Themes in O'Connor's Stories

After indulging in a bit of light research on Flannery O’Connor, I learned that to understand O’Connor’s short stories is to understand the rural South that she was familiar with before 1970. She inserts her readers into the settings by capturing thought processes. O’Connor likes to write her stories to set opposing forces against one another, though, as demonstrated in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Parker’s Back,” they routinely incorporate a severe lack of hope in humanity.

One theme that is prominent in O’Connor’s works is violence. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Misfit shows his true colors when has a whole family murdered in cold blood, then makes a joke about it. ”Parker’s Back” illustrates the violence when Sarah Ruth beats Parker with a broom after the grand tattoo reveal. In “Revelation,” Mary Grace attacks and chokes Mrs. Turnpin when she makes her judgments known.

When asked about the reoccurring theme in an interview and O’Connor explained, “I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace.

” Meaning she believes the violence her characters inflict could be setting them up for spiritual revelation. Amongst the many themes of O’Connor’s work, these stories in particular highlight religion most likely stemming from her Southern background. The grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” tried to use the name of Jesus to manipulate the Misfit into letting her go unharmed.

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ln “Parker’s Back,” O’Connor references the beauty of the Garden of Eden, illuminates Sarah Ruth’s false religiosity, and embodies biblical symbolism through the details — such as the characters’ names and experiences. “Revelation” exhibits religion through Mrs. Turnpin’s concluding revelation.

After spending most of her life judging people based on their race and status, she receives the ultimate truth: That one’s actions are deemed meaningless if they judge others because God will have the same judgment towards them. It also expresses a subtle message of faith in the name of Mrs. Turnpin’s attacker, Mary Grace. A final theme present in these works could be social status and the importance some characters place in it. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grandmother briefly ponders what would happen in the event of the family getting into a car crash. All she cares about is her status and appearance as a lady, and she doesn’t even consider her family’s safety.

In ”Parker’s Back,” his wife was only concerned with her husband’s appearance and the way his tattoos portray his alleged vanity. In “Revelation,” Mrs. Turnpin spent her entire life openly judging people solely based on their status in the community. In many of O’Connor’s stories, she uses symbolism and strong themes to get her ideas across to her readers, and her conclusions aren’t usually happy ones. Messages conveyed by her works suggest that underneath the surface of modern life, evil is waiting to intrude without as much as a warning.