Chapter 2 Flannery O'connor's Background Although the Body Of

Chapter 2

Flannery O’Connor’s Background

Although the body of her work is quite small – thirty-one short stories and two novels, Flannery O’Connor today is widely recognized as one of the foremost American writers of short stories in the twentieth century (Rood, 1994 : 243). Unfortunately, she and her works did not receive the highest honor until after her death. With elements of apparently unreasonable use of horror and violence in her stories, the early critics and readers regard her as a nihilist fiction writer who exhibits the meaninglessness of life to shock readers. O’Connor, however, asserts that her literary aim is, similar to Joseph Conrad’s, to render reality of human scenes to readers (O’Connor, 1962 :80). Her works seem at once harsh, cold, and unreasonable, but are actually filled with different levels of symbolism and meaning influenced by her backgrounds. Her life story, social background, and religious belief as well as existential concern play significant roles in her literary creation. The reading of her fiction in social and biographical contexts will give the reader a further understanding of her messages.

Social Background

1. From the Civil War to the Pre-World War Period

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the South of the United States was deeply rooted in the religious and agrarian society. Most Southerners considered churchgoing an essential part of the Christian life, and they firmly believed in the fundamentals of religion (Reed, 1979 : 31). Besides, the southern region was still rural and agricultural while the rest of the country, especially many parts of the north, welcomed the industrial revolution. The cultivation of major staple crops such as tobacco, sugar, rice, and cotton, provided wealth for the 18

Southern community. The big market for cotton in European textile industry made cotton the great money-making crop, accelerated its growth, and consequently urged the increase of slaves (Tindall and Shi, 1999 : 629-632). The plantations and the institution of slavery played an enormously important role in shaping ideology and social structure of the South: white supremacy, hierarchical relationship between masters and slaves, plantation aristocracy, and social class arrangement through the control of land, slaves, and wealth (Wilson, 1989 : 583-587). Meanwhile, following the rapid developing English pattern of new technology and machines, the north witnessed the beginning of industrial growth. The increasing differences in the economy as well as social structure between the more urban north and the traditional agrarian south led to the northern states’ intolerance of slavery system (Baydo, 1981 : 228; Burner, Marcus and Rosenberg, 1978 : 253). Therefore, when antislavery sentiment emerged, slavery was abolished in the north while southerners struggled to maintain the system. Slavery was not only a labor system; it also created southerners’ consciousness of their “southernism” which led to a strong sense of sectionalism. More and more the southerners tended to think of themselves as a group of refined people, characterized by superior origin and culture, apart from the “vulgar, money-grubbing northerners” (Dollar, 1980 : 276; Conlin, 1993 : 298-299). Southern states’ defense of slavery was considered an attempt to preserve southern sectional identity (Rubin Jr., 1979 : 4). When the eleven states created a separate Confederate nation, sectional tensions reached a high pitch. The Civil War (1861-1865) then broke out and ended with the northern conquest. The Civil War made a powerful impact and brought about numerous changes all over the country. Following the victory of the north, the southern states were reunited with the Union (the rest of the country) and slavery was abolished. The slaves, however, gained freedom but not equality until the late twentieth century. Moreover, the south, whose land was invaded, suffered a defeat in the war which lasted for several decades – the physical landscape was changed, plantations damaged, property destroyed, people impoverished, educational facil- ities the lowest in the country, and old traditional values declined (Hoffman, 1967: 19

7; Tindall and Shi, 1999 : 791; Wilson, 1989 : 588) – and became the most backward area whereas the north moved into the new industrial age. The industrialization at the turn of the century was intensified by striking progress in science and technology. Among the indefinite innovations, electricity, light bulbs, telegraph and telephone systems, and transcontinental railroad were the overwhelming achievements of the new industrial revolution. Together with new machines, they transformed the United States into a great manufacturing nation and altered every aspect of life: new efficient system of agriculture and industry, new modes of transportation and communication, new process of big business and working, together with urbanization. With the rapid growth of the cities and the constant increase in number of immigrant population, the nation had a huge market for goods. Many industries introduced techniques of mass production, the corporate structure – selling small “shares” in a company on the open market, together with new forms of marketing – advertising and department stores (Conlin, 1993 : 446; Nye, 1993 : 174). The industrialism also contributed to the rise of consumer culture. However, while the urban population enjoyed the new society, several new social problems arose – the overcrowding by immigration for well-paying jobs and better opportunities, unemployment caused by the replace- ment of machines and immigration, racial and ethnic tensions, poverty, and various forms of crime. Not only economic and social life changed, but science and new knowledge in various fields of study also flourished. Among those who contributed to intellectual development, Charles Darwin, a British naturalist, and Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician and neurologist were the most influential figures. Through his keen observation of nature, Darwin formed the theory of evolution in which all living species on earth are said to have evolved from preexisting species. He described his theory of the evolution of life as a process of “natural selection” – in the struggle to live, the species that best adapted to changing environment would survive (Darwin, 1988 : 350-365). The publication of The Origin of Species (1859) created the most controversial issues of the time : everything happened spontaneously according to the natural laws, not God’s design. The existence of 20

God and His role in creation were called into question. Darwin’s theory transformed the concept of the supernatural into the natural, and the miraculous into the ordinary (Hosinski, 1996 : 357-358). Following Darwinian doctrine, Freud’s psychoanalysis, the new approach to the understanding of human behavior and personality with an emphasis on the mental force, awakened public interest in human nature and human condition (Aitken, 2000). Freud theorized the concept of the division of the mind into three parts: the ‘id’ (the seat of all desire), the ‘ego’ (the process of control, planning, and adjusting to reality), and the ‘superego’ (the agency in the psyche involved with conscience, morality, and ideal aspiration) (Berger, 1995 : 106-107; Neel, 1977 : 229). The essence of such a doctrine was the concept that man was motivated by two elements of the instinctual drives having its origin in the id: life drives (Eros) and death drives (Thanatos). Life drives (Eros) expressed a variety of pleasurable activities (particularly sex), while death drives (Thanatos) expressed in hostile impulses directed towards the self or others as perceived in the forms of aggression, hate, murder or suicide (Coville, Costello and Rouke, 1973 : 25-27). Man in his early life was said to be dominated by the pleasure principle (life drives). If his needs were not gratified, the pleasure drive would cause a conflict and then turn to the death drive with the desire and tendency to direct hostility towards others. In such manner, Freud accounted for the origin of aggression (Neel, 1977 : 237). However, as the child grew older and passed through the stages of development, he gained a strong ego and was able to sublimate all his impulses so as to avoid conflicts. To Freud, man, like animals, was not always guided by his reason but by impulses and passion. His theory rapidly gained acceptance, especially in the twentieth century. Although many disagreed with some of Freudian theories, his insights had strong influences: he changed the way people think about human nature, personality and motivation by emphasizing the function of instinctual drives and the importance of early family relationship on the personality development of the individual. Freud’s psychological principles also gave insights into the understanding of the fictional characters’ motives and actions. A great deal of 21

O’Connor’s characterization, for example, reflects abnormal states of mind as shown in conflicts, frustration, and extreme hostility or violence. With extensive and accumulated new knowledge about human nature as well as the natural world, new perspectives regarding man and the world were adopted. Scientific reasoning seemed to give the infinite extension of man’s rational control over nature and his ability to deal with any difficulty caused by nature or by man himself. The gap between science and religion widened; man turned to reason and science as the only way to truth, rather than to age-old religious insights.

2. The World Wars and the Aftermath

2.1 World War Ι and Its Impacts

World War Ι (1914-1918) was a conflict among European powers with Germany on one side, Britain and France on the other. Nationalism and colonial rivalry with the aim of the pursuit of power and profit, were among the important causes of the war. With the prospect of German victory, together with the belief that German aggression would not limit itself to Europe, the United States entered the war as an ally of Britain and France in 1917 and declared the great war “for freedom” and “to make the world safe for democracy” (Conlin, 1993 : 619). The United States’ participation in the war marked a crucial step towards becoming a world leader (Baym, 1998 : 911). The notable consequences of the war were the death of millions of people and the devastation of several European countries – the cradle of western culture – as a result of a revolution in military technology. The tragedy in human lives as well as the destruction left tragic memories and sickened man, especially the veterans and their families; man sensed the horror created by modern technology, became aware of his own brutality and inhumanity to others, felt doubtful, and 22

began questioning God who, according to the traditional belief, created the uni- verse and human creatures but now let what He had created be destroyed. The war’s aftermath seemed to intensify the loneliness and despair in the mind of some groups of people. To the United States, losses were not so great because the fighting did not take place on American ground. Instead, World War І made the United States the richest, strongest, and the most productive country. The postwar decade started with the economic boom: agricultural and industrial production increased, business made good profits and then expanded, and many people became richer (Clark, et al., 1982 : 198-200). The prosperity of the1920s brought about great social and cultural changes and altered the American way of life. American living conditions were highly improved through scientific and technological evolution, enormous potential productivity, and more buying power which brought automobiles, radios, and other household appliances within reach of most American families. Longing for comfort, luxury, and pleasure in life, a large number of people began to enjoy buying. “Enjoy while you pay” became the slogan of the day (Rorabough and Critchlow, 1994 : 475). The new economic ethic that made spending a virtue broke down old values of thrift and saving (Conlin, 1993: 656; Tindall and Shi, 1999 : 1207). The expansion of new products and domestic goods reflected a “consumer-oriented society” and “mass culture” in the urbanized country (Clark, et al., 1982 : 198; Trachtenberg, 1979 : 8). During the “age of materialism” in 1920s, American people were obsessed with the pursuit of money and the desire to acquire things which many believed could bring happiness. They judged one another by the number and size of the objects they possessed (Ward, 1978 : 17). Together with the growth of materialistic value, there came a revolution in manners and morals of the younger generation stimulated by Freud’s psychological theories. The concept of the pleasure principle, which embodied the idea that man, a pleasure-seeking animal, was motivated by the desire of pleasure as well as by the avoidance of pain, dominated the American’s understanding of new psychology. Self-control was out-of-date while the release from inner desires and 23

tension became a worthy goal (Allen, 1964 : 81-82; Burner, Marcus, and Rosenberg, 1978 : 524-525). Americans of 1920s in large numbers rejected traditional values while devoting their lives to the new philosophy of life – the pursuit of freedom, money, and success – which were perceived as the worthwhile means of struggle to achieve happiness and fulfillment in life. While the majority of Americans who held highly optimistic views on life and society welcomed the gay atmosphere as well as social transformation, others, especially critical-minded intellectuals, veteran writers and artists known as the Lost Generation, were disillusioned with the meaningless postwar life. This alienated group of people, with their horror and shock of man’s sadistic brutality and inhumanity to man in the European battlefield, together with their anger at the lack of appreciation for serious creative effort in the United States, cynically remarked and questioned the new moral codes as well as the prevailing technological and materialistic values of American society which they considered symp- toms of serious moral and institutional decline (Meyers, Kern, and Cawelti, 1961 : 351-352). The senses of the destruction of great civilizations, of social breakdown, and of individual powerlessness became part of their experiences (Baym, 1998 : 911). With the attempt to return to the moral and ethical codes of the past which gave richness and meaning to life, some American writers and artists expressed their protest in various ways – withdrawal, overt criticism, and expatriation to Europe where they felt the “true values” of life were still appreciated (Hofstadter, 1963 : 406; Ward, 1978 : 17). The “Roaring Twenties” (as it is sometimes called), however, abruptly ended in 1929 as a result of the financial crisis. The following period of the Great Depression, beginning with the economic collapse after the stock market crash in 1929, was a time of harsh contrast. Suddenly, the country that was once abundant and prosperous faced the longest and most devastating depression in recent history – factories shut down, banks closed, farms went bankrupt, and millions of people became jobless, penniless, and homeless (Tindall and Shi, 1999 : 1224). The economic catastrophe not only produced unexpected suffering and social tensions, but also made profoundly emotional and psychological impact on the majority; 24

their attitudes towards life and society dramatically changed. Americans had lived with the American Dream – the belief that hard work would bring rewards – in what they themselves considered a “supremely rational and progressive society” (Levine, 1993 : 209). But, the unprecedented severity of the Great Depression caused complete destruction of their plans, expectation, and certainty. To many Americans, the problems they met were big and complex. They felt hopeless, insecure, and skeptical. While the main feeling of Americans in the twenties was one of success, the dominant mood in the thirties was one of failure (Ward, 1978 : 30). In such a crisis, one might expect that great numbers of people would turn to religion to seek consolation and inspiration. This did not happen. Allen (1961: 361) viewed the situation as the result of “the long slow retreat of the churches into less and less significance in the life of the country, and even in the lives of the majority of their members”. The Great Depression was a national trauma that left lifelong scars (Conlin, 1993 : 666). People who experienced the difficulties and crisis during the 1930s would never forget the anxiety and the struggles of the decade. The serious economic crisis had great impacts on American life. To some intellectuals and writers, the depression confirmed their disillusionment and estrangement from the society. Many became critics of American life and scrutinized human suffering as well as social tensions. Born in 1925, Flannery O’Connor herself also experienced the difficulties provoked by the economic breakdown in which her father’s business failed. The inability of new social systems and science to prevent or solve problems, together with the memory of hardship in her childhood probably gave negative effect on her attitudes towards the increasingly urbanized and secularized culture. 25

2.2 World War ΙΙ and Its Impacts

The Second World War started in 1939 as a result of Hitler’s plan to undo the unfair Treaty of Versailles as well as to regain richness and power. As Germany and her allied countries – Italy and Japan – conquered many countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, Britain and France declared war on them. At the beginning, the United States intended to stay neutral. But as Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan in 1941 the United States entered the war. In order to end the war, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs instantly killed a great number of people, and later thousands suffered and died of burn, shock, and radiation poisoning. With new cruel instruments of killing – plastic explosives, flame throwers, proximity fuses, rockets, jet airplanes, and atomic weapons, World WarΙΙ is con-sidered the most destructive and far-reaching war in history (Tindall and Shi, 1999 : 1321). The victory in the war restored Americans confidence and optimistic sense of individual and national potential (Moss, 1994 : 23). However, at the same time, the atomic bomb and its horrible consequences gave negative effects upon the American psyche. Many Americans debated the morality in the use of nuclear weapons and raised serious doubts concerning the development of science and technology. Scientific and technological progress, which had once contributed the improvement in the human condition, was now perceived as the efficient instrument of massive destruction of human property and life. Besides, the bomb also led to the realization that humans were capable of using technology in monstrous ways (Conlin, 1993 : 734). As the war ended, the United States emerged with wealth, industrial might and military strength while both her allies and rivals were left exhausted and defeated. The postwar years renewed economic growth and social contentment to American people. To the majority, the nation came to an age of unprecedented prosperity that brought opportunities for greater consumption and higher standards of living (Rorabough and Critchlow, 1994 : 537). Americans proudly pointed it 26

out that “they were the best-fed, best-dressed, best-educated, most comfortable people in the world” (Ward, 1978 : 50). The 1950s provided most Americans with time to enjoy the long-awaited material prosperity. The society in this period was characterized by the culture of mass consumption and conformity. Encouraged by economic security and prosperity, the number of births in the country sharply increased after World War ΙΙ. The baby boom was the main factor accelerating consumerism as it increased the parents’ demands on new homes, bigger automobiles, more consumer goods for larger families as well as for the babies. During the period, a new trend developed: to many Americans, the essence of good life was to escape from the cities and set up housekeeping in single-home dwellings in the suburbs (Jordan, Greenblat, and Bowes, 1992 : 794). Suburban life promoted materialism and conformity. People’s life style was set in the same patterns; identical houses were built in the same environment, each home was filled with the same kinds of products, and the homeowners were about the same age with similar income and family structure. Suburbia attracted social and cultural criticism. To critical sociologists, the suburban towns were regarded as new communities without roots and traditions while their values were considered “timid, bland, and superficial” (Conlin, 1993 : 757). At the same time, television, which quickly established itself as the dominant form of mass media, together with advertising became a major force for consumerism and conformism; they were crucial in promoting products, creating desire for “more” things, “better” things, and “newer” things, and manipulating people to buy (Conlin, 1993 : 752-754). With the rise of income, the decrease in price, and credit buying, people could afford more goods and services. The generation that ignored the tradition of saving enjoyed spending money on the latest products which apparently offered “good life” and were symbolic marks of status and success. With material abundance in the mid-twentieth century, American society became known as the “Affluent Society” (Ward, 1978 : 49). In the affluent society promoted by materialism, consumerism, and conformity, it seemed that man left no room for religion. Instead, he put his faith in 27

science, technology, money, and other material things that brought him immediate happiness without awareness of the absence of his spiritual life. While the majority enthusiastically enjoyed the culture of abundance, the Cold War or “the ideological warfare” (Moss, 1994 : 261) between the United States and the Soviet Union, resulting from their contradictory political as well as economic policies, and goals, turned intense. The Cold War accelerated the development of science and technologies in order to support the competition between the two nations – primarily, the arms race, and the space race. The nuclear weapon tests run by United States and Soviet Russia kept people in a state of tension, in fear of war and a future worldwide holocaust, as well as in a sense of insecurity and uncertainty about life. The nuclear weapon became the haunting symbol proving that the age of affluence was also the age of anxiety (Moss, 1994 : 36-37). The 1950s was a decade of subtle and pervasive stress arising from the delayed impacts of modernization. All the forces in the society seemed to dehu- manize the individual. Science and technology that had once appeared as an aid to mankind now forced man to fit his life into the mechanized, inhuman society and threatened man’s certainty and security. The urbanization and industrialization brought about several new problems difficult to solve or cope with. The obsession with material possession and comfort made man fall into the trap of his indefinite desires. New moral and social standards of living cut man from the old traditional values and meaning. Without religion, man had no assurance of individual worth and importance. Such alarming aspect of life was not only the dilemma of the United States in the 1950s, but also the concern of modern man everywhere. Man in the material and technological society encounters the existential threat of meaninglessness and nothingness of life. A response to this is Existentialism, a philosophical movement that focuses on man’s sense of self and attempts to define the meaning of life prevailing in the twentieth century. Existentialists were divided into two main groups: atheistic existentialists and theistic existentialists. In spite of their different approaches to explore the essence of man’s existence, both agree that science and human reason (intellect) are 28

limited and not applicable to the mystery of human existence (Popkin, et al.,1969 : 287-295). Most existentialists are also the atheists who believe, as Nietzsche an- nounces, “God is dead” (Raymond, 1991: 173). To this group, there is no supernatural being; man is free to struggle for his meaning in life. Sartre (1988 : 616- 634) came out with the conclusion that “man is nothing else but what he makes of himself”. He believed that man has free will to make choices, must be responsible for the choices, and thus his existence is determined by the choices he made. Another French philosopher-writer Camus emphasized the absurdity of life and saw no explanation of the existence of man. On the other hand, to theistic existentialists, a life of faith in God itself gives genuine happiness and meaning for existence; faith in God provides courage which is essential in the face of despair and anxiety over man’s inevitable limited condition (Raymond, 1991 : 39-40). Therefore, the believers do not need to find their own explanation and reason for the meaning of human life. One of O’Connor’s major concerns in her literary works is man’s existential problems. In her fiction, she creates southern rural characters who are not literally simply rural, but who indeed share modern man’s conditions and feelings. During the 1950s and the early 1960s, several of her stories about the intellectuals as an extreme version of contemporary man who alienates from others, are written. To O’Connor, man’s sense of alienation and emptiness probably represents the sickness of the twentieth century life that is devoid of spirituality. Sharing the theistic existentialist’s idea, she holds the belief that man’s existential questions can be fully answered through faith. Historical and cultural situations undeniably influence literary imagination. As a southern writer witnessing social and cultural changes in both her region and national scene, O’Connor was acutely aware of the crisis in modern society accelerated by secularization, industrialization, and urbanization. With prosperity and material possession, modern man is lured away from traditional values that truly give him a sense of security and worth. Ironically, life directed to the way of modernity seems abundant, but actually it is full of stress and strain. Increasing 29

complexities and problems arise: man’s deeper obsession with the material, the breakdown of the community or the family, and dehumanization, for example. It is now clear that new science and knowledge are the origins of modern man’s dilemma; scientific advancement led to industrialization, urbanization, materialism, and conformism. O’Connor seems to see through the danger of science or intellect; her writings thus reflect the sense of distrust of secularization and also reveals the psychology as well as existential condition of the individual living in an isolated barren world cluttered with selfish pursuit.

Flannery O’Connor’s Biography

1. Life

Mary Flannery O’Connor (who dropped the “Mary” before entering the University of Iowa) was born the only child in a Roman Catholic family in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. As devout Catholics, O’Connor’s parents sent her to parochial schools – St. Vincent’s Grammar School and then Sacred Heart Paro- chial School – in order that their child would not lose her faith when she became educated. Her writing career began with her interest in drawing and cartooning. She started drawing and writing verses as well as stories for her parents, and also practiced making comments on flyleaves of her books (Flannery O’Connor : Collected Works, 1988 : 1234). Her early education at the church-related schools seems to have influenced her religious belief as well as her views of man and the world as reflected in her fiction. The economic collapse and her father’s illness brought major changes in her life. Effected by the Great Depression, her father encountered business difficulties which forced her family to leave Savannah in 1938. At the beginning of new school term, she moved with her mother to the ancestral home in Milledgeville, Georgia while her father remained in Atlanta until the years of his illness. In absence of parochial schools in the town, O’Connor continued her study at the Peabody Laboratory School which was, especially by the standards of the 30

day, an experimental school, administered jointly by Georgia State College for Women and the local public school board (Hogan’s Alley & the Go Graphic Group, Inc, 1998). As her cartoons and writing were published, she continued contributing cartoons, book reviews, and occasional verses to the Peabody school newspaper. A year before she graduated from the Peabody School, her father died of lupus. The death of her father when she was fifteen seemed to be her greatest and most painful event (Georgia Women of Achievement, 1992). Probably this is why she presented the recurrent incomplete family patterns – the families consisting of mother and son or mother and daughter whereas the father figure was excluded. Female characters – often divorced, widowed, or single – seemed to dominate her short fiction (Grimshaw, Jr., 1981 : 92). O’Connor entered Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College) majoring in sociology and English, and was graduated in 1945. During her college years, she began sending stories to literary magazines, such as Kenyon Review and Sewanee Review – the southern literary magazines which were as influential as northern magazines (Calhoun, 1989 : 861). Her cartoons, poems, and stories regularly appeared in a college literary magazine, The Corinthian, of which she was editor when she was in her senior year, but they were rejected by the commercial magazines. With a scholarship, O’Connor moved to Iowa City to attend the University of Iowa graduate writing program. Her serious writing career began in 1946 when her story, “The Geranium”, was published in the summer issue of Accent. She earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree (M.F.A.) in 1947 with The Geranium: A Collection of Short Stories which included six stories – “The Geranium”, “The Barber”, “Wildcat”, “The Crop”, “The Turkey”, and “The Train”. In the same year, “The Turkey” and “The Train” were accepted by Mademoiselle and Sewanee Review respectively. After her graduation, she enrolled as a post-graduate student in the Writer’s Workshop ((Flannery O’Connor : Collected Works, 1988 : 1242). 31

In 1948, she left Iowa City as she was honored with a place at Yaddo – an artists’ colony near Saratoga, New York, which was designed to offer writers, composers, and other artists a place to work free of distractions and concerns for a limited time (Rood, 1994: 341). Here she met a number of literary people who influenced her writing career. A year later, she accepted an invitation from Robert and Sally Fitzgerald whom she called her “adopted kin” (Georgia Women of Achievement, 1992), moved to stay with them in Ridgefield, Connecticut and had no plan to go back and live in Georgia. She became seriously ill, however, just as she finished her first novel, “Wise Blood”. Like her father, O’Connor was a victim of lupus. As a result, she remained under the care of her mother. She realized and accepted her limitation caused by the disease. The illness was, perhaps, her motivation for creating a group of ill, weak, and deformed characters who shared the same fate: Asbury of “The Enduring Chill”, Julian of “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, Calhoun of “The Partridge Festival”, Wesley and Scolfield of “Greenleaf” and Joy of “Good Country People”, for instance. Similar to O’Connor, these characters need to depend on their mothers as they cannot live by themselves. In 1951, O’Connor and her mother moved to a dairy farm four miles north of Milledgeville. She spent the last fourteen years of her life in writing many great stories. Her most creative years were also the years of physical decline (Georgia Women of Achievement, 1992). In a letter to Hazel Elizabeth Hester, her corres- pondent over a nine-year period, she wrote, “I live on a farm and don’t see many people” (Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works, 1988 : 943). She seemed to lead a lonely life in a remote area. Through her depiction of characters, readers can experience the sense of loneliness when her characters, even while in the same house, lose connection with one another. O’Connor faced her disease with stoic courage (Pickering, 1988 : 1520). Despite her illness, she traveled and gave lectures to college audiences. In her last month, most of her time was spent in the hospital. She died of kidney failure in August, 1964. 32

2. Religious Belief

According to Christian theology, God is a “being of overflowing love, creativity, and bliss, who stands supreme” (Ward, 1998 :174). God creates man in His own image and also gives man power and freedom with the basic purpose that man will participate in His love which is the way to achieve genuine happiness and attain human fulfillment. But, a person is estranged from God – the source of his being, power, and happiness – through sin which is essentially defined as disobedience or rejection of God’s will, or through the refusal of love and faith in Him. Committing sins and estrangement from God lead to the fall of man, and the consequential loss of the sense of unity with God causes anxiety, loneliness, and spiritual death. Christians hold that man cannot save himself from his fallen state by his own effort, but only by God, through His act of compassion and empower- ment (Spurrier, 1979:86). God’s limitless mercy and love of man, even those who deny Him, ensure that all man’s sin can be forgiven and his fulfilling relationship to God can be restored only if he sincerely repents. As a Catholic writer, O’Connor is conscious of her double role as a Catholic and a fiction writer. In her essay, “Novelist and Believer”, she declares the purposes of the Catholic writer as follows:

Nevertheless, the novelist always has to create a world and a believable one. The virtues of art, like the virtues of faith, are such that they reach beyond the limitations of the intellect, beyond any mere theory that a writer may entertain. If the novelist is doing what as an artist he is bound to do, he will inevitably suggest that image of ultimate reality as it can be glimpsed in some aspect of human situation. (O’Connor, 1962: 158)

She believes that God is the mystery of man’s existence. In order to prove her faith as well as the mystery of God, she reveals three theological principles: the fall, the revelation, and the redemption in her stories. To her, man is fallen and loses innocence by sin. Often, man does not realize that he is sinful until God reveals 33

Himself to him. Through the revelation of God, man recognizes his sin, regains his innocence, and reunites with God. In order to demonstrate the nature of sin in the basic human condition as well as to highlight the emptiness of those without faith, O’Connor deliberately populates her fictional world with recurrent groups of sinful characters who lose their way and descend into all manners of evil: the mischievous/wicked children, the racists, the thieves/murderers, the materialists, and the arrogant intellectuals, for instance. These characters move around blindly without being aware of their own fall. Besides, no one really knows God although some think they do, and some even feel contempt for Him or struggle against Him. However, these sinners experience God’s revelation during the moment of grace1 – the moment at which they can escape from their ego and gain true self-knowledge – and finally receive redemption. It seems that these sinful characters not only come unwillingly, slowly, and painfully to recognize their sins but also move slowly and painfully from their fallen states. Through the reactions of such characters, O’Connor probably intends to show a human being’s slow participation in the mystery of existence. In her fiction, grace and redemption are offered mostly through violence: the shocking death or great personal pain. O’ Connor (1962: 34,112) explains this point as follows:

I suppose the reasons for the use of so much violence in modern fiction will differ with each writer who uses it, but in my own stories 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.

When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock—to

1 According to Christian theology from the earliest days, Grace is defined as God’s giving of Himself in love to his creation. Divine grace can restore a person’s divine image which has been marred by sin. God’s grace is therefore a merciful, forgiving and healing presence. It is by God’s grace that we are able to see beyond appearances to realities about God’s self and the world in which we live (Nicholls, 1996: 412-413). 34

the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.

Violence in her fiction seems to play a double role. First, it is the instrument to reveal what her characters are essentially. In her view, her characters are so fallen that only the most violent and painful moment of life can spiritually awaken them, prepare them for the intervention of God, and eventually force them to accept the mystery of God. At the same time, violence is also the device that makes her godless readers, whom she aims at writing for (Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works, 1988 : 945), realize the existence and mystery of God. Her sinful characters and her audience seem to belong to the same category – those blind to God. To O’Connor, what she sees in the modern society is “fallen man perverted by false philosophies” (O’Connor, 1962: 177) and it is the mission of a Catholic writer to bring him back to the world of God. Flannery O’Connor has many places in American Literature: a southern writer, a twentieth-century writer, and a Catholic writer. As a southern writer, she explores the south as well as the southerners’ psyche. As a twentieth-century writer, she examines the conditions and the meanings of contemporary life. As a Catholic, she proposes a spiritual dimension of man.