FLANNERY O’CONNOR
The constant realism of the South
BIOGRAPHY
Mary flannery O’connor (Savannah, Georgia,
USA,1925- 1964) was an American novelist,
short-story writer and essayist. An important
voice in American literature, O’connor wrote two
novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number
or reviews and commentaries. She was a
Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern
Gothic style and relied heavily on regional
settings and grotesque characters. Her writings
also reflected her own Catholic faith and
frequently examined questions of morality and
ethics.
WORKS
Novels
• Wise Blood, 1952
• The Violent Bear it Away, 1960
Short story collections
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find, 1955
• Everything That Rises Must Converge, 1965
• The Complete Stories, 1971
Other works
• Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, 1969
• The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor, 1979
• The Presence of Grace: and Other Book Reviews, 1983
• Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works, 1988
CAREER
-Her texts take place in the South and
revolve around morally ill characters
-She was interested in showing the Christian
side of realism
-Her works analysed the problem of race in
the South and the Holocaust
-She was the first fiction woman writer in the
20 C. to be published by the Library of
America
A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955)
The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She
wanted to visit some of her connections in East
Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance
to change Bailey's mind. Bailey was the son she
lived with, her only boy. He was sitting on the
edge of his chair at the table, bent over the
orange sports section of the Journal. "Now look
here, Bailey," she said, "see here, read this," and
she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the
other rattling the newspaper at his bald head.
Reading Comprehension
Answer the following questions:
1. Where did the grandmother want to
travel?
2. How many children did she have?
3. What was the boy doing at that moment?
4. Can you tell her physical appearance
from the text?
VOCABULARY
TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING WORDS
AND EXPRESSIONS
*connections
*change one’s mind (v)
*bend over (v)
*hip
*rattle (v)
*bald
GRAMMAR
*REPORTED SPEECH
‘Now look here, Bailey,’she said, ‘see here,
read this’
*PASSIVE VOICE
She rattled the newspaper at his bald head
*IRREGULAR VERBS
Locate the irregular forms of the verbs
Women Writers of the South
Kate Chopin (1850-1904)
Caroline Gordon (1895-1981)
Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980)
Eudora Welty (1909-2001)
Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945)
Carson McCullers (1917-1967)
Mary Hood (1946-)
Anne Rice (1941)