Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O’ Connor’s method of writing is extraordinary with the right amount of religion. She writes in a way in which the reader can easily comprehend. Nonetheless, let us first discuss her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” in this particular piece of writing O’ Connor gives us a sense of irony and suspense throughout the reading. One can easily recall when the family was passing by the beautiful scenery of Georgia and the grandma had made a racist remark of a Negro child standing in front of a door. “Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do. If I could paint, I’d paint that picture,” she said. It is completely ironic for the fact that, she claims herself to be a “good Christian” yet she is quite discriminatory, selfish and unkind. The suspense O’Connor creates is mesmerizing, while reading her text she lets us wonder as to what happened to the other family members and the fate of the grandma. At last, it was horrific in the end, when “The Misfit” kills the grandma and depicts no remorse at all. One could also, hypothetically say that, it was truly a horror story.
In “Good County People” as well, there exists irony as all O’ Connor’s short stories contains. Joy thought herself to be “wise” for she is pursuing a Ph.D.in Philosophy. Her own theory being that, “she believes in nothing but her own belief in nothing.” However, she is fooled by a Bible salesman whom which steals her wooden leg leaving her in deep sorrow. In a sense, the wooden leg is part of Joy’s personality and with the loss of it, she feels empty. “If you want to say that the wooden leg is a symbol, you can say that. But it is a wooden leg first, and as a wooden leg it is absolutely necessary to the story. It has its place on the literal level of the story but it operates in depth as well as on the surface. It increases the story in every direction, and this is essentially the way a story escapes being short.” (1650) Irony plays a major role in this story one of them
In “Good County People” as well, there exists irony as all O’ Connor’s short stories contains. Joy thought herself to be “wise” for she is pursuing a Ph.D.in Philosophy. Her own theory being that, “she believes in nothing but her own belief in nothing.” However, she is fooled by a Bible salesman whom which steals her wooden leg leaving her in deep sorrow. In a sense, the wooden leg is part of Joy’s personality and with the loss of it, she feels empty. “If you want to say that the wooden leg is a symbol, you can say that. But it is a wooden leg first, and as a wooden leg it is absolutely necessary to the story. It has its place on the literal level of the story but it operates in depth as well as on the surface. It increases the story in every direction, and this is essentially the way a story escapes being short.” (1650) Irony plays a major role in this story one of them
Cited: O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011. 1043. Print. O’ Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People.” The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011. Print. O’Connor, Flannery. “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011. 1020. Print. O’Connor, Flannery. “CASEBOOK FIVE.” The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011. 1020. 1650-1653.Print.