Mary Flannery O’Connor died at age 39 from Lupus and because of her self-discipline, dedication to writing and her Roman Catholic faith, produced two novels, thirty-two short stories, essays, reviews, letters, prayers, cartoons, that entertain and educate readers in the conflict of good and evil and the operation of divine grace in everyday (common) social situations. A reader will encounter violence, minor and major, in her fiction, in the interaction of characters, and this might shock a character (or reader) to search for God’s grace as a means to survival. O’Connor tries to push people toward God. Says Flannery,

I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace.  Their heads are so hard that almost nothing else will do the work.  This idea, that reality is something to which we must be returned at considerable cost, is one which is seldom understood by the casual reader, but it is one which is implicit in the Christian view of the world.¹   

Said Jesus of Nazareth,

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. (Mt 11:12 NIV)

Violence, bad language, mistreatment, unfairness, disdain, hatred in Flannery O’Connor’s fiction may repel some readers, but some will recognize reflections of real happenings in society and realize she points to our need for redemption. Her stories don’t have happy endings. They are warnings.

An Issue

Flannery O’Connor has been accused of racism and this charge has been countered.

Footnote

1. Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose (NY: Noonday Press, 1997), p. 112