O’Connor in Context(Explanation of Literary Devices)

“The Author is Dead!”: The Formalist Perspective

• Formalists emphasize the form of a literary work to determine its meaning, focusing on literary elements such as plot, character, setting, diction, imagery, structure, and point of view.

• Literary works are independent systems with independent parts.• Formalist subordinate biographical information or historical data

in their interpretations.

• The central meaning of a work is discovered through a detailed analysis of the work’s formal elements, rather than by going outside of the work to consider other issues, whether biographical historical, psychological, social, political, or ideological.

“The Use of Force” (1553-1555)By: William Carlos Williams• How does the story begin and end? How

does the language change?• Contrast between opening matter-of-fact

objective description and including shift of perspective and heightening of language.

• How are the character’s inter-related? Is their a conflict between any two characters? Explain.

“The Use of Force” (1553-1555)By: William Carlos Williams• From what perspective is this story told?

From what point of view? How might the story be different if the author had chosen a different point of view?

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)

• Born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925• Graduated from the Women’s College of

Georgia in 1945• She earned a reputation as a cartoonist for the

campus newspaper.

• She earned an M.F.A in writing from State University of Iowa in 1947

• She was struck with disseminated lupus at the age of 25.

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)

• Because of her illness, she was forced to move back to Milledgeville, Georgia

• She lived and published her fiction from Georgia until her death in 1964.

• She often employs humor, irony, and paradox within a system of Christian belief in evil and redemption.

• She is best known as a social satirist and a religious writer.

O’Connor Groups

• Read pages 169-172 in your Literature book.

• Summarize the main points of each subsection (Southern Gothic, The Catholic Dimension, and O’Connor’s Irony).

• Write three main points for each section in the form of bullet points.

Southern Gothic

• The South is the “material” (setting & characters) for her works

• She writes within the Southern Gothic Tradition.• Engaging, violent, and frequently grotesque

characters who are treated with colloquial (involving or using language) humor.

• Truth was of the greatest importance.

The Catholic Dimension

• 2 Main Influences on her writing: • 1) The South 2) Catholicism

• Wrote concerning universal themes

• Meaning of Life centered upon redemption by Christ

• Not just a religious writer; her style of storytelling made her writing appealing to non-Christians

O’Connor’s Irony

• A comic protagonist indulges in fantasies of moral or social superiority or has a false sense of the certainty of things.

• An ironic and traumatic encounter with other characters forces the protagonist towards the realization that the universe is incomprehensible and terrifying.

• Though her life was brief and plagued by illness, O’Connor’s talents were acclaimed during her lifetime.

What is epiphany?

• A character’s sudden insight, which forms the climax of the story. (It is often labeled as a plot device)

PSAT Prep

• Before Karen Chin’s research, scientists assumed that the value of evidence preserved in the fossils called coprolites was too ______ to warrant the effort of _______.

A. Unpredictable… transformationB. Superlative… examinationC. Conventional… eradicationD. Relevant… synthesisE. Dubious… analysis

PSAT Prep

• Greta praised the novel for its _______, claiming it depicted reality so vividly that it seemed more like fact than fiction.

A. transcendenceB. romanticismC. impenetrabilityD. loquacityE. verisimilitude

“Good Country People” (pgs. 172-185)

• Who are the primary characters?

• What perspective and point-of-view are used?

• What is the conflict throughout the short story?

“Good Country People”Experience Questions

• What was your initial response to the story’s title? Did your impression of “good country people” change as you read it? Why or why not?

• How did you respond to Hulga’s loss of her artificial leg? Why?

“Good Country People”Interpretation Questions

• What is the relationship between Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell? To what extent are their names significant? What does the name change from Joy to Hulga suggest about Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter?

“Good Country People”Interpretation Questions

• What kinds of observations about life and people do Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell make? How do the two women see themselves in relation to other people?

• What does Hulga learn about herself and about other people through her encounter with the Bible salesman?

“Good Country People”Evaluation Questions

• Which, if any, of the characters does O’Connor seem to admire, and whom does she satirize?

• What religious values are evident in the story? What does O’Connor suggest about these values?

“Good Country People”Final Discussion Question

• What do you think of O’Connor’s satire of the characters in “Good Country People”? Is her satirical treatment of these characters justified? To what extent is a writer justified in using satire as an artistic weapon?

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”(pgs. 186-196)

• Who are the primary characters?

• What perspective and point-of-view are used?

• What is the conflict throughout the short story?

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”Experience Questions

• Did you enjoy the opening section of the story? hen did your perception of the kind of story you were reading change- if it did?

• How did you respond to the Misfit’s behavior? To his speech?

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”Interpretation Questions

• How does O’Connor characterize the grandmother? What do we learn about her from her conversation with the Misfit? What do we learn about him? What is his favorite saying, and what sense do you make of it?

• How do you explain the story’s title?

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”Evaluation Questions

• What religious qualities or elements emerge in this story? How, as the Misfit says, has Jesus “thrown everything off balance”?

• In what sense could the grandmother have been a good woman if, as the Misfit says, there was “somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”?

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”Final Discussion Question

• Why do you think this has been one of the most frequently anthologized and most often written about of O’Connor’s stories? Provide examples to support your opinion.

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” (pgs. 197-207)

• Who are the primary characters?

• What perspective and point-of-view are used?

• What is the conflict throughout the short story?

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” (Experience)

• What were your initial impressions of Julian and his mother? Did these impressions remain consistent or did they change?

• To what extent does you experience with racial prejudice parallel that depicted in the story? To what extent does it differ?

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” (Interpretation)

• What is the significance of the name Godhigh? How does Julian’s attitude toward his ancestors and toward the Godhigh family home reflect the central conflict of the story?

• What is the significance of Julian’s mother’s response to the black woman’s hat? What is the significance of Julian’s response to his mother’s behavior?

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” (Interpretation)

• What is the meaning of the story’s concluding action and dialogue?

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” (Evaluation)

• What principles and beliefs guide Julian? What principles or beliefs does his mother live by?

• Whose values, if anyone’s, does the story seem to endorse? What values are satirized?

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” (Final Discussion)

• Offer two different explanations for the meaning of the story’s title, “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” Why “everything”? Why “must”? In what sense might things be said to “converge”?