Flannery O'Connor

8 Pages 2055 Words

Agents of Grace in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction
The American writer Flannery O’Connor is best known for her religious aspect in her fiction. O’Connor’s religious style writing is not too common in literature, this is what makes O’Connor different and well known. O’Connor’s short stories demonstrate the religious beliefs of the characters, as there lives change.
Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia on March 25,1925, given the birth name of Mary Flannery O’Connor. She was the only child born into the arms of Edward Flannery and Regina Cline O’Connor. During Miss. O’Connor’s early years, she began to develop skills in drawing and cartooning. At the young age of thirteen, her family moved to Milledgeville, Georgia because her father was diagnosed with disseminated lupus. Unfortunately, when O’Connor was only sixteen, her father passed away, and O’Connor remained in Milledgeville for the most of the rest of her life.
Flannery O’Connor was raised in a Catholic family. Her religious heritage from her parents had a deep impact on O’Connor’s writing technique. “The most important tradition influencing O’Connor’s writing, however, was her avowed Roman Catholicism; This belief served as the foundation of her vision of human condition…”(Desmond 1983). Religious incorporation appears to be consistent throughout her fiction.
Characteristics and style remain constant throughout her stories as well. Her humor and crazy, grotesque characters and situations are typical in her stories. The stories seem to contain a deep, complex world of moral and religious mystery that is brought to life. Seymour-Smith states, that “Her style seems pure “Southern Gothic” and her Catholicism seems Protestant”. Flannery O’Connor is most known for her emotional and spiritually deformed characters, who are greatly obsessed with religion; this stereotype is evident in short stories such as: “A Good Ma...