Flannery O’Connor

Biography Southern Gothic writer Born in Savannah, GA an only child She grew up in the region part of the “Christ-haunted” Bible Belt. She was diagnosed with lupus and bound to crutches. She died at the age of 39.

O’Connor said “Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.”

Continued… Each story is “The action of grace in territory [is] held largely by the devil.” “an action that is totally unexpected, yet totally believable.” An act of violence, which is “the extreme situation that best reveals what we are essentially.”

O’Connor said . . . She felt “a good deal more kinship with [the South’s] backwoods prophets and shouting fundamentalists” than “with those politer elements for whom the supernatural is an embarrassment and for whom religion has become a department of sociology or culture or personality development.”

“The freak in modern fiction is usually disturbing to us because he keeps us from forgetting that we share in his state.” She describes her short fiction as “nine stories about original sin.” “What has given the South her identity [is the] knowledge that evil is not simply a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be endured.”

“I suppose the reasons for the use of so much violence in modern fiction will differ with each writer who uses it, but in my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace.”

Nihilist Views A nihilist believes in nothing. Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Hulga thinks she believes fully in this. Where do we see that actually Hulga believes in something?

Nietzsche Hulga highlights a passage in one of her textbooks by this philosopher The premise of that quote was that nothing becomes of nothing. He also argued that atheism is an intellectual triumph over Christianity.

Manley Pointer What does Manley personify? His name implies that he will point out something to her. What does he ultimately show her?

What is O’Connor’s theme? Is she trying to say Nihilism ultimately wins?

Which characters reach a “state of grace” Which characters reach a “state of grace”? Does the violence cause this state? Where is the humor in the stories? What are some key elements of O’Connor’s style?