Flannery O'Connor's View of Southern Theology

O'Connor was a strict Roman Catholic but this was not the point of view she wrote from. She wrote about the more exaggerated faith of the evangelical, unsophisticated, protestant South and how their religion affected their lives when they found themselves in strange situations. “Her characters are […] spiritually primitive and afflicted in both mind and body [...] God is the sole reality in their lives, and this is so even when they repudiate Him” (Allen 255). She was a deeply religious woman who felt the need to sometimes horrify the reader with wild characters and her startling endings in order to get across her theological ideas. Doctor Thelma J. Shinn, a Professor of English and Women's Studies at Purdue University, wrote “…An

d her criminals, her misfits and prophets, are closer to salvation because they are in the spiritual realm: they are Evil and are fighting a religious battle within themselves- their belief or disbelief in Christ is a matter of life and death” (375). For instance, in the title story, an escaped convict, The Misfit compares himself to Christ. He felt he was misunderstood. "It was the same case with Him as with me except He hadn't committed any crime and they could prove I committed one [...]" (27). He was persecuted harshly and his bitter feelings towards his prosecutors were what led him to become a convict. The Misfit thought that like Christ, he was not treated right "they never shown me my papers [...] I can't make what all I done wrong to fit what all I got in Punishment" (27-28). The Misfit ended up killing six people. This is not what is usually considered a Christ-like figure but the antagonist taking on this role is not uncommon for O’Connor’s stories.

Few can match the theology and philosophy she dealt with in her works. She was strong in her ideas and stubborn to have everyone understand her thoughts on religion in the South. Flannery O'Connor was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Though her career, along with her life was cut short, she already carved her place in the history of American literature.

That she was a Southerner and wrote about the South may have been a fortunate coincidence. The South furnished her […] flagrant images her theme and style demanded, Southern dialogue [...] sharpened her wit [...] Had she been born in Brooklyn [...] the surface agonies of her work would have been altered...but the essential delineations of her fiction [...] would [...] have been essentially unchanged. (Sullivan 317)

O'Connor's main characters' problems were not always solved. Or rather, they were not solved in a desirable manner. In "A Late Encounter Wi

Some topics in this essay:
Flannery O'Connor, Christian You're, Own Shiftlet, Purdue University, Country People, Sally Poker, Roman Catholic, Poker Sash's, Misfit Christ, Him” Allen, flannery o'connor, country people, wooden leg, university wrote, professor english, sally poker, hulga's mother, convict misfit,