Carson McCullers
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She was born Lula Carson
Smith on February 19,
1917 in Columbus, Georgia.
She was not a remarkable
student, however, her
mother pushed her to
pursue piano and she
began formal training at
age ten.
After a bout with rheumatic
fever, she no longer had
stamina needed to be
concert pianist.
While recovering from this
illness, she developed a
love for reading that would
lead to her career as a
writer.
Carson McCullers
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She moved to New York to go to Juilliard School for Music where she
actually began to pursue her secret ambition to write.
She studied creative writing at Columbia University.
Bedridden for several months in 1936, she returned to Columbus and
began writing her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Married James Reeves McCullers in 1937. He was in the army stationed at
Fort Benning.
They had a tumultuous marriage, plagued with alcoholism, sexual
ambivalence (both were bisexual) and Reeves’s envy of McCullers’s writing
abilities.
They were separated in 1940 and remarried in 1945.
Her second novel was Reflections in a Golden Eye, which shocked readers.
It was a story of voyeurism, obsession, homosexuality and infidelity set on
an army base.
Carson McCullers
 The Member of the Wedding was
published in 1946. It was
considered her most commercially
successful work. It was made into
a film.
 With a collection of work including
five novels, two plays, twenty
short stories, many nonfiction
pieces, poems and an unfinished
autobiography, she is considered
to be among the most significant
writers of the twentieth century.
 During the last 15 years of her
life, her health declined and she
was bedridden after paralysis
from a series of strokes.
 She suffered a cerebral stroke on
August 15, 1967 and remained
comatose for 46 days until she
died on September 20. 1967.
Margaret
Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell
 She was born on November
8, 1900 in Atlanta, GA and
died there on August 16,
1949.
 She was connected to GA
because she lived and
worked in Atlanta, GA
excluding college. She was
a columnist for the Atlanta
Journal .
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell
Early Life
 Born: November 8,
1900 in Atlanta, GA
 Parents: May Belle
Stephens and Eugene
Muse Mitchell, an
attorney
 Siblings: Stephens
Mitchell, brother
Margaret Age 4
Teen Years
• 1912 - Moves from Jackson
Hill to southeast Atlanta
• Quickly becomes a tomboy
• 1917 – Becomes engaged to
Lt. Clifford Henry, a Harvard
man in the service
• 1918 – Begins attending Smith
College while Clifford is
stationed in France
• 1919 – Both Clifford
and her mother die
• 1920 – Makes her
debut and causes a
scandal with her
“Apache Dance”
• Is refused admission
to the Junior League
because of her dance
and her charity work
in the wards of the
black and the poor at
Grady Hospital
The Apache Dance
Adult Years
 1922 – Is surrounded by suitors with Red
Upshaw and John Marsh the top competitors –
Marries Upshaw in September
 Red becomes abusive – Margaret realizes he is
a bootlegger and an alcoholic – Marriage lasts
only three months
 Mitchell becomes the first woman reporter to
cover hard news at The Atlanta Journal
Constitution.
•1925 - Margaret
marries John Marsh
on July 4.
•1926 – Margaret is
forced to quit her job
as a reporter due to
arthritis in her ankles
and feet – reads
voraciously – begins
writing.
“The Dump”
 Margaret gave Apartment #1
in the back of a house on
Peachtree Street in Atlanta
this nickname.
The site where she
wrote her famous saga
is now The Margaret
Mitchell House
Museum.
1936 – Her book, Gone with the Wind, is
published – Hollywood producer buys the rights
for the movie for $50,000.
• 1937 – Her book wins a
Pulitzer Prize.
• 1939 – The movie’s
premiere is at the Loew’s
Grand Theatre in Atlanta.
• 1940’s Margaret works
full time as a volunteer
and spends money to
support various charities
and educational
institutions.
 August 11, 1949 –
Margaret Mitchell is hit
by a car while she
was crossing
Peachtree Street. She
dies several days later
of internal injuries.
•She is buried in Oaklawn
Cemetery in Atlanta in the Mitchell
family plot.
Margaret Munnerlyn
Mitchell
1900 -1949
Flannery
O’Connor
Flannery O’Conner
“American writer, particularly acclaimed for her stories which combined
comic with tragic and brutal. Flannery O'Connor belonged to the Southern
Gothic tradition that focused on the decaying South and its sinful people.
O'Connor's body of work was small, consisting of only 31 stories, 2 novels,
and some speeches and letters.
"Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do?
I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will,
but many wills conflicting in one man, Freedom cannot be conceived
simply." (from Wise Blood, 1952)
Southern Gothic –
• a great way of explaining the term southern gothic is
comparing it with Winslow Homer’s American
Gothic. It is a quintessential representation of a
geographical location and the people and
customs from that region.
• Gothic writers tend to stereotype their characters
but still maintain to perplex and astound the
reader at what they reveal through their writing.
Being described as southern gothic also classifies
O’Connor with the southern United State’s literary
tradition along with Margaret Mitchell, Faulkner, and
Tennessee Williams.
Childhood
 Mary Flannery
O’Conner was born
on March 25, 1925,
in Savannah,
Georgia.
 Her baby crib was
advertised a a
“kiddie coop.”
She lived at 207 East
Charlton Street on
LaFayette Square until
she was sixteen years
old.
(This house and her crib can be seen
by calling (912) 633-6014 for tour
information.)
 Went to Georgia State College for Women and
graduated in 1945
 Went to Iowa State University and graduated in 1947.
 Flannery O’Connor’s style has been described
idiosyncratic and unladylike.
 She was very straightforward with her
writing.
 Her work focused on topics such as
the South and its people.
Her Religion
Flannery was a devout
Catholic, and her religion
greatly influenced her
outlook on life and her
work.
Her Illness
 Flannery O’Connor had the disease lupus.
 The disease started coming on in 1950 and by 1955
she had to walk with crutches.
 Her father also died from lupus.
 Some people say that her most creative years were
when she was the sickest.
 She died in 1963 at age thirty-nine.
Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
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Born on January 19, 1929 in Atlanta,
Georgia
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He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in
Tennessee.
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His connections to Georgia include growing
up in Atlanta and attending Morehouse
College at the age of 15 after finishing high
school early.
King spoke to
250,000 civil
rights supporters
during the “March
on Washington”
August 28, 1963.
Dr. King made his famous “I have a
dream” speech.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continues to
make an impact in the life of today’s people!
His story lives on…
Alice
Walker
Important Events
• Born February 9, 1944, in the
farming community of
Eatonton, Georgia to
sharecroppers Lou and Grant
Walker.
• At eight years old, Walker
became blind in one eye when
shot by a brother with a BB
gun.
• Attended Spelman College &
was active in Civil Rights
Movement.
• Published her first short story
in 1967.
Contributions to Society
 Has written: 5 books of poetry, 5 novels, 4
books of essays, speeches, and nonfiction
biographies.
 Active in Civil Rights and Women’s Rights
Movements.
 She writes about issue of oppression of
African Americans and Females who
struggle with a violent , racist and sexist
society. She also focuses her work on the
role of African American women in History
 Won Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple.
Quotations
 “Shut out the noise and
distractions in your life.
Concentrate on the inner
world within. This is where
the best creativity can be
found.”
 “Writing saved me from the
sin and inconvenience of
violence.”
Figurative Language
A figure of speech is a
specific device or kind of
figurative language, such as
hyperbole, metaphor,
personification, simile, or
understatement.
Figurative language is used
for descriptive effect, often
to imply ideas indirectly. It
is not meant to be taken
literally. Figurative
language is used to state
ideas in vivid and
imaginative ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SuxMeNnt4
Imagery
Imagery is words or phrases
that appeal to one or more of
the five senses. Writers use
imagery to describe how their
subjects look, sound, feel,
taste, and smell.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCQMMFUDHRc
Simile
A simile is another figure of speech
that compares seemingly unlike
things. Simile’s DO use the words
like or as.
Example: Her voice was like nails on
a chalkboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=_bMcXVe8zIs
Metaphor
A metaphor is a type of speech
that compares or equates two or
more things and does NOT use
like or as.
Example: That song is the
bomb!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB0HrN
dqJKQ
Hyperbole
A hyperbole is an extreme
exaggeration to make a point and to
make the story more interesting.
Example: It was so cold, I saw polar
bears wearing jackets!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUzScx6_lWg
Personification
 Personification is a
figure of speech in which
an animal, object, force
of nature, or idea is given
human qualities or
characteristics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Zb9KnXNYCiQ
 Example: Lightning
McQueen and Mater are
automobiles, but in the
movie, they are able to
talk like humans.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the
repetition of sounds,
most often consonant
sounds, at the
beginning of words.
Alliteration gives
emphasis to words.
Example: Peter Piper
picked a peck of
pickled peppers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=5EqG5v07R24
Onomatopoeia
An onomatopoeia is a sound word
that aims to represent the sound of
an action.
Examples:
Crash!
Boom!
Pow!
Idioms
An expression in the usage
of a language that is
peculiar to itself either
grammatically or in having
a meaning that cannot be
derived from the conjoined
meanings of its elements.
A statement made that
cannot be taken literary,
but is a figure of speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nJ7APp8iM
Allusion
An allusion is an
expression
designed to call
something to mind
without
mentioning it
explicitly; an
indirect or passing
reference.
Oxymoron
An Oxymoron is a figure of speech
that is a combination of seemingly
contradictory words.
Examples:
Same difference
 Pretty ugly
 Roaring silence
Puns
Puns are jokes
exploiting the
different possible
meanings of a word
or the fact that there
are words that sound
alike but have
different meanings.
Assonance
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Assonance is
the repetition of
vowel sounds in
nearby words. It
is used to
reinforce the
meanings of
words or to set
the mood.
Consonance
Consonance is a
poetic device
characterized by the
repetition of the same
consonant two or
more times in short
succession.
Consonance may also
be known as slant
rhyme.
Works Cited
http://www.irc.vbschools.com/fortheweb/languagearts/pages/authorspurpose_j
pg.htm