Abstract This paper discusses the literary element of irony in the writings of Flannery O'Connor. "Revelation", "A Good Man is Hard to Find", "Good Country People", and "Everything That Rises Must Converge", are all humorous stories. But the irony of O'Connor often becomes cruel and wicked as she mocks people and their appearances.
Flannery O'Connor uses a recurring structural pattern in the development of the main characters in four short stories: "Greenleaf," "Good Country People," "Revelation," and "Everything That Rises Must Converge."
Abstract A focus on the five main characters of these stories (Mrs. May, Hulga, Mrs. Turpin, Julian, and his mother) . It shows how they are all based on a common denominator in their character makeup, that of emotional contempt for the world they inhabit and, even more, contempt for themselves. O'Connor sets up these characters with inflated egos, then she pulls the rug out from under the characters in a climactic moment. Ironically, each character is smashed by something he or she held in contempt.
From the Paper "The pattern consists of three stages: (1) the author makes use of the omniscient point of view, allowing the reader to be privy
to all the characters' thoughts and motives; (2) then a disconcerting and jolting climax occurs, usually very harsh for the character; and (3) readers finally discover how this climax affects the characters."
Abstract This paper compares Flannery O'Connor's short story,"Good Country People" with Alice Walker's story, "Everyday Use" in terms of character, family and relationships.
From the Paper "In Flannery O'Connor's Good Country People and Alice Walker's Everyday Use there are some striking similarities to be observed with regard to such elements of literature as relationships, specifically with family place ..."
Tags: Flannery O'Connor, Alice Walker, short stories
Abstract A comparison of ways in which the main characters in Jack Hodgins' "The Plague Children" and Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation" view their farms. The paper discusses how attitudes towards their farms are reflected in their attitudes toward the world in general. The paper also explains the external forces that produce life changing experiences to both characters.
From the Paper "The purpose of this research is to compare and contrast the attitudes of the main characters in Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation" and Jack Hodgins' "The Plague Children" toward their farms, with a view toward identifying how those attitudes intersect with their attitudes toward the world more generally. The plan of the research will be to set forth the pattern of ideas in the stories and then to discuss the means by which the characters' relationships to their farms drive the narrative."
Abstract The paper discusses the appointment and unanimous confirmation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court. The paper shows how O'Connor demonstrated the fact that women, especially women of caliber, had every right to come and go from the workplace without sanction. The paper also looks at how O'Connor was integral to several monumental court decisions. The paper concludes that O'Connor proved her worth as a justice and demonstrated immense skill in the resolution of extremely difficult legal questions posed to the court.
From the Paper "Traditionally nominations to the supreme court have been a very political act of the executive branch of government, as it is a singular power of the president that frequently goes by with only limited challenges from congress and the nomination if approved is a nomination for life, unless the justice chooses to step down. The legacy, therefore of the Supreme Court appointment can be long and prosperous for a president as they tend to seek out candidates who share commonalities with themselves and their political party and the opportunity of a president to nominate a Supreme Court Justice does not come frequently due to the length of the office."
Abstract From the paper:
"Flannery O?Connor's use of design in "Good Country People" is exceptional. She tells parts of the story out of chronological order to compare certain parts of the story and to put the reader inside the minds of the different characters. O?Connor relays information to the reader through foreshadowing, flashbacks, juxtapositions, and repetitions. These tools of design enable O?Connor to write in third person while using the omniscient narrator to focus on different character's consciousness throughout the story. Because the reader knows what some characters are thinking, he/she is able to see the irony involved in the story."
Abstract The author reviews Flannery O?Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". She states that O?Connor's writing reflects her Southern and Catholic traditions. Although she cannot be read as part of the feminist literary tradition, O?Connor is important to contemporary American fiction.
From the Paper "The words of the grandmother might seem sentimental, were she not speaking to a man who is a homicidal killer, about to blow her away to ?kingdom come.? "A Good Man is Hard to Find" depicts a rather repulsive young family, including June Star who "wouldn"t live in a broken-down place? for a "million bucks" and the rather irritating grandmother. (7) But because the grandmother is able to see some brief snatch of humanity in the "Misfit" who eventually kills her, O?Connor bestows her with a kind of grace in terms of the narrative's judgment."
Abstract The author reviews Flannery O?Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". She states that O?Connor's writing reflects her southern and Catholic traditions. Although she cannot be read as part of the feminist literary tradition, O?Connor is important to contemporary American fiction.
From the Paper "The words of the grandmother might seem sentimental, were she not speaking to a man who is a homicidal killer, about to blow her away to ?kingdom come.? "A Good Man is Hard to Find" depicts a rather repulsive young family, including June Star who "wouldn"t live in a broken-down place? for a "million bucks" and the rather irritating grandmother. (7) But because the grandmother is able to see some brief snatch of humanity in the "Misfit" who eventually kills her, O?Connor bestows her with a kind of grace in terms of the narrative's judgment."
Abstract This paper examines the characters in "Revelation" and "Everything that Rises Must Converge" and the way O?Connor uses them to illustrate the absurdity of self-absorption and arrogance. The author points out that both stories illustrate how O?Connor uses everyday circumstances and people to make her points. Some individuals never fully grasp the extent of their prejudice; on the other hand, others do, but only after a shocking jolt of reality. The paper concludes that, by crafting realistic characters that experience radical situations, O?Connor illustrates the frailty and the strength of the human will.
From the Paper "In the story ?Revelation,? the character of observation is Mrs. Turpin, who believes she is a good person. However, as we read the story, we become aware that Mrs. Turpin's value system leaves much to be desired. We discover that she determines an individual's worth by race or how much property an individual owns. In fact, we are told that she lies in bed at night "naming the classes of people" (O?Connor 405). However, her system is flawed because she has difficulty ?classifying common people who had a lot of money "who ought to be below she and Claud" (405), good people who had lost their money and "colored people who owned their homes and land" (405-6). These thoughts illustrate Mrs. Turpin's shallow thinking."
Abstract This paper discusses that, as the first woman named Justice to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O?Connor made history because she broke the "glass ceiling"; the bench of the Supreme Court was formally reserved exclusively for men. The author points out that, as a pragmatist, O?Connor normally begins reviewing a case by first inductively discovering the decisional principles by reading selected opinions and internal memos covering a full range of issues. This paper concludes that, although not everyone always agrees with her opinions, assessments, and style, no one questions her diligence and integrity; Sandra Day O?Connor is considered to be the most influential woman in America.
From the Paper "She later took up a course with a major on economics at Stanford University with the intention of using that knowledge in operating a ranch of her own or the Lazy-B ranch itself. When her family encountered a dispute over the ranch, she began to have an interest in law and enrolled at the Stanford Law School after finishing baccalaureate degree in economics, magna cum laude, in 1950. Instead of the traditional three years, she took only two to finish law and then served as editor of the Stanford Law Review until she became a member of the Order of the Coif, a legal honor society (US Supreme Court). She met John O?Connor at this time, who was then also attending law school. Sandra graduated from law school in 1952, again with honors as third in a class of 102. The first placer was William H. Rehnquist, who was to be the Chief Justice. Then she and John were married."
Abstract This paper discusses various literary works by Flannery O'Connor, claiming that her work is successful because it illustrates the frailty of the human condition in a unique, memorable way. The paper explores how O'Connor uses the grotesque to emphasize man's worst characteristics. Exaggerated characters in humorous situations help O'Connor comment on the hypocrisy, ignorance, bigotry, and evil she finds in society. The paper examines how she incorporates elements from her experiences in living in the South and her Catholic upbringing into these stories to emphasize her points.
From the Paper "Flannery O'Connor is considered to be one of most successful writers of her time because her stories emphasize many of basic human struggles through grotesque, often exaggerated characters. Her unique style stresses the fact that hypocrisy, ignorance, and bigotry come in all shapes and sizes. Set in the American South, layered with irony and comedy, and flavored with religious tones, O'Connor's stories force us to examine sensitive and difficult issues. From the religiously dead Misfit and Mr. Shiflet to the spiritually blind Mrs. Turpin, O'Connor's characters show us how grace and redemption can be painful aspects of life. Arrogance and ignorance show their true colors with Mrs. Crater and Hulga. All of these characters are grotesque but represent humanity in some of its weakest states. With them, O'Connor successfully illustrates that people are seldom what they seem."
Abstract Virtually all of Flannery O'Connor's short stories contain the receiving of grace by an unworthy protagonist at the tale's climatic moment. The hero of "Parker's Back" gets a Catholic, Byzantine tattoo of Christ on his back to please (unsuccessfully) his fundamentalist Protestant wife. The grandmother of "A Good Man is Hard to find" sees the face of the divine in the escaped convict known only as the 'misfit.' Even in the hearts of the most sinful of O'Connor's characters, it is possible for human beings, the author suggests, to receive grace. This paper shows how grace comes unexpectedly to these characters, as it does to all human beings in O'Connor's theological understanding of the world, but it does come, blessedly and however briefly, and the human heart is changed for the better as a result.
From the Paper "Grace is sudden, democratic and traumatic, in O'Connor's terms. Even the epileptic girl who attacks Mrs. Turpin in "Revelation," is a catalyst "in the process of spiritual redemption." (Bernardo, "Flannery O'Connor," 2003) Like her counterparts in other O'Connor stories, she jars Mrs. Turpin out of her easy assumptions about life, and catapults Mrs. Turpin into a newer and more profound relationship with the Divine power of God to work miracles in the world, that the woman previously and smugly assumed as a given, something she already knew and was well versed in because of her superior lifestyle and economic gifts. (Bernardo, "Flannery O'Connor," 2003)"
Abstract This paper examines the prevalent themes and images in various novels written by O'Connor, including "A Good Man is Hard to Find." and "Everything that Rises Must Converge." This paper discusses the author's practice of injecting allusions of religion, salvation and damnation into most of her works. The writer contends that these specific interests arose from the author's own impending illness and death as well as her deeply-held religious convictions. This paper analyzes O'Connor's works, which are strife with images of horrific violence and suffering, in which otherwise unsympathetic, even caricature-like, individuals face death and in so doing are freed to discover for themselves the meaning of life. This paper also details the many recurrent themes in O'Conner's works, including: Disfigurement, shallowness, pettiness, naivete, hypocrisy and overall meanness of character, all woven into a dark comedy. O'Connor was an intensely religious Catholic who used her gruesome fiction to explore the meaning of profound suffering and death and the way in which it could be used as a vehicle for grace and salvation.
From the Paper "O'Connor admits the importance of the death bed herself, in an essay in which she discusses "A Good Man is Hard to Find": "The heroine of the story, the Grandmother, is in the most significant position life offers the Christian. She is facing death." At the moment at which one faces death, on has the opportunity of sainthood. In "Everything that Rises must Converge," the role of martyrdom is hinted at as the boy prepares to walk with his mother and describes himself mentally as a mad man inn pursuir of "Saint Sebastian... waiting for the arrows to being piercing him." Sebastian survives being shot by arrows, and so the narrator will survive being shot at by arrows and will gain experience and even possibly sainthood. Sacrificing and expecting death any moment are, after all, how the author managed to write."
Abstract This paper looks at Flannery O'Connor's style of writing and particularly focuses on her religious stances and appeal in some of her short stories. The author includes many quotes from O'Connor's works.
From the Paper "Flannery O"Connor, a spiritual and devout Roman Catholic, portrayed God, religion, Jesus Christ, and evil in various aspects in some of her most famous short stories. O"Connor took a very broad approach to spiritual ideas that dealt with moral, psychological, and social issues in her writings. Many readers of O"Connor's writings often become perplexed with the characterizations of O"Connor's characters in her stories; however, when a reader discovers O"Connor's life and biographical history, they may view pieces of her life wrapped up into her short stories. Three of O"Connor's short stories that particularly deal with her religious devotions are ?The Turkey,? ?Revelation,? and ?A Good Man is Hard to Find.? Each of these stories focus on different spiritual concepts, but all can be traced to the biographical history of O"Connor's short life. In addition, O"Connor's style is verified in James Grimshaw's book titled The Flannery O?Connor Companion when he explains, "Of the various approaches employed to explain O"Connor's fiction, the one which has drawn the most attention and offered the most convenient "answers" has been the religious system? (4). Therefore, when detailing O?Connor's writing style from a religious standpoint, there are several distinct reasons and concepts that are apparent in her writings that imply her strong religious beliefs."
A thorough analysis of Flannery O'Connor's characters Mrs. Turpin and O.E. Parker and an in depth look at the symbolism and irony that surrounds these characters individual conflicts.
3,050 words (approx. 12.2 pages), 5 sources, 2001, $ 89.95
Abstract This paper is a thorough character analysis of Mrs. Turpin and O.E. Parker in Flannery O?Connor's short stories "Revelation" and "Parkers Back". The thesis is fully supported and documented with O?Connor's stories and outside sources. Symbolism and irony is documented and explored throughout the paper.
From the Paper " A study of Flannery O?Connor opens the door for one to ponder religion. O.E. Parker in the short story "Parker's Back" views himself as distanced from religion, but yet curious at the same time. Once the eyes of Christ are laid upon his back Parker is brought to his knees with feelings of persecution. Mrs. Turpin in the short story "Revelation" views herself as one who is right with God. After a symbolic physical confrontation Mrs. Turpin's eyes are opened, and the inequality of her ways leaves her feeling persecuted and changed. The Characters O.E. Parker and Mrs. Turpin both possess views of themselves and the roles religion plays in their lives, but through the symbolic nature of their individual conflicts receive revelations that influence their previous perceptions of religion."
