Flannery O Conner

Flannery O Conner

If you try to get more from a writer than what you seen on the page , usually

depends on the writer and their ability to make you see, and of course your own

imagination. When the writers stories are so different and the characters are so clear,

you sometimes think you know something about that writer and who they were. People

say that a writer can be found in their words. However, some writers are good writers

not only because of their words and works. One writer that goes beyond words is a

writer that we have recently read a story on. Flannery O’ Connor. The contradictions of

violence and faith in her fiction distinguishes her among Southern writers and make

one wonder who she was and where she was from.

O’ Connor’s life greatly influenced her work. Born in Savannah, Georgia, O’

Connor was educated at the Georgia State College for Women and the State University

of Iowa (now called the University of Iowa). Most of her life was spent in

Milledgeville, Georgia, where she raised peacocks and wrote. O’Connor’s work , of

two novels and two volumes of short stories, has been described as an unlikely mixture

of southern Gothic , prophecy and evangelistic Roman Catholicism. In many of her

stories she included rural settings from her homeland. For example “Good Country

People” takes place in rural Georgia. Flannery used her well-known writing styles of

grotesque humor in the stories she wrote , including “Good Country People”. Unlike

most of the writers from the South Flannery probably would not have wanted to be

found. She was rather quiet in her lifetime and enjoyed the solitude of her home in

Milledgeville, Georgia. It seemed as if there were a part of her that wanted to remain

mysterious and unfound. After reading some of her fiction like “Good Country People”

you can see the humorous side she pokes at the world and herself. Her writing , often

deep, dark and violent has a flip side it is also humorous. Flannery O’ Connor remains

a powerful voice in literature today. Before her tragic death which claimed her young

life at the age of 39, she had written two novels and thirty-two short stories. as well as commentaries and reviews. She died from Lupus, the same disease which shortened

the life of her father. O’ Connor’s work has not always been understood completely

and appreciated for her unique and powerful themes. Many critics did not like her first

novel, Wise Blood , positively because of its seemingly strange themes and characters.