8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
1/19
Mary Flannery OConnor
notes
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
2/19
Born March 25, 1925
Savannah, GA
died. Aug 3, 1964
Lupus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FlanneryOConnor.jpg8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
3/19
Education
Georgia State Collegefor Women
MFA State Universityof Iowa-
Iowas Writers
Workshop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UI-seal.gifhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gcsu-logo.gif8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
4/19
Career
2 Novels
32 Short Stories
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
5/19
Settings
modern South
Country (vs. city)
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
6/19
Opposing Forces
Modern Secular (science, social programs,progress)
versus
God-centered spiritual world (sin andsalvation)
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
7/19
Characters
Protagonists
Women middle-aged, middle-class, alone
Well-established view of themselves, humannature, & the world
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
8/19
Movement of story
Toward a moment protagonist recognizesfalseness of his/her views.
Catalyst is other character Manly Pointer
The Misfit
Final Redemptive MomentBreak forth and wash the slime from the
earth!
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
9/19
Nature Imagery
Reflects humankind in its base nature.
Never Sentimental-Refuse to do Pretty
Trees are sullen Threadbare
Clouds are indifferent
Humans are large bug wheezing horse
sheep crab goat buzzard
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
10/19
Reasonable Use of the
UnreasonableA person in a violent situation reveals
those aspects of his/her character that
he/she will take with him/her into eternity. These moments are when the reader can see
the soul of the character.
Dasein death represents the momentwhen a mans existence becomescomplete being there
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
11/19
Concept of Dread
Kierkegaard-mans attempt to replacethe Absolute with himself is pathetic and
comical but never tragic. Tragic is for thereligious
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
12/19
Compassion
Gives characters opportunity of receiving grace
Grace often comes at moment of grisly death
the grandmothers head cleared for an instant she murmured, Why youre one of my babies.Youre own of my own children! then she gets 3bullets in the chest.
Self- Knowledge can be a curse- faced with thepathetic, wasted life they cant deny
stripped bare and flogged by Truth
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
13/19
Mystery
Spiritual Principle
There are certain things that we are simply
not meant to know.Accept the Paradox
Misfits Speech pg 5 and 6
Represented as Distortion in her writing Unlikely occurrences, yet not beyond the
scope of possibility.
Revelation
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
14/19
Balances Realistic and Anagogical
Anagogical- mystical interpretation,detects allusion to heaven or afterlife.
(Often hard to extrapolate the anagogicalsignificance)
Grandmother recognizes that she is tied to the
Misfit in a bond of mystery, says the first honestthing in her life, and is shot.
Reader commits the Sin of Pride
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
15/19
Style
Southern Gothic- (not grotesque)
Writing is stark, Spartan, dour, steady,
something is bubbling beneath the lid Takes on Character point of view in the
narrative. (The omniscient 3rd person
narrator takes on the voice of thecharacter) He didnt have a natural sunny disposition like
she did and trips made him nervous.
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
16/19
Symbolic Names
Usually a mockery of the person
Often religious
Joy Hopewell= joyless, hopeless, unwell
Manly Pointer= points the way
Mary Grace=
Obadiah Elihue- prophet and friend of Job
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
17/19
Thematic Elements
Displacement
Freaks
Serve as an example for both the folly of denyingreligion AND as Christological figures themselves
Peacocks
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
18/19
Facing Death- the motivational engine that
drove her stories. (about Good Man The heroine of the story,
the Grandmother, is in the most significantposition life offers the Christian. She is facing
death.
Need for Grace
Violence is strangely capable of returning mycharacters to reality and preparing them toaccept their moment of grace.
8/4/2019 Flannery OConnor[1]
19/19
Top Related