“Misfit” in the South? Growing up southern and Catholic in Savannah and Milledgeville, Georgia.
Father dies of lupus, 1938.
Georgia State College for Women and the Iowa Writers Workshop.
Diagnosed with lupus, 1951 at age 26; returns to her mother's farm in Milledgeville, where she completed all her literary works in the next 13 years.
Literary mentors: Vanderbilt poets and New Critics such as Robert Penn Warren; literary models: Nathaniel
Hawthorne, William Faulkner, Joseph Conrad, Gerard Manly Hopkins.
Stricken with renewed onset of lupus in early 1964, dies on August 3.

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In her lifetime, O’Connor published two novels and three story collections; a collection of letters, The
Habit of Being, and a collection of essays, Mystery and
Manners, also posthumously.

“The action of grace in territory held largely by the devil.” Human beings are flawed and incomplete, and modern people in particular have traded the spiritual dimension of their lives (Grace) for material comfort (Self-satisfaction).
Violence and Redemption: The shock of violent encounters serves to revive a recognition of spiritual urgency.
Racism: racists, who are suffering from false pride, use “difference” to claim superiority.
Alienation: those who feel cut off, hungry, angry, “freakish,” are often seekers who “see” more clearly than those who “belong

“The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make them appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock — to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the blind you draw large and startling figures”.
— Flannery O'Connor [From the Flannery O'Connor Special Collection, via EDSITEment reviewed Internet Public
Library].

 How does Flannery O'Connor describe the cultural and physical landscape of the South?
 What are the characteristics of the literary genre known as
"Southern Gothic"?
 What are the key themes Flannery O'Connor explores in the various texts?

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Readers should be aware that many of the stories contains racial slurs, and some will use offensive labels by today’s standards. Though not uncommon when
O'Connor wrote the stories, these terms can certainly be difficult to discuss in the classroom. Readers will grapple with this issue within the broader context of a changing South, which allows them to recognize how cultural and racial views (acceptable or not) develop over time.

 Southern history bespeaks a place that is more complicated than the stories we tell about it. Throughout its history, the
South has been a place where poverty and plenty have been thrown together in especially jarring ways, where democracy and oppression, white and black, slavery and freedom, have warred. The very story of the South is a story of unresolved identity, unsettled and restless, unsure and defensive. The
South, contrary to so many words written in defense and in attack, was not a fixed, known, and unified place, but rather a place of constant movement, struggle, and negotiation.[26]

 In her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant
South," Flannery O'Connor writes: "I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted."
 O’Connor chose to address issues of morality and hypocrisy not through “preachy” text, but instead through extreme examples of character actions that brought shock to the reader.

Filled her stories with crazy preachers, murderers, the deformed, the disabled, freaks and outcasts.
Inspired by gothic literature (horror and violence)
O’Connor was a devout Catholic; there is a significant amount of religious imagery in her stories

 Her fiction grapples with living a spiritual life in a secular world
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Her stories are challenging because her characters, who initially seem radically different from people we know, turn out to be, by the end of each story, somehow familiar-somehow connected to us.
O’Connor’s stories are rooted in rural southern culture, but in a larger sense they are set within the psychological and spiritual landscapes of the human soul.

 Sanctifying grace stays in the soul. It’s what makes the soul holy; it gives the soul supernatural life
 Actual grace, by contrast, is a supernatural push or encouragement. It’s transient. It doesn’t live in the soul, but acts on the soul from the outside, so to speak. It’s a supernatural kick in the pants. It gets the will and intellect moving so we can seek out and keep sanctifying grace.
 O’Connor often gives her characters the push they need to recognize grace.

 The Lame Shall Enter First: father/son relationship. Father is not sympathetic the son’s loss of his mother. Father is an atheist who works hard to save others while not noticing the issues his son is facing. Elizabeth, Stephen, Amy/ Catherine, Alex
 Revelation: Focuses on one character’s superior view of others. Ms. Turpin frequently labels people as the “blacks” or “white trash”, and passes judgement on anyone she deems beneath her.
Ms. Turpin will face a moment when she will be forced to look at self. Zach, Tanner,
Austin/ Angelica, Sam, Fallon
 A Good Man is Hard to Find: Follows the road trip taken by a grandmother and her son’s family.
The grandmother is obviously controlling and manipulative, and at the end of the journey she will have to face self. Gabriel, Maya, Nnenna / Kendra, Caleb

 The Life You Save May be Your Own: Mother/ daughter relationship is tested when a strange man befriends the family. What one thinks he wants might not be what is best. Alix, Hannah, ,Monica/
Aaron, Noah, Zoie
 The River: Focuses on a young boy’s misguided journey to find salvation. Brandon, Chris,
Andrew/ Zack, Andrew, Clara
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Good Country People: Story centered around the conflict between a mother and daughter, and the irony of having an abundance of education yet not being able to recognize the dangers in front of you. GiGi, Meg, Harold/ Kimani, Jenny, Nicola

 Everything that Rises Must Converge: This story addresses the conflict between old south and new south and centers around a mother/son relationship. The text focuses on the impact of integration on a community and the characters’ ability to embrace the differences. Cayla,
Breonna, Erin/ Devin, Amira, Yasmin
 Parker’s Back: The main character struggles with acceptance and denial of religion. The conflict leads to a spiritual battle in which the main character experiences a revelation. Cameron, Justin/
Israel, Antoine, Marshall