Flannery
O’Connor, a devoted Orthodox Christian from the South, wrote a collection of
letters, short stories and novels throughout her life. In these writings,
Flannery captured the grotesque and negativity of the South in a bizarre and
imaginative style. Despite the fact that most of her life experiences were
limited due to her short-lived life and lupus disease, her stories were known
for the normal scenarios found in day-to-day life with ridiculous imaginative
twists that she was able to come up with on her own. Through these scenarios
and stories, O’Connor portrayed the tensions between the Christian faith and
the secular part of society in the South. She used an extreme emphasis on
violence and distortion of Southern society in order to portray the tensions. O’Connor
also directed her writing to portray the Southern biblical practice and the
distrust of modern religion and secularity.
In one of her
short stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” an ordinary Southern family and
their Christian grandmother are traveling to Tennessee when they end up in a minor
car accident, just to become murdered by a well-known Southern criminal known
as the Misfit. Many readers find this story disturbing as the Misfit orders his
men to kill the family members one by one, as the grandmother is left praying
to God, pleading for her life. The grandmother, telling him he should not kill
a lady and that he should pray to God instead, was killed in the end by the
secular Misfit. Many people, including Michael M. Jordan, author of “Flannery
O’Connor’s Writing: A Guide for the Perplexed” and myself, viewed this as
secular views overcoming those of Christian faith. In fact, however, O’Connor’s
real vision is that the grandmother dies with honor and grace of being a
Christian and that she becomes “a good woman,” ending her life in a Christian
way. This is also true for another of O’Connor’s short story, “The River” in
which a boy baptizes himself. In a horrific and tragic way, Bevel drowns and
ends up passing away. As violent and horrifying this may be, O’Connor portrays
that although his life is over, he died after becoming a Christian and that he
has “left this life of sin, sorrow and suffering for a glorious life in the
Kingdom of Christ” (Jordan, Michael M., 2005).
Although
she was devoted to her faith and her stories reflected these views, critics
argued that her stories do not always directly reflect this. ‘Reading between
the lines’ is sometimes needed to pick out the Christian hints. In response to
this, in 1957, O’Connor stated, “I am no disbeliever in spiritual purpose and
no vague believer. I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. This means
that for me in the meaning of life is center in our Redemption by Christ and
what I see in the world I see in relation to that.” This just restates that her
stories are all told in how she views the world, in a Christian way. Also,
O’Connor viewed herself as a literary artist, not a preacher. Her stories
reflect Christian morality, but these are not as direct as one might expect. As
an explanation for audiences not being able to interpret her Christian meaning
behind her stories, one can say that society as a whole has developed a more
secular viewpoint.
Extremely proud of
being a Southerner, O’Connor still found many flaws in society. In a lecture
she gave at Georgetown University, Washington, DC in 1963, she introduced the
Catholic Church and the South as being against each other. As the lecture went
on, she explained the similarities between one another, explaining that they
each had a religious background, human limitations, a respect for the concrete
and actual and an acknowledgement that “good and evil in every culture tend to
be joined at the spine (Elie, Paul, 2008).” She was proud to be from the South
because it was a culture; it had a history, manners and idiom.
As we read through
different stories of Flannery O’Connor, we read through different scenarios in
which Christianity is imposed, and in which good conquers evil. A question I
have is how has society as a whole changed into a secular society? How would
Flannery O’Connor interpret this change? Also, in order to understand her
stories does one have to be a devoted Christian like her, or can even the most
secular people see the tensions of good versus evil in her stories?
Works
Cited
Arbery,
Glenn C. “Ontological Splendor: Flannery O’Connor in the Protestant South.” The Intercollegiate Review 46.1 (2011) :
41-50. Print.
Elie,
Paul. “What Flannery Knew: Catholic Writing for a Critical Age.” Commonweal 135.20 (2008) : 12-17. Print.
Jordan,
Michael M. Flannery. “Flannery O’Connor’s Writing: A Guide for the Perplexed.” Modern Age 47.1 (2005) : 48-57. Print.
This was a very interesting way to view Flannery O’Connor’s work and how it relates to religion. I could tell by reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find” that religion played a key role in her writing. I did not realize that as a writer she felt as if the Christian grandmother had died in honor of her faith. I figured by that ending, the secular world had “won” and Christianity had been defeated by the barrel of a murderer. Now that you have mentioned it, I would assume dying as one prays to God would be an honorable death compared to dying while living in sin. I believe O’Connor’s approach to differentiate between “good” and “evil” in this story also played a key role in the way the secular world was viewed by the reader compared to the religious world. She chose to use the “Misfit” to symbolize the secular world and the humble and helpless grandmother to symbolize the religious world. By doing so, she allowed the reader to view the secular world as a brutal, violent place rather than the religious world as kind, and forgiving. This strategic way of writing definitely influences her audience’s views of the world. If O’Conner were to see the world today, I believe she would be very disappointed with the way religion has become a past time for many families as well as the rudeness of each generation. It seems as if violence becomes more prevalent with each new generation and she would not approve of this as well!
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that Flannery O'Connor didn't technically mean to portray the secular lifestyle in such a negative way, but it siply happened that way in her mind and she depicted as creatively as possible. I think it helped make others see her the differences between each of the character in the story by making the Misfit a non-believing character in the story and making the grandmother a believer. It helped us see that he had no hope in his life and was not going to rrely on someone else to guide him; the Misfit wanted to take matters into his own hands. The grandmother was a typical old-fashined woman who had something to live for: her family. I can see how people can see the Christian influence in her stories, because it's definitely obvious! However, I don't think she tries to make it seem as though those who don't believe are "misfits".
ReplyDeleteO'Connor has a strange way of portraying the christian faith in her stories. It seems that faith is losing to a secular power in her story, but in reality, a greater good is coming out of the tragedy. When I first read her story, i did not realize the good that came out of the grandmother's death. I now fully understand the title of the story and how christianity is truly winning in the end, not secularism.
ReplyDeleteI think that Flannery OConnor did n interesting job in the depiction of Christianity in her stories. She definitely proved to show how the grandmother was a christian and the misfit was not. The grandmother prays to God at one point in the story and mentions a couple of times in which she talks about her faith. However, i do not think that the grandmother is an accurate depiction of a true christian in the story. Her behavior towards her family is ironic in the way thats she is somewhat depicted as a christian by Flannery but her actions disprove otherwise. I was curious as to how and why Flannery chose to depict the grandmother in such a way.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! I think that O'Connor wasn't necessarily painting a picture of the perfect Christian but more or less showing the two sides of Christianity and secularism, both of which, in her mind, weren't "right". I think that she was showing how each side had a sort of "extreme" that made them, for lack of a better term, 'not right' beings.
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