Christian Sentiments in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction

Flannery O'Connor personally declares that she is a "conscious Catholic." She insists that this burden allows her to see modern situations at a more fundamental level, but she also believes that this gift to translate Biblical sentiments to contemporary life makes the horror of modern living endurable. In a letter, O'Connor states, "It seems to be a fact that you suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it" (O'Connor, letter). O'Connor uses her personal theological beliefs to explain violence, salvation, and the battle between good and evil in her two stories "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

Both stories utilize violence and selfish actions to introduce O'Connor's theological viewpoint. In the two stories, O'Connor takes characters that try to exist merely in the realm of humanity rather than the more spiritual realm (Kahane). For example, both Hulga and the Grandmother shun the existence of Christ until it is too late; O'Connor uses an act of violence to make both characters completely helpless, if only to prove that humanity cannot exist without elements of the spiritual world (Kahane). Hulga, the self-proclaimed atheist, attempts to use Christian sentiments to appeal to the fake Bible salesman after he has placed her in a thoroughly helpless position by stealing her false leg, but Christianity shuns helpless Hulga just as she chose to ignore the entire religion. The Grandmother does not seek God's help until she is at the mercy of the Misfit, but her prayers do not make up for lost time. She is made helpless and eventually killed, and God does not come to save her. O'Connor also uses this particular method to condone the masculine nature of Christianity. In both cases, an "independent" female character is made helpless by a male character that effectively dominates the non-spiritual female (Havird). This turns the "villain" into a strange embodiment of Christianity.

O'Connor uses unconventional methods to deliver grace and salvation in "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The most obvious deliverance of grace occurs in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," and the otherwise useless Grandmother becomes a vessel for delivering grace to the Misfit. The Misfit knows that he has done something wrong, but he cannot fully remember or comprehend the crime or the punishment. The Grandmother's final attempt at saving herself also delivers salvation to the Misfit. She insists that he is a good man and that God would help him if he prayed, and this steady (if last minute) insistence in the omnipotence of God travels through the Grandmother and to the Misfit (Desmond).

The primitive battle between good and evil permeates "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find." For Hulga, the greatness of God does not exist in her human realm, but a Bible salesman still carries a certain weight of holiness and good deeds. When Hulga discovers that the salesman is false, something essentially good and holy is tainted with humanity's evil. She then calls upon the charitable Christian tenets that she personally chose to ignore, but she cannot reconcile the images of good and evil within the false salesman. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the Misfit operates under the delusion that he is taking the proper course of action, but he also knows that it is wrong. At his very core, the Misfit is trying to understand the nature of his crimes and compare them to the punishment he has received. The Grandmother insists that the Misfit is a good man, but he quickly denies it; this denial implies that nothing in the world can be purely good or purely evil (Desmond).

Flannery O'Connor, the conscious Catholic, utilizes several Christian sentiments in the stories "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Hulga, the Grandmother, and the Misfit all fall victim to the overwhelming power of an omnipotent God. O'Connor uses Christianity to convey messages about grace, violent action, and the fine line between good and evil.

Resources

Boren, Mark. "Flannery O'Connor, laughter, and the word made flesh;

Regional Embodiments: Southern Women Writers." Studies in American

Fiction 26 (1998): 115.

Desmond, John. "Flannery O'Conner's Misfit and the Mystery of Evil."

Renascence 56 (2004).

Havird, David. "The saving rape: Flannery O'Connor and patriarchal religion."

The Mississippi Quarterly 47 (1993): 15.

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. 351-361.

O'Connor, Flannery. A letter. The Habit of Being. July 20, 1955.

O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. 362-375.