Flannery O Connor Critical Analysis Essay

Flannery O’Connor is widely known as an incredibly talented short story artist and novelist. By following her life story and analyzing the work she did, one can see how effortless it seemed to be for her to create such captivating tales. Some of her most famous works, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” are the most reflective of her own life experiences and perceptions. O’Connor is widely praised for her unique ability to paint pictures of reality, as well as depicting some of the most disturbing situations in a humorous light. Often misunderstood, but never undermined, Flannery O’Connor’s impeccable and timeless literary works will prevail as some of the best pieces for years to come. Born in 1925 on March 25, Mary Flannery

The encounter between the grandmother and the Misfit is the perfect example of what every human faces, death. Carola Kaplan states that the grandmother’s death was unique because it came from incomprehensible evil. “Her ability to accept such a death is therefore the supreme test of her faith” (Kaplan). It shows that the moment of the grandmother’s death is what embraces the Christian mystery. The Christian mystery is simply the idea that in a moment such as the death of the grandmother, it is easy to be accepting of imminent death because the Christian, or the grandmother in this case, is prepared for death their whole life. This idea ties in to the irony of many of O’Connor’s themes of grotesque irony. Many might think that it is crazy for someone to be so calm in a moment of death, but O’Connor paints the ironic scene of preparedness at the end of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. “A brilliant mixture of horror and humor, compassion and tough-mindedness, this story emphasizes O’Connor’s greatest powers as a writer” says Kaplan. Kaplan goes on to say that O’Connor’s bedrock belief in the Roman Catholic faith is what made it possible for her to create the view of the most horrifying representative of humankind, the serial killer, with sympathy and hope. O’Connor’s intelligence is what made her sensitive to the realities of what sometimes accompanies religious faith, but she was also able to recognize that the things that do accompany religious faith are some of the worst sins. She really paints this picture when creating the Misfit character, who blames Jesus for his worst sins and life choices, while also blaming him for not allowing his life to have meaning; with or without a life of