Religion In Flannery O Connor's Short Stories

Flannery O’Connor has used religion extensively in her work. She is described as a devout Catholic in her biography at Georgia College & State University website . In American Public Media, Speaking of Faith Podcast Paul Ellie a catholic author talks about Flannery O’Connor and other prominent catholic fiction writers . The others are Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Walker Percy. He says among them only O’connor was born Catholic. Although they never met they used to correspond with each other.
“Flannery O'Connor had a breakthrough as a young writer of fiction when she realized the stories of the Old Testament threw a special light on the rural South where she was living.” Ellie says
In O’Connor’s The Complete stories Robert Giruox,her
publisher describes how O’Connor stayed in correspondence with a monk Thomas Merton. The fact that O’Connor found it important to have a Catholic monk as one of her literary contacts shows that to her catholicism was not only the life she was born into but something she valued.

Flannery O’Connor has used religious imagery in most of her stories.
Among these are A Good Man Is Hard To Find, The River, and Parker’s Back . References to religion are made through various ways, from vivid narration of religious activities , naming of her characters , constance mentioning of God and even other not so openly religious such as the use of colors attached to various meanings in the Church. According to catholic.org violet is for penance and melancholy ,it is described as a violent color . There is a fair measure of violence in O’Connor’s stories. In a Good Man Is Hard To Find the grandmother is wearing a shirt with purple spray of violets. Later in the story there a lot of violence resulting in the death of the whole
family.
The River is the story about a young boy of five who wants to feel the peace of the Kingdom of God. This story is entirely based on religion . Bevel the protagonist gets a revolving door of babysitters , until one day a very woman Mrs. Conning is contracted to do the work. During the day she takes the boy to the river where a revival meeting is going on. Although the boys real name is Harry he calls himself Bevel like the Minister at the river. The Narrator -O’Connor also adopts this name to refer to the child. This is because in the catholic church during baptism a person is christened with a name , a name that God recognizes you by.
At the river the minister tells Bevel to count while he immerses him into the river, the river will carry away his pain to god. When Mrs. Conning realizes that Bevel does not know about God she shows him a bible with pictures one with Jesus driving pigs out of a person. Earlier he had been chase by a pig, then here he sees Jesus driving several pigs out of one person, this the person I want to meet he must have said.
The contrast between the religious and the non religious is shown in this story where Bevels parents parents take the bible as a collectors item instead of what it really is -the word of God.
We also learn that Bevel plans to leave the apartment forever and go to be with god in the river. “Where he lived everything was a joke” He eventually goes back to the river to “go deep” as he had planned and this results in his drowning . This brings him peace and happiness that his drunkard mother is not giving him. Parkers back is another story awash with religious matter.
The protagonist in this story is a disillusion ex-military man O.E Parker. His name is a matter of joy to his extremely religious girlfriend later wife. Obadiah Elihu Parker while driving his trying to fix his vehicle he hurts his finger and starts yelling “ Jesus Christ Goddamn it, Jesus Christ God” this infuriates Sarah Parker who lives by, she is so angry that she starts beating up this stranger, something that puzzles Parker that he starts apologizing and offering excuses for his language. In the story it is emphasized how Parker does not acknowledge God. Sarah Ruth whose name is from two prominent women in the bible is very fanatic about her religion. She describes much that has to do with appearance as idolatry. When they finally get married Sarah refuses to have a wedding in the church since its also idolatrous . Parker on the other side after getting a tattoo everywhere save for his back is planning on getting one that will stun his religious wife , one that she’ll like . At last he settles on one that he thinks is God. Sarah or O’Connor through Sarah says ‘God don’t look, he is felt’.It still in this story that O’connor shows that even the very religious are not necessarily correct , Sarah misquotes the bible where it says that the word become god by adding her own
lines.
In a Good Man Is Hard to Find we meet an evil grandmother who thinks of herself as very straight laced. This story has a boy called John Wesley like the famous church founder, however his behavior is not very church friendly . When the misfits confronts the family , the Grandmother ask him severally to pray. She bombards him with questions about Jesus . She ask if he really raised the dead. She end up dead just like everyone else. This O’Connor cautioning those that hide behind religion in times of need.
Flannery O’Connor has a lot of religious material in her stories but there is not one that you will find preachy , she is just expressing life as she sees it since as we are told she grew up in the very religious South.

Works Cited
Ellie, Paul. Interview with Krista Tippet . Speaking Of Faith. America Public Media 14 Sep. 2007
Giroux, George , Flannery O’Connor The Complete Stories. Forward. pp xii O’Connor , Flannery The Complete Stories Pages 234-245, 510- 518.