Despite her death at a young age, O’Connor was quite a prolific writer. She wrote two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away, as well as publishing two books of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (published posthumously in 1965). In her work O’Connor addressed the most sensitive contemporary issues of the time including the Holocaust and racial integration.
Especially at the beginning of her career with the publishing of Wise Blood, many people did not understand her dark stories and their meaning or purpose. A major emphasis of her writing:
“Like the comedy of Dante, O'Connor's dark humor consciously intends to underscore boldly our common human sinfulness and need for divine grace. Even her characters' names (Tom T. Shiflet, Mary Grace, Joy/Hulga Hopewell, Mrs. Cope) are often ironic clues to their spiritual deficiencies. O'Connor's recurrent characters, from Hazel Motes in Wise Blood to O. E. Parker of "Parker's Back," are spiritually lean and hungry figures who reject mere lip service to Christianity and the bland certainty of rationalism in their pursuit of salvation. These same characters, usually deprived economically, emotionally, or both, inhabit a world in which, in O'Connor's words, "the good is under construction."”
Other important themes in her work were the grotesque, the South, and a sardonic sense of humor, and a pervasive sense of grace from God despite human flaws. In regard to her humor, she often used characters, who are well-meaning liberals unable to come to terms with race poverty and fundamentalism, as an example of the failure of the secular world in the 20th century. O'Connor had little patience for critics who did not understand her use of the grotesque as she asserted:
"Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is gong to be called realistic."
Moreover, her overall intent as a writer can be explained best in her own words:
"To the hard of hearing, Christian writers shout, and for the...almost-blind [they] draw large and startling figures."
A distinctly Catholic understanding of the world deeply influenced her writing, which will be discussed in the next blog post entry. Important influences on her, though, included Faulkner, Caldwell, Eudora Welty, Caroline Gordon, Katherine Anne Porter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Joseph Conrad, and Francois Mauriac, and Georges Bernanos.
O'Connor received accolades during and after her life. After completing her M.F.A. in 1947 she won the Rinehart-Iowa Fiction Award for the beginnings of her first novel. In addition, the posthumous collection The Complete Stories received the National Book Award, her collections of letters have received rave reviews and a number of awards. In 1992 she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement, as an inaugural honoree, and she was inducted as a charter member into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.
I find O'Connor's writing especially intriguing because of her use of the grotesque. The significance of her works are all brought out by these extreme cases in humanity. I belive this is especially true of A Temple of the Holy Ghost. It is meant to alert us to the fact that even those we may consider abominations are God's creatures. This also reveals her Catholic (or at least Christian) beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI especially like how in her short story "Everything That Rises Must Converge," O'Connor uses characters who seem, on the outside, almost opposite to what they really are. Julian seems like an open minded intellectual and his mom like a closed minded racist. However, the mom is racist in a very shallow, easily fixable way, while Julian is deep-rootedly cold and hateful toward her. This false identity is present inside Julian as well: we can see it at the end of the story, on page 17 towards the bottom, when he rudely thinks: “Your punishment exactly fits your pettiness. This should teach you a permanent lesson.” O’Connor seems to be using this thought ironically as his own ultimate punishment which occurs at the end of the story. You got your horrifying wake up call, Julian!
ReplyDeleteI just reread "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" for no real reason, and laughed equally hard at the, "Stop! I am a Temple of the Holy Ghost!" part. In a strange way, O'Connor's use of the grotesque makes a serious situation humorous, which I think helps make her stories more intriguing. She seems to have a really strong grasp on writing from a Christian background, and not simply Catholic..probably because she grew up surrounded by Protestants, and not all of her influences were Catholic either. Did anyone else think that despite the framing of Julian to be open-minded and wiser than his mother that he seemed equally judgmental?
ReplyDeleteOh definitely Adam. I think I was trying to get at that in my blog post about Julian and his mother. I think that Julian is incredibly closedminded, despite asserting he is so progressive and forward thinking. Yes, Julian's mom is openly a racist, but Julian doesnt really see people as equal either. He hadnt been able to make friends with anyone of another race because that friendship wouldnt be honest. It would be a friendship to prove something: that he's not a racist. Julian's judgemental attitude, moreover, seems more insidious than his mothers precisely because Julian views himself as open-minded, veiling his own judgemental attitudes.
ReplyDeleteI saw this theme of education not necessarily making people more open minded or intelligent than the people they look down on in "Good Country People" as well. Just because someone has received an education does not mean they are more inherently intelligent or better than anyone else. In fact, I have met more truly intelligent people with little formal education outside UofM than inside.
I think that O'Connor's use of the grotesque does serve as a way to draw attention to the unfortunate and sinful people and acts that people make. I love the quote on how anything from the South will appear as grotesque to the North, unless it is grotesque, in which it will be called realistic. I like how easily this shows how Western civilization likes to hide from the harsh reality of the world. We like to run from and discard the fact that the reality of this world is sin is everywhere and is characteristic of the human condition. Therefore, the usage of grotesque characters and actions in O'Connor's literary work is a way of freeing Western Civilization from the shackles of an inward, selfish, and ignorant view of the world. "Parker's Back" is a great example of a man who is spiritually lost and tries to cope with this by getting the tattoo of the face of Christ on his back. However, it seems he doesn't really get what it means to be a Christian. He tries to put an image of Christ on his flesh to show off and display that Christ is a part of his soul, but is met with hilarious yet saddening hostility. I liked the end and only understood what was happening due to the violence and grotesqueness that O'Connor offered. From what I read, I thought her message was to draw attention to people's struggle with faith, the reality of the existence of sin, and how people may cope with the 'cards' they were given in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI also love this quote about the North, South, and the grotesque. It suits O'Connor quite well, and I can't help but note the truth in it. Northerners often do consider the culture of the South as grotesque, and when the culture of the South is portrayed as grotesque, whether it be true or not, it is considered to be the reality of the South. As a lover of country music, I can relate this quote to my favorite songs about tractors, love, and even ticks. Many Northerners poke fun at country music, and even those who don't choose not to because of their image of country as portrayed by Taylor Swift; they see country music as silly - focusing on lost loves, broken hearts, and plowing the land. When country music is portrayed as grotesque, perhaps by making fun of itself, that which is made fun of is portrayed as the truth of all country music - when there truly is much more to it than love and land. A lot of country music does focus on love, and some even on plowing the fields, but it serves as a reflection on some of the truth of life in the South, grotesque or not. I don't have a higher point to make here, relating country music back to Catholicism, even though I could probably do so, but I couldn't resist the chance to talk about an awesome quote and relate it back to awesome music!
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