The Use of Violence in Flannery OConnors Stories

The main recurring theme in Flannery O’Connor’s stories is the use of violence towards characters in order to give them an eye-opening moment in which they finally realize their true self in relation to the rest of society and openly accept insight into how they should act or think. This theme of violence can clearly be seen in three works by Flannery O’Connor: A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People, and Everything That Rises Must Converge. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother and the Misfit both experience a life-changing event that leads to them having a clear understanding of who they should truly be. After the Misfit kills the rest of the family, the grandmother is left alone with the Misfit in the ditch. Once she†¦show more content†¦She realizes that she is left defenseless and that her philosophy and education can not help her in times of great intense physical struggle and difficulty, such as trying to get back home without her other leg and no glasses in order to see (Whitt 78). In Everything that Rises Must Converge, Julian and his mother experience a moment of clarity in terms of contemplating on their actions and thoughts. Julian has always hated his mother for her traditional southern beliefs and ways. She even goes as far as to wish that she lived back in the past when she was a girl. She embodies the traditional pre-civil rights southerner who believes in being superior to someone else in terms of race, money, or any other factor. When she sees a black woman on the bus wearing the same hat she is wearing, she realizes that someone regarded as inferior by her standards, a black woman, is suddenly equal to her. She shows great discomfort and disapproval of this new ideal. When the black woman and her son are getting off of the bus, she approaches them and gives the child a penny as a sign of humiliation and inferiority. The black woman then hits her which causes her to fall to the ground. Julian’s mother falling to the ground shows a change in actions and thoughts for both her and Julian (Moore). Julian begins to tell her that she got what she deserved for giving her insulting pennies to blackShow MoreRelated Violence Leading To Redemption In Flannery OConnors Literature1482 Words   |  6 PagesViolence Leading to Redemption in Flannery OConnors Literature Flannery OConnor uses many of the same elements in almost all of her short stories. I will analyze her use of violence leading to the main character experiencing moral redemption. The use of redemption comes from the religious background of Flannery OConnor. Violence in her stories is used as a means of revelation to the main characters inner self. The literature of Flannery OConnor appears to be unbelievably harsh and violentRead More Flannery Oconnor1301 Words   |  6 Pagesreflected on how the world was dealing with the changes. Flannery O’Connor, a prominent Catholic writer from the South, was one of the many who examined society and shared their philosophies. O’Connor shocked her twentieth century readers with the haunting style and piercing questions in her short stories and novels, which were centered on a combination of her life experiences, her deep Catholic faith, and the literature of the time. Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925 intoRead MoreA Good Man Is Hard And Find By Flannery O Connor1190 Words   |  5 PagesIn Flannery O’Connor’s short story â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find†, O’Connor tells the story mainly on the emphasis of the grandmothers prospective. The grandmother was never named in the short story, only leaving the reader to guess if this story was how O’Connor portrayed a feeling toward society and religion. In order for the reader to understand the point of view of the story, the reader must look at the back ground of the author. Born in Georgia, where the story takes place, O’Connor was raisedRead MoreA Critical Analysis of Revelation by Flannery OConnor1591 Words   |  7 Pages- Well written-Good points A Critical Analysis of Revelation by Flannery OConnor Flannery OConnors background influenced her to write the short story Revelation. One important influence on the story is her Southern upbringing. During her lifetime, Southerners were very prejudiced towards people of other races and lifestyles. They believed that people who were less fortunate were inferior to them; therefore, people were labeled as different things and placed into different social classesRead More â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†: Comparing Flannery O’Connor’s Literary Technique2162 Words   |  9 PagesFind†: Comparing Flannery O’Connor’s Literary Technique to Grotesque Medieval Literature Upon initially reading Flannery O’Connor’s work, one would have no problem recognizing her use of shocking, violent, or despairing themes. It may not be as easy, however, to completely accept or understand her style. According to Patrick Galloway, one must be â€Å"initiated to her trademarks when reading any of her two novels or thirty-two short stories (1).In many of her works, she paradoxically uses styles thatRead MoreFlannery O Connor s A Good Man1493 Words   |  6 PagesFlannery O’Connor’s background had a dramatic impact on her writing. Born in Savannah, Georgia, she utilized her familiarity with the region as a reference to implement a richly descriptive southern setting in her short stories. She was raised by devout Roman Catholics; her faith was deeply intertwined with the overall theme and character development in her writings. O’Connor portrays moments of grace for her main characters at a time of utter shock and devastation. In â₠¬Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find†Read MoreA Good Man By Flannery O Connor1369 Words   |  6 PagesFlannery O’Connor is one of the most controversial and well known modern day Southern Gothic authors in America. When she came into prominence in 1955 with her first collection of short stories titled A Good Man is Hard to Find, it was met with criticism for being overtly violent and grotesque. One reviewer from Time magazine said the short stories were â€Å"witheringly sarcastic† and â€Å"written in a style as balefully direct as a death sentence† (Simpson 44). The reviewer went even further on to callRead MoreA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor748 Words   |  3 PagesFlannery O’Connor’s Southern Gothic short story, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find,† is one of sudden violence; although, it begins rather uneventful (Kaplan 1). Bailey, his wife, and their children, John Wesley, June Star, and a baby boy, are all looking forw ard to a trip to Florida. Grandmother, Bailey’s mom, wants to go to east Tennessee to see her relatives, not Florida. She uses an article in the newspaper that tells of an escaped criminal, the Misfit, which is headed to Florida to try to persuadeRead MoreIrony and Foreshadowing in Flannery OConnors A Good Man is Hard to Find1604 Words   |  7 PagesAs I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with everyRead MoreWise Blood, by Flannery OConnor1510 Words   |  7 PagesWise Blood, by Flannery O’ Connor, is an fascinating yet disturbing novel. Wise Blood is a story of Hazel Motes, a twenty-two-year-old soldier who comes home from World War Two and gets trapped in a fight between faith and disbelief. He becomes captivated by a preacher named Asa Hawks and his bastard fifteen-year-old daughter, Lily Sabbath. In a way to prove how much of a pessimist Motes is, he founds The Church of God Without Christ, but is still frustrated that he is unable to lose his faith in

Compare the Evidence of a Nordic Presence in the Americas...

Compare the evidence of a Nordic presence in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus with the evidence of a West African presence during that period. It has been said by historians that the Nordics and the West Africans were in the Americas before Columbus arrived in 1492. Though evidence, such as oral sagas, tracing routes which it was said they took, artifacts, skeletal remains, among others, have been found to prove that they could have been present; there are still debates as to whether or not they actually came to the Americas before Columbus. Some believe that the evidence of the presence of the Nordics is more admissible than that of the West Africans. The Norse (also known as the Vikings) got their name from the language†¦show more content†¦Proof of the Malian expedition can be noted in the names given to places in Haiti as the Malians renamed places after themselves. Examples of such are Mandinga Port, Mandinga Bay and Sierre de Mali. It is said that the Af rican mariners that came to the western hemisphere were looking for trade and knowledge of what lied beyond their coasts. They brought with them flora and fauna, cloth, their scientific knowledge, technology and the arts. Modern experiments have shown that the ancient African boats could have made the journey across the seas to the new world as they were strong enough. Boat builders in Central Africa’s Lake chad made a papyrus craft that was sailed from North Africa to Barbados in eastern Caribbean in 1969, there were similar journeys that showed that even the small boats could with have survived these crossings. Some of the evidence that the West African’s were in fact present in the region before Columbus’ arrival are; the linguistic continuities in the region, an example of this is when it was recorded that the indigenous peoples referred to the Africans as ‘guanine’ which was the first piece of evidence that west Africans were in the region, it, however, was not seen as strong enough by many historians to hold up such a theory. There were no written evidence that they were there, it could be assumed that they could have been lost, or destroyed as it was seen that the Europeans were not always tolerant of these other cultures inShow MoreRelatedMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 Pagessuccesses/Robert F. Hartley. —11th ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-470-16981-0 (pbk.) 1. Marketing—United States—Case studies. I. Title. HF5415.1.H37 2009 658.800973—dc22 2008040282 ISBN-13 978-0-470-16981-0 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PREFACE Welcome to the 30th anniversary of Marketing Mistakes and Successes with this 11th edition. Who would have thought that interest in mistakes would be so enduring? Many of you are past

Abortion in Canada Should Remain Legal Free Essays

â€Å"Abortion is not a crime in Canada but it is an area of the law† (Duhaime, 2010) that isn’t black and white. It has been completely legal since 1988 and our government should keep it that way. For as much as some people are anti-abortion or ‘pro-life’ they need to understand that women have abortions for a variety of reasons one being that an abortion can actually benefit the unborn child. We will write a custom essay sample on Abortion in Canada Should Remain Legal or any similar topic only for you Order Now Those who are anti-choice also claim that abortion is wrong because it violates the rights of the fetus, but what about the rights of the woman? It is a woman’s right to decide what she does with her body and though it is much debated; a fetus by logical argument is not a person and does not hold any rights. Finally, even if abortion was made illegal as it was many decades ago, desperate measure to abort unwanted children would be taken by many expecting women, with dire consequences. It is from these four statements that one can say that abortion should continue to be legal in Canada. â€Å"It is not always in the best interest of the child to be born† (Jacob, 2006). A great example comes from the book Abortion under Attack. It features a story from a girl whose father never wanted her. She â€Å"suffered emotional abuse of hearing on a regular basis that she was unwanted and unwelcomed. † (Jacob, 2006) A lot of children are sadly born into this type of unloving environment when a mother is too poor to afford an abortion and doesn’t have the support to take care of the child or when they are born into a strained relationship. When a child is born to parents who don’t want them, would it not have been in their best interest to have been aborted? Rather than be subject to emotional or physical abuse or loveless lives in group homes, they could have never had to experience any of the pain; they never would have known. The fetus is not a conscious being, so when it is aborted it feels no pain; it is as if it never existed. In other cases, a child who born to a woman who heavily used drugs throughout her pregnancy won’t have a fair chance at life. Why put an infant or child through that type of stress and withdrawal. A potential mother who is a heavy drug user should abort any baby that would have been consummated during the times she was using because that will cause unnecessary harm to the unborn child therefore it is not in the best interest of the child to be born. Another instance would be when a couple wants to have a baby but a healthy relationship isn’t in place. By healthy relationship we’re talking about one that isn’t full of anger and violence. If you bring a child into an unhealthy environment, full of negative energy it has a great impact on their development. An example of how negativity can affect the development process is seen in Dr. Emoto’s book Messages in Water. In his book he does an experimental study of whether negative words like â€Å"you fool† have a different effect on water formations than positive words such as â€Å"love† or â€Å"appreciation† (Emoto, 2008). He found that negative phrases and words create large clusters or will not form clusters, and positive, beautiful words and phrases create small, tight clusters. In basic terms negative words and positive words have different effects on the structure of ones make up. So bringing a child into a negative environment isn’t fair to them in two ways, the first being that they weren’t asked to be brought into the situation and the second being that they are going to be emotionally abused or traumatized from the constant violence. From this one could conclude that it would have been in the child’s best interest if they were never born and brought into the situation. â€Å"Only persons have a right to life, human organisms are not persons before birth therefore human organisms do not have a right to life before birth. (Jagger, 2009) A fetus is completely dependent on a mother to survive, if removed from the womb it would die. A human can independently survive when put on its own. So one can conclude that because a fetus is not viable without being attached to something else, it is human-like but not human; if anything it more closely resembles a parasite clinging to a host for life. At birth the fetus becomes human because it can no w independently breathe, move, eat etc. Now a pro-life believer could now say, ‘Would a person who is living off a kidney dialysis machine, and cannot live independently not be a person’? To answer that is the key to why a fetus is not a person. As soon as one can live independently they can be considered to be a person, if after that they become dependent they still remain persons because they have already functioned independently and crossed the line from human organism to human. Almost all of abortions are done in the first two trimesters of pregnancy, and during this time a fetus is not independently viable. The amount of abortions done in the third trimester, or after â€Å"quickening† is such a low percentage it does not make sense to make a law against it because it is so unheard of. The general understanding with an abortion is that you shouldn’t do it after you’ve felt the baby move, or once it is viable. This is a understanding that lies in the morals of humans, there is no need for a law against it because people will 9 out of 10 times make the morally correct decision. In the odd case where a third trimester abortion does occur, it is only done after evaluating all possible options and weighing all the consequences, we need to keep abortion legal so people can make the choice for themselves. Women have been fighting for their rights for decades, and taking ownership of their bodies was part of that. In 1988 Dr. Henry Montagentaler opened up several illegal (at the time) abortion clinics and challenged section 287 of the criminal code which condemned abortion. The Supreme Court ruled that section 287 offended the charter and was no longer in effect. His fight made abortion legal for all Canadian women. (Arthur, 1999) He gave women a choice, the choice to continue the pregnancy and keep the child, continue the pregnancy and give the child away or legally abort the pregnancy. The court case of Daigle v. Tremblay displays this choice in action. In Quebec 1989 Chantal Daigle became pregnant and wanted to abort the baby as she did not feel ready or capable of being a parent but her boyfriend Mr. Tremblay tried to get a court ordered injunction to prevent her from doing just that. His plea was dismissed in the Supreme Court and it became known to all that the father has no legal rights in a mother’s abortion decision, and a fetus is not a person under Quebec law it holds no rights. From this case we can see that a woman’s rights override the rights of a fetus, if it is considered to have any. Women can’t be condemned for abortion because they aren’t doing anything wrong other than fighting for their rights as they’ve done for so many years. People should â€Å"not judge the choices others make,† (Piehl, 2007) as many â€Å"people say that women who have abortions do so for selfish reasons† (Piehl, 2007) but usually they’re wrong as It’s out of love. Many who â€Å"endure the pain of abortion do so to provide the quality of arenting they want for their children that they already have, to ensure financial security or to complete education. (Piehl, 2007) When viewed from this perspective we can see that when a woman gets an abortion she is doing so because she wants the best for her child. Why bring a child into a world where you cannot properly provide for them? From this we can see why abortion can be a good thing and why it should remain legal. â€Å"Between 1926 and 1947, 4000 to 6000 Canadian women died as a result of bungled illegal abortions. (Arthur, 1999) This was due to the lack of resources used by the people conducting the procedure. This in its self, shows us that women are going to dominate their bodies whether it is legal or not, so the best thing to do would be to keep it legal so a safer and cleaner procedure can be offered. â€Å"Childbirth itself is also unusually painful†¦it is hazardous to women’s health and indeed their lives. † (Tooley, 2009) To make a women go through the exquisite pain of childbirth when she may not be ready to mother a child is quite cruel. There are many different procedures for abortion, but all have to be done with care or the life of the mother is put at risk. We need to keep abortions legal so that doctors can be adequately trained in the different procedures and fewer Canadian women will die as a result. A wise man once said â€Å"The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation† in reference to abortion. (Arthur, 1999) Though abortion was illegal up until quite recently we should keep it that way. To take away someone’s choice about their bodies is an infringement on human rights, and the fetus has no rights as it is not a person. We also have to understand that with such a big issue, even if it was made illegal people would continue to do it, so we may as well have them doing it in a safe manner. Abortion is quite a controversial issue in Canada, and all over the world but it should remain legal in Canada because we all need to have a choice, whether it is believed to be moral or immoral is irrelevant; we, as human beings need to have the option to make a choice and live with the decision. How to cite Abortion in Canada Should Remain Legal, Papers

The Butter Battle Book and the Cold War free essay sample

The Butter Battle Book The Butter Battle Book is a picture book written by Dr. Suess. This book was published in 1984, and it was written as an allegory to the Cold War. It is an anti-war story about the arms race, MAD, and nuclear weapons. This book was written in the Cold War era about the concerns of the time, and how all of life could be destroyed by nuclear war. The Cold War was the time after WWII that involved strong tensions between the Western Bloc and the United States. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union attempted to spread Communism, while the United States policy was to contain this spread (Containment). To increase tensions further, another fear was nuclear war. Countries feared that nuclear war would destroy their countries and possibly even the world. This book is about two different races that live on opposite sides of a brick wall. We will write a custom essay sample on The Butter Battle Book and the Cold War or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Yooks and the Zooks are fighting about what side they eat their bread on. The Yooks ate their bread with the butter side up, and the Zooks ate their bread with the butter side down. But one day a Zook by the name of Van Itch slung his sling shot at a Yooks Snickle-Berry-Switch. So the Yook that was on patrol went back to Cheif Yookeroo to get a improved weapon and a fancier suit to go with it. The next day he went back to the wall and Van Itch was there too. He had a better weapon and a better suit too. So Grandpa Yook went crying back to the Chief and again he got improved. The story keeps going in the same order until they come back to the wall with the same weapons and the same suit on Dr. Seuss incorporated many connections to the Cold War. The first connection was Grandpa and Van Itch. Grandpa is meant to represent the United States. Grandpa is a general, and since its a picture book, he stands in for the army. Grandpas strategy was also to use Containment, like the United States during this time. He never did anything but threaten to use the weapons, he stated: â€Å"In those days, of course, the Wall wasnt so high and I could look any Zook square in the eye. If he dared to come close I could give him a twitch. † Grandpa wasnt willing to go into Zook territory, he just wanted to set up a large base to keep them contained. This policy by Grandpa relates to the policy of the United States because his strategy intended to hold the Soviet Union to a certain geographical location. Van Itch on the other hand, is Grandpas enemy, he represents the Soviet Unions military and command, and he also has a fancy hat. Next there was chief Yookeroo. Yookeroo represents the president of the United States, presidents like Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, but more directly related to Reagan. Chief Yookeroo tended to simply watch the race from afar, what most presidents did. Using Chief Yookeroo, Dr. Seuss points to a particular danger when the leader isnt in the trenches. Chief Yookeroo also tends to benefit from the international tensions and pushes the nation into an opposing relationship. This shows us Seuss opinions, about the president at this time. The presidents it seems continuously create larger and larger weapons to defeat their enemies. Time and time again the Zooks and the Yooks bring weapons to the wall to â€Å"battle† each other, yet they never attack each other. Eventually the Zooks bring larger and better weapons several times in a row, making Grandpa Yook upset and discouraged. It is assumed that the Zooks gained better weapons because of spies, while it is never clear who the spy is, we can infer that there was a spy because on several occasions they show up with the same weapons. Spies were an important part of the Cold War, many people were accused of being spies for their beliefs and many people were supposedly. spies defecting to the Soviet Union, and the United States. The Utterly Sputters weapon, would sprinkle the Zooks as it flew over. It is inferred that Dr. Seuss was referring to the chemical or poison weapons that were created in the Cold War, like Agent Orange, which was used in the Vietnam War. Eventually they both create the Big-Boy Boomeroo. Which was a representation of the nuclear bomb. Both were destructive and both sides threatened to use them without actually doing so. People were also scared and being â€Å"herded† and told to go into bomb shelters. This boomeroo was so dangerous that the Chief holds the bomb with and extendable stick, while the Back Room Boys, the scientists who created it, peer around the door of their room to see it, showing how even they were frightened of it. In the book, there was also a wall that separated the Zooks and the Yooks. The wall starts off being tiny, something that Grandpa Yook can see over. However, by the end of the story, it towers above the young Yook and his grandpa. The wall can be interpreted in several ways. The first way separating the Yooks and the Zooks from a friendly relationship. But its mostly a symbol for the Berlin wall. The wall was built when the East Germans allied with the Soviet Union. The purpose of the wall was to keep out the fascists they believed were still in West Germany. The wall was finally torn down in 1990, marking peace and the end of the Cold War. The wall separated the East and West Germans like it separated the Zooks and the Yooks. Dr. Seuss clearly meant for this book to be an allegory for the Cold War. He managed to place some of his own opinions in this book. He managed to demonstrate the Cold War in simple and relative terms. Through interpretation, we manage to find all the clues Seuss leaves and his many allegories to the Cold War. The Cold War was a tense time filled with almost pointless hate, and needless envy. Seuss does a great job describing the Cold War in simple terms.