[DOWNLOAD] "Flannery O'connor's Quest (Report)" by Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Flannery O'connor's Quest (Report)
- Author : Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table
- Release Date : January 22, 2008
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 247 KB
Description
Flannery O'Connor's fiction, written in the mid-twentieth century, depicts grotesque characters who are hard of hearing and almost spiritually blind. Consequently, violence is often used to foster their spirituality. In Mystery and Manners, O'Connor describes her Christian belief as "the engine that makes her perception operate" (109) Such a statement may cause the reader to expect a direct emphasis on religious matters in her fiction, but she generally depicts a world characterized by greed, pride and a lack of moral vision. The tension between what the writer says and what she portrays in her stories produces a need to reconcile her Christian faith with what John Hawkes calls the devil's voice in her fiction ("Flannery O'Connor's Devil" 396). Speaking of this duality in her writing, O'Connor says her subject is the action of grace in a territory held largely by the devil (Mystery 117). Yet, in spite of the devil's large territory, she believes that man is still redeemable when his actions are assisted by grace (Mystery 196-197). Grace is Divine will which acts for the spiritual well being of mankind. It is a supernatural gift of God to intellectual creatures for their eternal salvation. It is therefore an expression of God's generosity and mercy. God's grace draws man toward an infinite truth, the truth of the divinity of Christ and man's identification with Him. It also illuminates that truth. When it is imparted to him, man "sees" and appreciates the reality of Christ.