Flannery O'Connor was a 20th century American author known for her short stories that blended Southern Gothic fiction with Roman Catholic theology. She was born in 1925 in Georgia to an Irish Catholic family and contracted lupus at age 25. Her illness and early death influenced her focus on themes of mortality, sin, and redemption. As a Catholic and Southerner, her work explored the interaction of divine grace with human frailty and the grotesque aspects of human nature. Though praised for her literary talents, some critics found her direct portrayal of religious themes too simplistic for modern readers. Overall, O'Connor developed a unique Southern Gothic style that incorporated her dual identities as a Catholic believer and a writer of

1. A Literary Life
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2. Mary Flannery O’Connor
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3. Timeline
 Mary Flannery O’Connor, born in Savannah, Georgia – 1925
 Life-long, practicing Roman Catholic
 Father died at age 45 from lupus when she was 16 – 1941
 Graduated from Georgia State College for Women – 1945
 Studied at Iowa Writers’ Workshop, U. of Iowa – 1946
 Moved to Connecticut to study under classic scholar Robt. Fitzgerald – 1949
 Diagnosed with lupus at age 25 and returned home to Georgia – 1951
 First publication, Wise Blood, a novel – 1952
 A Good Man is Hard to Find, first collection of short stories – 1955
 Lived with mother on ancestral farm until death at age 39 from lupus – 1964
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4. Lupus – A death influence
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5. Catholicism – A religious influence
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6. Short story collections:
 A Good Man is Hard to Find – 1955
 includes:
• “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
• “A Late Encounter with the Enemy”
 Every Thing That Rises Must Converge – 1965
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7. Still in print, still popular
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8. Humor, Death, and Religion
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9. Contains the following short stories:
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
"The River"
"The Life You Save May Be Your Own"
"A Stroke of Good Fortune"
"A Temple of the Holy Ghost"
"The Artificial Nigger"
"A Circle in the Fire"
"A Late Encounter with the Enemy"
"Good Country People"
"The Displaced Person
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10. The short story:
 “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
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11. A Grandmother & A Good Man
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12. Southern Gothic
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13. A Good Man is Hard to Find
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14. The short story:
“A Late Encounter with the Enemy”
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15. Southern Confederacy
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16. A Late Encounter with the Enemy
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17.  What Flannery O’Connor had to say:
 “The South impresses its image on the Southerner – be he Catholic
or not – from the moment he is able to distinguish one sound from
another … I will admit to certain preoccupations with belief and with
death and grace and the devil” (Walters).
 When asked to name the crucial influences upon her life, she
answered: “Probably . . . being a Catholic, and a Southerner, and a
writer” (Walters).
 Her subject, in her words, was “the action of grace in territory held
largely by the devil” (PBS, Roman).
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18. What the biographers/critics say:
 “ …. She is a Southerner and a Catholic … she is our only great Christian writer”
(PBS, Wood).
 “ … Flannery O’Connor went to Mass nearly every day at the Sacred Heart Catholic
Church in Milledgeville, … in central Georgia.”
 “You don’t have baptism, confession, and the Mass … . You have instead odd and
grotesque, historically surprising events where people encounter the grace of God.
(PBS, White)
 “A background both Southern and Catholic, a view of the artist grounded on a firm moral
base, an extreme sensitivity to the mixed tragicomic nature of experience–these are the
forces which shape O'Connor's vision and lend color and direction to her work”
(Walters).
 “ … *R+emarkable capacity to blend the comic and the serious in a single view of reality …
her own illness–as well as her father's early death–suggests an obvious source of a
pervasive concern of her writing: omnipresent death and disaster … .
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19. Another opinion:
 “The question of Flannery O'Connor's place in the tradition of modern Southern
letters remains a vexing one … . Some … argue that her rare blend of Christian
orthodoxy, Southern regionalism, and comic literary genius makes her writing so
unique as to defy categorization.
 Among some … there is a belief that her work simply does not adequately
represent the complexities of the modern consciousness. … a kind of critical
dualism which accepts and admires O'Connor's comic talent as a literary artist in
spite … of the demanding religious vision embodied in her work. … suggest*ing] a
split within O'Connor herself–fiction writer on the one hand and believer on the
other–and thus raises the whole complex issue of the relationship between her
thought and her art.
 At other times the religious orthodoxy in her stories is ‘accepted’ as orthodoxy, but
often with the deeply felt reservation that her presentation of the spiritual
consciousness is too simplistic and antiquated to do full justice to the modern
temper” (Desmond).
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20. Desmond, John F. "Flannery O'Connor and the History behind the History." Modern Age 27.3-
4 (Summer-Fall 1983): 290-296. Rpt. In Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet
Witalec. Vol. 132. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 July 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com.libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1420048657&v=2.
1&u=newpaltz&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w
Public Broadcasting Service. “Flannery O’Connor.” Religion and Ethics. PBS, 20 Nov. 2009.
Web. 2 May 2012
Walters, Dorothy. "Chapter 1: A Milledgeville Girl." Flannery O'Connor. Dorothy Walters. New
York: Twayne Publishers, 1973. Twayne's United States Authors Series 216. The Twayne
Authors Series. Web. 1 July 2012.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com.libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1472002092&v=2.
1&u=newpaltz&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w
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