Disability as a Tool in Flannery O’Connor The year 2014 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Flannery O’Connor’s death from kidney failure brought on by surgery to remove a benign tumor. O’Connor struggled with lupus throughout most of her life; a disease that not only took the life of her father when she was a teen, but also eventually took her own life at a relatively young age (Bosco 283). Some intellectuals believe that O’Connor’s experience with lupus affected her writing and that she used strange bodies, whether it be atypical bodies or disabled bodies, because she understood and could relate to her characters. Her struggle with lupus allowed her to have a chance to see a different side of disabilities and the effect they can have on a person and the people surrounding that person (Patterson 102). Flannery O’Connor used her history and her experience with lupus to influence her writing and shed a new light on disabilities, as well as to allow the reader to look past the physicality of the disability and use the disability as a mirror to reflect on their own lives. In order to understand the effect O’Connor’s life had on her writing, the reader must be aware of her life-long struggle with lupus. Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. She grew up in a home heavily influenced by her parent’s Catholic faith, which later had a great impact on her writing. In 1940, the O’Connor family decided to move from Savannah to Milledgeville to live in her mother’s family home, where O’Connor’s father died from lupus in 1941. At this point, O’Connor and her mother decided it would be best to continue living in the family home with Flannery’s aunts. In 1945, O’Connor left home to attend the State University of Iowa, wher... ... middle of paper ... ...rge blonde girl who had an artificial leg” and her walk to the bathroom is described as “[Joy would] lumber into the bathroom and slam the door” (O’Connor 271). Later in the story, the character of Manley Pointer is introduced. He claims to be a Bible salesman and a simple country boy with a heart condition that may eventually lead to his death. Due to his “good country people” nature, Hulga’s mother invites him to stay for dinner, where Hulga ignores him completely, but later bonds with him over their heart conditions and possible impending deaths. The next morning, Hulga plans to meet Manley at the gate to go on a picnic. They kiss at the edge of the woods and proceed to enter the barn, where they climb to the loft. Hulga climbs up first to prove to Manley that she is not at a disadvantage, even though she is disabled and has a prosthetic leg (O’Connor 271-91).
These two essays are about two dissimilar disabilities. Nancy Mairs and David Sedaris act as examples of how an author’s writing can change the tone and meaning of a narrative. Mairs message was educational and encouraging as she explained her life with MS and how society sees her. Sedaris use of experience and memories portrays his life with obsessive-compulsive disorder; what he calls “tics”. These two writers take similar topics and pitch them in ways so the reader can see the illustration behind them.
The essays, “On Being a Cripple”, by Nancy Mairs, and “Living Under Circe’s Spell”, by Matthew Soyster are both about how each author deals with multiple sclerosis in their life and their opinions on it. Mairs’ piece is a careful examination of her experience with MS and her perspective towards her future. In contrast, Soyster writes humorously of a particular incident he had with MS and artfully weaves his ideas about the disease in with his story. In both instances, the authors share the purpose of narrating their encounter with MS to the world to raise awareness. Both employ the rhetorical strategies of appeals to pathos and varying sentence structures to achieve this goal, some more effectively than others.
“Good Country People” is a story about Joy Hopewell, a very well educated young woman living in the rural south. Joy lost a leg in a hunting accident when she was ten and since then had been forced to wear a wooden replacement. She also had a weak heart and it was this affliction that forced her to remain amongst these “good country people” whom she considered to be intellectual inferiors. Though she had great confidence in her intelligence she had very little self-esteem. Joys’ handicap made her feel ugly, so ugly that much to her mothers’ dismay, she had her name legally changed to the ugliest one she could think of, Hulga. One day a traveling bible salesman named Manley Pointer made a sales call and ended up having dinner with the family.
...y and mind. The name is opposite to her real name Joy, with Catholic features. Hulga is the character who rejects society, Catholic religion and any human contact. But Joy is the personality inside Hulga who wants to mix with people. When she is with Manley in the hayloft and he has her wooden leg, Joy-Hulga dreams about the possibility of staying with him the rest of her life: " "Put it back on," she said. She was thinking that she would run away with him and every night he would take her leg off and every morning put it back on again."
“I am a Cripple,” when people typically hear these words they tend to feel bad for that person, but that is exactly what Mair does not want. She prefers that people treat her the same as they would if she did not have the disease. Throughout the essay, Mair discuses her disease openly. She uses an optimistic tone, so that the reader will not recoil with sadness when they hear her discuss the disease and how it affects her life. In Nancy Mair’s essay “On Being A Cripple,” Mair uses her personal stories, diction, and syntactical structures to create an optimistic tone throughout the essay, so that the audience can better connect story.
Although illness narratives are not novel or new, their prevalence in modern popular literature could be attributed to how these stories can be relatable, empowering, and thought-provoking. Susan Grubar is the writer for the blog “Living with Cancer”, in The New York Times, that communicates her experience with ovarian cancer (2012). In our LIBS 7001 class, Shirley Chuck, Navdeep Dha, Brynn Tomie, and I (2016) discussed various narrative elements of her more recent blog post, “Living with Cancer: A Farewell to Legs” (2016). Although the elements of narration and description (Gracias, 2016) were easily identified by all group members, the most interesting topics revolved around symbolism as well as the overall impression or mood of the post.
In her essay “On Being a Cripple,” Mairs describes her path of acceptance of her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis by declaring that she is a “cripple” in alternative to the more broadly acceptable terms: disabled or handicapped. Her essay is written with humor, satire, an open heart, and open eyes. Mair’s purpose is to describe her acceptances of her condition by using rhetorical elements and appeals, such as ethos and pathos, in order to allure her audience.
Scott, Nathan A., Jr. "Flannery O'Connor's Testimony." The Added Dimension: The Art and Mind of Flannery O'Connor. Ed. Melvin J. Friedman and Lewis A. Lawson. New York: Fordham UP, 1966. 138-56.
Thus, O’Connor grew up in a highly racist area that mourned the fact that slaves were now being treated as “equals.” In her everyday life in Georgia, O’Connor encountered countless citizens who were not shy in expressing their discontent toward the black race. This indeed was a guiding influence and inspiration in her fiction writing. The other guiding influence in her life that became a major theme in her writing was religion. Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family.
Flannery O’Connor brings her characters to life by having them mimic scenarios that she goes through during her jarring battle with Lupus. She struggled with Lupus, which is a condition in which a person’s immune system attacks their own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by this terrible disease can affect many different body systems, including a person’s joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, and many more. O’Connor portrays fictional characters going through harsh struggles with themselves, whether it be mentally, physically, or emotionally. O’Connor creates her characters to always be at war with one’s self. This reflects the constant battle she had with herself while dealing with Lupus. Flannery was an "American novelist,
O’ Connor life had a significant change, when she attended High School; O’ Connor Stared writing and drawing Cartoons for the School Paper (Flannery). Her cartooning experiencing would have a profound effect on her style of writing. Even though she relocated in Milledgeville she continues attending Christian Schools, because her parents were strong Roman Catholics. Sadly in her early teenage years, the doctors eventually revealed that she was suffering from lupus erythematous, the same disease that killed her father Edward Francis O’ Connor. Instead of decay for her illness, she decided to push the new challenges she had on her way and focused first of all on her educ...
Suzanna Berne’s article “Where Nothing Says Everything” discusses the sequence of events that Berne encounters as she attempts to pay her respects to the 9/11 tragedy. From the elements within her writing, Berne demonstrates the significant meaning of the World Trade Center’s absence. It is from her personal experience and play on words that she is able to accurately express her thesis. Within her piece, Suzanna Berne comes to the conclusion that the impact of 9/11 on the American people forces them to unite in order to overcome the loss of the World Trade Center along with the people who went down with it.
Dead at the age of thirty nine years young, Flannery O’Conner lost her fight with lupus, but had won her place as one of America’s great short story writers and essayist. Born in Savannah, Georgia, within the borders of America’s “Bible Belt”, she is raised Catholic, making O’Connor a minority in the midst of the conservative Protestant and Baptist faiths observed in the Southern United States. In the midst of losing her father at the age fifteen, followed by her diagnosis and struggle with the same physical illness that took him, as well as her strong unwavering faith in the Catholic Church are crucial components of O’Connor’s literary style which mold and guide her stories of loss, regret, and redemption. Flannery O’Connor’s writings may be difficult to comprehend at times, but the overall theme of finding grace, sometimes in the midst of violence or tragedy, can be recognized in the body of her works. O’Connor’s stories are written about family dysfunction, internal angst towards life or a loved one, and commonly take place on a farm, plantation or a family home in the American South. Her stories of ethical and moral challenge blur the boundaries between her Catholic faith and values, which also include the values of the other religious faiths surrounding her in her youth, simply writing of the pain and struggles which people from all walks of life commonly share.
Friedman, Melvin J. Introduction. Critical Essays on Flannery O’Connor. Ed. Melvin J. Friedman and Beverly Lyon Clark. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1985.
Whitt, Margaret. Understanding Flannery O’Connor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. 47-48, 78. Print.