Religious Theme in Flannery O'Connor's - Essay Example

? Religion and in particular, Christianity was very important personally to Flannery O'Connor [Kirk 6]. The following will examine the theme of religion in 'A Good Man is Hard to Find'. It will be argued that religion is particularly signficant in both the dialogue between the Grandmother and the Misfit, but further, these two represent the 'common person' or humanity itself from a religious vantage point. The focus of this analysis, will be toward looking at how there is a tension or contradiction between the opposites of 'faith versus reason', 'good versus evil' and finally, the duality of 'nature' and the 'spirit', in both the Misfit and the Grandmother. What O'Connor is conveying through this story in regard to religion, is that we have to accept the good with the bad in God's universe, and further, that all of us embody the qualities of both 'good' and 'evil'. Finally, it will be argued that the difference between the Misfit and the Grandmother, is that she believes in miracles and he doesn't. O'Connor's view of faith, is that one has faith as a Christian in the action of Jesus when and where he performed miracles as miracles are a defiance or inversion of the natural order. Thus, what separates the Grandmother and the Misfit, is simply that she believes that there is order beyond nature, and he believes that the only order that there is, is the order of nature. There is an openness and honesty about the Misfit that is a contrast to the character of the Grandmother. This is announced at the very outset. When the grandmother accuses him of being the individual who was in the newspaper, he is, in turn, very straight forward about the fate of the grandmother and also the family: “it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn't of reckernized me.” [O'Connor 14]. His honesty and openness continues as the story unfolds, and what he exchanges with the grandmother can best be described as a form of a confession. He tells the grandmother that he is naturally bad, and that it had nothing to do with his upbringing. He tells her how he was involved with the Church growing up and also how his parents, and even his siblings were decent people – that is to say, according to the Misfit his father was decent insofar as he never got caught for anything that he did wrong. As the conversation develops, the grandmother makes a number of exhortations to “Jesus” and “prayer”. And, the Misfit's comment on Jesus was that he ought not to have performed any miracles. Specifically, he points out that Jesus ought not have raised anyone from the dead. For the misfit, it is the very miracles of Jesus that represent a cause and source for the type of faith that the grandmother is exhibiting. She has no answer for the Misfit other than prayer and accepting Jesus as his savior. He, by contrast, is very aware that if Jesus hadn't performed any miracles there would be no accompanying 'faith' by Christians like the Grandmother: Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead," The Misfit continued, "and He shouldn't have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can--by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness," [O'Connor 22] This is a telling passage for a number of reasons pertinent to the theme of religion. As mentioned, he is asserting that if it were not for the belief in miracles, there likely would be no Christian piety or morality guiding the behavior of some. He maintains in this passage, that without a divine sense, one's senses are bound and connected to the body. That is, there is a duality articulated between the pleasures of the flesh which is something that he both believes is natural, and also a part of who he is. And, that which the body is contrasted with. A miracle by definition is something that defies nature. It is definitively something that is beyond nature. His honesty and openness is apparent when his self-awareness leads him to claim that he is naturally bad or that he naturally seeks the pleasures of the flesh which for him include the “meanness” of making others suffer. The notion that he is naturally this way is punctuated when he tells her that even his father viewed him as an abomination of some kind or a freak of nature: “My daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters.” [O'Connor 17]. The Misfit's self awareness, openness and honesty is something that is actually admirable. It is important to stress that O'Connor is trying to raise some empathy for this figure, and while it is hard to accept what he is doing morally, there is nevertheless a pretty 'earthly logic' to killing the family given that they witnessed or recognized him. Likewise with the grandmother who is also one of the key figures in the story. While she is a study in contrasts with the Misfit, and believes in miracles, she is not a singularly admirable figure. Like the Misfit, O'Connor paints a fairly conflicting picture of her. Her blatant dishonesty is something that is juxtaposed against the Misfit's honesty, and this moral failing is one of the ways in which the author paints a conflicted picture of her moral character. The car accident was more or less caused by her on two fronts, and there is an important tie between the accident and her dishonest character. First, it is the dog that she concealed in her belongings who got loose. She had been hiding the dog because it would not have been allowed otherwise. And, the second sense in which she caused the accident, was the trip diversion. She took the family long out of the way from their chosen route that had been planned for its time efficiency, and when she finally realized that she had made a mistake, didn't even admit it. While it can not be said with any definite certainty, an argument can be made which maintains that she is being dishonest to the Misfit when she tell him that she knows “he must come from nice people” [O'Connor 15]. She might have been using flattery as a way of trying to reach the Misfit, or she could have really sensed or intuited that there was something basically decent about him. On the one hand, she already had some foreknowledge about him having read the newspaper and the account of the escape. It is a contentious point to say that she is basically lying to him, and while she do If honesty can be said to be a basic Christian virtue, the character of the grandmother can unquestionably be categorized as a sinner at least as much as a saint. She definitely lies by withholding the truth about the travel diversion, and she conceals her dog from the rest of the family, and it is her dog who is the basic cause of the father driving off the road. There is a further deficit of the grandmother, and that concerns her being sacrificed because of her knowing. She is symbolic of a deeper knowledge in that an association is made with her and a poisonous snake. At the end of the story, and at a point past where the escaped convicts have murdered everyone in the family other than the Grandmother, one last final plea for herself is made in gesture toward the Misfit. And, in this gesture, she calmly puts her hand on his shoulder prompting a him to: “sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest” [O'Connor 22]. Anyone who watch's a little television knows that you shouldn't physically touch someone who has been in prison. Indeed, especially after hearing about the confinement by the Misfit in such detail. The misfit describes in very precise and in a sense, nearly obsessive methodical detail, the physical dimensions of the cell that he was imprisoned in. The grandmother has an essentially 'contradictory' relationship to 'knowing'. When you consider that she is a symbol of knowledge in the sense that there is a 'snake' associated with her which represents the biblical story of Adam and Eve and their temptation in the garden, and also, the fact that she is sacrificed because she knows who the Misfit is, there is a way in which this positive sense of knowing is coupled with her lack of knowing. She does not know enough to avoid touching someone who has been in confinement, and whose very life would have depended on his not running or just bumping into someone in prison, and she did not have any answer for the Misfit other than “prayer”. The word 'pray' gets mentioned ten times in this relatively short story, and it is really the first thing that she raises as a solution for the Misfit, and basically the last thing she raises too. It is being argued that O'Connor is creating this conflicting or contradictory nature of the Grandmother's actions so that she is not the sole focus. A further contradiction might be ascertained from the notion of prayer in 'A Good Man is Hard to Find'. As mentioned previously, her continual solution to the entire situation and one that prompts an extended soliloquy or confession from the Misfit, is prayer. There are at least two ways to look at prayer, and how that functions in terms of what is being said about the theme of religion in the story in question. In terms of the polarity being raised at this juncture, prayer is the only solution that the Grandmother can think or the only thing that she can think of to say. Her solution in this vein, rolls off her tongue as easily or readily as her positive identification of the Misfit at the outset. There is a 'rightness' in the way that she asserts this as the answer, and the reader is drawn to the fact that she was able to 'foresee' or foreshadow the coming of the Misfit. Moreover, she recognized him which counts as another point in favor of the idea that she is representative of knowing. Further, she is sacrificed for knowing and therefore joins the long line of characters in religious and secular literature who follow the basic narrative of the Prometheus myth – certain knowledge or knowing individuals can be martyrs under the wrong circumstances, and the whole family is no exception. If there are some positive ways of interpreting her knowing, then, an argument can also be made that there is a positive associated with prayer. There is solid evidence for an argument that maintains that prayer really is the last answer. It is might be argued that the Grandmother views prayer as the last and perhaps only practical solution to the problem. There is no question that John Wesley, who is an eight year old boy in the story, is also a symbol for the same historical figure who is credited with founding the Methodist denomination within Protestantism. Flannery O'Connor is from Savannah Georgia [Kirk 3], and one of the many things that this very historical town is known for, is that it is the site of the very first ministry that John Wesley had in North America (1735). Wesley was an Anglican pastor or minister, and among the many things that he was known for as a historical figure, the establishment of Methodism, the advocacy for the abolition of slavery and his residency in Savannah at the request of the Governor of Georgia stand out as the most significant in relation to this story. While he traveled extensively through the colonies, the connection that binds both O'Connor and John Wesley is Savannah. Although the historical John Wesley (1703-1791) is a highly probable allusion in O'Connor [Wood 38-9], the influence of his thought or even the biographical details on O'Connor is something which should be mentioned, but also mentioned as something that might be a relationship defined in more terms than are raised in the present analysis, and moreover, for O'Connor, some account would also have to be provided for the fact that this is the name of another character – also a young boy, in a story from the same collection titled: “A LATE ENCOUNTER WITH THE ENEMY” . However much the John Wesley theme or reference is one that is larger than the scope of this analysis, some light can be shed or raised with regard to what is known in general about Wesley. Prayer within Wesley functions in a way worth mentioning in relation to the topic of religion in O'Connor. Wesley preached both 'pietism' and 'quietism' [Kent 34]. That is, a spiritual connection that is beyond talking or dialogue.Within Methodism, one of the things that John Wesley remains remembered by, is his 'Covenant Prayer', and a particular passage in that is worth quoting as it bears some resemblance to what is being said about the Misfit and the Grandmother: Christ has many services to be done; some are easy, others more difficult; some bring honor, others bring reproach; some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both ... we can do all things in him... [Whaling, Ed., 386] The nature of 'good' and 'evil' are important religious motifs, and it is hard to think of a major religion that does not provide some basic definitions of good and evil. . John Wesley is being raised as a figure who was persecuted for his views, and because he maintained that we ought to accept both the good and the bad that is inherent in God's plan Religion is juxtaposed in the characters of the grandmother and the Misfit. It has been argued that both figures are symbolic representations of religion, but also highly contradictory. If god's plan for the universe contains both good and evil, then, as particulars in the universe, these two individuals embody both contradictory qualities or attributes. It has been argued that while the grandmother is a figure of piety, she is also deceitful and self-centered. Conversely, it was demonstrated that although the figure of the Misfit is evil and a psychopath, there are likable or virtuous attributes about him as well. In contrast to the Grandmother, he is actually honest about who he is and what his intentions are. Further, his self awareness is one that goes to the very heart of religious faith or conviction. He understands that without miracles, there would be no faith – that is, that faith itself is co-extensive with miracles. While it is reason that ascertains what nature is about, and it is basic reasoning that forces the Misfit's hand in terms of killing the entire family, it is faith by contrast to reason that reaches toward that which is beyond nature. Miracles by definition, defy the natural order of things and if there is anything that sets religion apart from a natural view of the universe or a scientific/rational one, it is the faith that miracles are possible. In the story in question, no-one gets raised from the dead or no-one is saved. The last word of the story is given to the Misfit, so to speak. Works Cited: Kent, John. 2005. Wesley and Wesleyans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kirk, Connie Ann. 2008. A Critical Companion to Flannery O'Connor. New York: Infobase Publishing. O'Connor, Flannery. 1983. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories. New York: Harcourt Books. Whaling, Frank (Ed.). John and Charles Wesley: Selected Prayers, Hymns, Journals, Notes and Sermons. Mahweh N.J.: The Paulist Press. Wood, Ralph C. 2004. Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South. Cambridge: Eerdmans Publishing. Read More