Flannery O’Connor

Brad Gooch said, One thing that [Flannery O’Connor] always does is seems to cross two wires that don’t usually belong together.

... still Brad Gooch: There’s a story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” about a character called The Misfit, an escaped con who murders an entire family in the woods in Georgia.

More Brad But this family is a very funny almost kind of ’50s Disney family, so everyone is laughing through the story.

Brad continues... At a certain point two people have now been shot, and The Misfit is spouting nihilist existentialist philosophy, and you start thinking, well, this isn’t funny. I can’t laugh at this.

and more Gooch... So that kind of queasy moment where you’re not sure, when you have two reactions at once, seems very Flannery O’Connor.

BG Concludes & Expands She’s done a lot with extreme religious figures and backwoods prophets, and there’s almost an apocalyptic mood and violence to these stories mixed with comedy, and I think that this seems very current, like out of the 24/7 news cycles.

Definition of “Gothic” In literature, a genre characterized by a general mood of decay, action that is dramatic and generally violent or otherwise disturbing, loves that are destructively passionate, and settings that are grandiose, if gloomy or bleak.

Gothic Elements in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

A Definition of “Grotesque” “an adjective describing gargoyles, statues combining human, animal, and monstrous features designed to protect buildings, particularly Gothic churches and cathedrals”

Another Definition of “Grotesque” “In art and literary criticism, the term refers to an aesthetic category involving but also parodying gothic elements and themes and consequently evoking both fear and laughter.”

CHUNK “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead.” The Misfit continued, “and He shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure by meanness,” he said and his voice had become almost a snarl.

Pick a literary device in the previous quotation, and make a generalization about it. CLAIM:

Provide examples and evidence of the literary device you’ve identified. DATA:

Explain the effect, analyze or interpret your selected examples. COMMENTARY:

“She would have been a good woman... If it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

Documentation Peacock photo (JOE MCTYRE/ATLANTA CONSTITUTION) oconnors-true-colors/Content?oid= http://clatl.com/atlanta/new-biography-shows-flannery- oconnors-true-colors/Content?oid=