author writes upon thus contributing to the author’s exceptional way of thinking. For example, author Terry Teachout says that “O'Connor's religious beliefs were central to her art” (Teachout 56). O’Connor’s religion played a crucial role in her writings. Flannery O'Connor is regarded one of the major brief tale authors in United States literary performs. Among the thing that makes her work stand out to date is the boldness in her writing in style which she made no effort to hide her affiliation to the Roman Catholic faith and spared no wrath when

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

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.

Flannery O'Connor remained a devout Catholic throughout, and this fact, coupled with the constant awareness of her own impending death, both filtered through an acute literary sensibility, gives us valuable insight into just what went into those thirty-two short stories and the two novels: cathartic bitterness, a belief in grace as something devastating to the recipient, a gelid concept of salvation, and violence as a force for good. At first it might seem that these aspects of her writing would detract from,

O 'Connor writes in ways that let us know the characters thoughts without really coming out and telling us. O 'Connor often changes the mood of the story very quickly from amusement to horror and vice - versa. In her stories, grotesque is often used to tie together the seriousness and the comedic situations. "Flannery O 'Connor said of her work, 'the look of the fiction is going to be wild... it is almost of necessity going to be violent and comic; because of the discrepancies it seeks to combine. '" (Walters 7).

The irony in the story is shown when the grandmother, who thinks she is a good Christian, in reality is just as evil as the Misfit.

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

Flannery O 'Connor’s works are nothing short of extraordinary. They frequently step into the realm of the extreme to make a statement or prove a point. The result is that her messages are stark and vivid, and O 'Connor is able to make bold positions on controversial subjects. She achieves this effect through a number of means, which consist primarily of Christian symbolism, character foils, and literary irony. Combined, they create rich, intense environments in which radical events push and twist characters. As a result of this stress, the characters are defined more clearly. In many instances, they achieve a kind of self realization, and their revelations usually come with an ironic factor or consequence. O 'Connor’s stories, notably

Flannery O’connor is one of the most shinning stars in American literature. Her distinct writing style makes her work recognizable and outstanding from other literature works. Many critics have commented on Flannery O’connor’s narrative voice. Louise Blackwell discovers Miss O’Connor often wrote according to southern tradition by using symbols in people’s daily life to convey the theme in a more profound way. From the perspective of the O’connor’s writing technique, Shirley Foster speaks highly of Miss O’connor’s works: O’connor’s skilled technique establishes the complicity between the readers and narrators. These two evaluations reveal the most important characteristics of Flannery O’connor’s works, directing readers to understand O’connor’s works much easier. Readers can understand the two critics’ comments by exploring the special narrative voices in Flannery O’connor’s well- known stories: “ Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”.

Katherine O'Flaherty (Kate Choppin) was an author of short stories. She wrote two novels and a hundred short stories in the year 1890. In most of her work she focused on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. She was born February 8, 1850 is ST. Louis, MO and died August 22nd in 1904. She was married to Oscar Chopin and had 6 children, George Francis Chopin, Fredrick Chopin, Jean Baptiste Chopin, Marie Laiza Chopin, Felix Andrew Chopin, and Oscar Charles Chopin.