Flannery O'Connor

            Flannery O’Connor’s writing style is very unique and distinctive. She starts off the story in an ordinary setting. It is so normal that the narrative may seem rather mundane at first. She starts off the story in an ordinary setting. It is so normal, that the narrative may seem rather mundane at first. However, she proves the idea wrong as she continues on to her climax and ending, which both turn out to be suspenseful and also tragic.

            Through the stories in the Norton (A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Good Country People, and Everything That Rises Must Converge), the readers can see that the author’s main thought focuses on the two ideas; human wit and impudence. Although the ideas are very contrary, they are interconnected. In O’Connor’s works, she depicts how foolishness of mankind are twisted and turned into a disaster by the witty ones. To be more direct, O’Connor portrays how people with big egos are the ones who get tricked most easily.

            In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother is selfish and pretentious. At first, she strongly objects to visiting Florida, but when it is decided that they are not going to Tennessee and that there is a possibility for her to be left behind, she was “the first one on the car, ready to go.” The way she pretends to be an expert on the Misfit yet gets her family and herself killed, also shows how she had overestimated her intelligence while underestimating the others’. Moreover, when she remembered how the house of the Misfit was in Tennessee instead of Georgia, she decided not to announce the subject. This illustrates how her egotism is so strong that she does not even want to admit her own flaws.

            Second, in Good Country People, Joy (Hulga) looks down on other characters, as if they are not smart enough for her. She does not show any respect for her own mother, even though she is much more amiable and caring than herself. At first, Joy acts as if she is the one who has the control over the situation; she is proud of having many degrees and thus, believes that others are less civilized than she is. However, as soon as she begins to trust Pointer (and this is not even his real name), she becomes more lenient on what the boy says. In the end, Joy is outwitted by Pointer as he simply stole her artificial leg, and did not have any interest in loving her as who she was. This story shows how people who think they are smart are ones who are the actual fools.

            Overall, O’Connor’s stories revolve around deep moral teachings. It highly censures human egotism and depicts how it can easily be turned over. Also most of her works begins dull and rather ordinary, but they all have a turning point where the story becomes full of thrill and suspense.