Flannery O'Connor

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Flannery O’Connor

When writing a piece of literature the content is often influenced from the background of the person who is writing. The author, whether consciously or subconsciously, adds in personal experiences or beliefs into their pieces. Flannery O’Connor is a good example of this trend. Her short stories illustrate the hardships, beliefs, and society at the time she lived and was writing. It is most blatantly demonstrated in her collection of short stories entitled, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and Other Stories. Flannery O’Connor reflects her disease, in the mutilation of her characters, her religion, in the types of characters she chooses, and her being an outcast of society, in her characters’ traits, throughout the plots of her short stories.

Flannery O’Connor’s own genetic disease which led to her eventual death played a key role in developing the characters in her stories. O’Connor lost her father to systemic lupus erythematosus. This is a disease that leads to a malfunction within the body that causes the production of antibodies that attack the body’s own tissues; it is an autoimmune disease (“Flannery O'Connor Biography"). This killed her father when she was still a teenager. Nine years later O’Connor, herself, contracted the same disease which was deemed incurable at the time. The disease did not let her keep from writing. She was soon reduced to walking with only crutches because of the deformation of her hip bone. This is strikingly similar to her character in “Good Country People.” The character of Hulga also had leg disabilities. She uses her wooden leg to her advantage. For example, every morning she comes down the stairs banging her wooden leg just to be unpleasant. Her mother made excuses for her mean ...

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...her stories she was able to relate her stories to the time period she was in. Through exaggerated and shocking details in the plot, O’Connor was able to efficiently and effectively get the point across that she was trying to convey to her selected audience. Flannery O’Connor is a good example of how an authors’ background can truly affect their piece of literature and how much of a point it can make.

Works Cited

“Flannery O'Connor Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .

"Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor." Encyclopedia of World Biography on Flannery O'Connor. BookRags. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

Liukkonen, Petri. "Flannery O'Connor." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. 2008. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .

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