In our time – An exquisite combination of literary technique and absurd realism

by dint of an nice combination of literary proficiency and absurd historicalism, Flannery OConnor reveals to the reviewer a grotesque buttocks of life story in the rural south of the linked States. By combining a certain flame up for dialogue, an intense and patriarchal understanding of homosexual nature, and the unending drill of irony, OConnor paints a vivid image of the do important of a function she witnessed around her while commenting on hostel and the grandeur of traditional values. OConnor transfers the vulnerability of one into many, and her mastery of shift control within the cast of characters, ensures the uncertainty of the emergence and in the process.This reminds us that none of the roles in our lives be stagnant and that by intentionally blinding ourselves to what we do not wish to see or recognize, holds external more than just a view. Through the unusual verisimilitude of her stories, she reveals to us that what we attempt to disregard inevitabl y emerges over again and again. One of the most distinguishing aspects of OConnors literature are the characters she portrays and develops. from each one represent philosophies and personalities, which are derived done the mid twentieth century southern lifestyle.Their response to diversity and disaster eventually leads to horrific sadness, tragedy and death, or the picture of bizarre and atrocious values. With the constant subprogram of spectral imagery, tragic predict and humorous irony, the stories A high-priced cosmos is inviolable to Find and Everything that Rises must encounter clearly adjoin and portray OConnors ideology of the dawdling division of society as a building block with the internal collapse of traditional values. Predominant themes much(prenominal) as pietism and racism provide a powerful statement on OConnors perspective of society.Through the effectiveness of these techniques, Flannery OConnor successfully analyzes the existential plight of f orgiving existence and its conflict with traditional and ghost give care conviction. In twain stories, the antagonist is always a mold of traditional values, whether it is of strong Christian belief or of racial bigotry, whereas the protagonist is seen to take the form of in advance(p) scientific beliefs. In the story A best Man is Hard to Find, the antagonist is the Grand fret she corpse nameless throughout the story. The Misfit is the protagonist.though it appears that the grannie is highly manipulative and deceitful during the course of the story, as she was trustworthy for the deaths of the entire family, one must consider and get word the treatment she receives from her relatives. In the majority of the story, she is either ignored by her son and daughter in law, or rudely criticized by her grandchildren. The grandchildren are representative of the crack-up of respect and filial dependence seen throughout society. However, OConnor managewise wanted to demonstrate the counterbalance to this concept In my time, state the nanna, folding her thin veined fingers, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then.Oh meet at that cute little pickaninny she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack (Pg. 119) The idea that the nanna refers to the Negro child as a pickaninny not exclusively demonstrates blatant and unintentional racism, it subverts the lines of the respect that the hypo minute grandmother was previously referring to. Similarly, in the story Everything that Rises , OConnor demonstrates the breakdown of respect and dependence and generational confliction. The antagonist is contend by Mrs. Chestny, who is similar to the grandmother in the sense datum that both mean well and both women consume strongly to their traditional beliefs. Julian Chestny, her son, takes the role of the protagonist, a smug and selfish young man who alike represents a simi lar collapse. They dont give a maledict for your graciousness, Julian said savagely. K forthwithing who you are is close for one generation merely.You assimilatent got the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are. (Pg. 407) The incident that Julian has the right to research his own mothers authority and her wisdom and knowledge is guide on evidence not only of his protagonistic, but of the wishing of respect he has for this woman who obviously has seen and know much more than he has. OConnor also exhibits the produce of racism in our society. Not only does she demonstrate it, but she executes the theme in such a way that it is obvious to the ratifier that she believes racial separationism impart be witnessed in and around our society for many generations to come.One example of this is the position that Julian does not experience that he himself is a racialist. being a hypocritical idealist, he dis matchs an acute sense of anti-racism, but formulated in such ex quisite irony, we find that he indeed is a racist due to his constant need to attempt to be anti-racist. Julian does not wish to accept the fact the descendant is unable to sever its bond with the ancestor. A generation pilenot function without an impact from generations past. This is similarly build in A Good Man is Hard to Find, and evidence can be found within the quote presented earlier.The grandmother is openly racist in front of the children, even though she does not realize that her comments were racist, on that pointby supporting her racism as a upstanding. It is due to previous generations that succeeding generations remain dead on target to and hold on to traditional beliefs and values. Ironically in the case that OConnor depicts, is the value of racism. OConnor shows to the reader that racism is an thoroughgoing being it is able to sustain itself and survive through generational passage of culture and tradition.However, this is where the importance of Christianity c omes into tenseness in OConnors stories. Being a devout Christian, she believed that the repair path to redemption and absolution was through religion. check to OConnor, the only way to redeem oneself was through grace. Though this is seen to a lesser expiration in both these stories as compared to several others, OConnor demonstrates several aspects of religious allusion and exemplary image. The breakdown of society is further emphasized with the use of religious symbol in Everything that Rises .She was almost countersink to go, standing before the hall mirror, putting on her hat, while he, his hands beside him, appeared pinned to the door frame, waiting like Saint Sebastian for the arrows to begin lancinate him. (Pg. 405) The allusion made in this quote is that of Saint Sebastian, a Roman sick person and an officer of the Praetorian Guard until Diocletian discovered his Christianity. His life lay in the hands of Roman archers, which is a lot the subject of many paintings. The arrows are frequently seen piercing his cover version, and in the case of Julian and his mother, represent the result placed upon Julian.The idea that Julian perceives his own mother as a burden is remarkable. Julian does not direct a job and lives with his mother at her home. Not only is he ruthless and critical of her thoughts and beliefs, he does not even consider that he might be the burden. Julians idealistic hypocrisy is countered and revealed in the conclusion of the story. The title itself is a foreshadowing bore of the story, as one can expect undeniable conflict and perhaps, concession and compromise. Julians hypocrisy is ironic, as he claims to know the real humanity better than anyone else.In the end, he is forced to understand the real world with the passing of his mother, uncover his weakness and vulnerability and the extent of dependence that he has on his mother. A soar up of darkness seemed to be sweeping her away from him. amaze he cried. Darling sw eetheart, wait Crumpling, she fell to the pavement. He dashed forward and fell to her side, crying, Mamma, Mamma (Pg. 420) This is the only point in the story in which Julian actually calls his mother a mother and a mamma, revealing a glimpse of his past childhood. On the said(prenominal) page OConnor writes,The tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing moment to moment his entry into the world of crime and sorrow. (Pg. 420) It is interesting that in the first quote, the tide sweeps Mrs. Chestny to Julian, and in the second it sweeps Julian to Mrs. Chestny. This further demonstrates Julians dependence on his mother. He has finally been able to enter the real world, the world he claims to understand and recognize. In A Good Man , OConnor uses certain forms of foreshadowing in the early passages of the story to warn the readers of future occurrences, and of certain religious aspects.They passed a large cotton field with v or six graves fenced in the halfway of it, like a small island. (Pg. 119) The presence of fin or six graves stimulates a conclusion of realization for the reader, as the family consists of six people, giving an supernatural sense or prescience of events yet to take place. This gives the reader the impression that the conclusion to the story will be shrouded with death and despair.Though this example of foreshadowing does not directly relate to OConnors theme of religion in her stories, it does in a sense foreshadow a further foreshadowing. .. In case of an accident, anyone eyesight her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. (Pg. 118) This quote is interesting, since it is because of her, that the family strays off their master key path leading to Florida to one that heads for Georgia. It is also interestingly ironic as they do in fact have an accident, and the person who finds her does not see her as a lady. OConnor uses the symbol of the path/road to come upon the paths we take in life, or in this case, the victorian path of religion.If the Grandmother had been the lady she claimed herself to be and if she remained current to the righteous path of Christianity (that of truth, virtue, honest, etc. ), the family would not have strayed off path, and the proper path would not have led them to death. With the encounter with the Misfit, we find him to exemplify the coetaneous world, exposing his protagonistic qualities. I wasnt in that respect so I cant arrange He didnt, the Misfit said. I wisht I had of been there, he said, contact the ground with his fist. It aint right I wasnt there because if I had of been there I would of known if I had of been there I would of known and I wouldnt be like I am now (Pg. 132)We find the Misfit not only questioning the existence of a coercive Being, but also addressing a common plight of the human consciousness. Though we are aware and evocative of our own existence, we remain primitive animals with violent and primal qualities an d nature. The clash amidst our primal and animalistic instincts is in constant confliction with our metaphysical human nature.The development that develops between the Misfit and the Grandmother is amazing. We find belief to be anything beyond what we can see, hear, touch, smell, etc. Accordingly, any form of eldritch or anti-spiritual ideology is a leap of faith. OConnor shows the reader that what the Misfit realizes, and what the Grandmother eventually realizes is the fact that sacred belief and religious belief can no long-dated compete with the scientific and methodical views and the immorality of the new(a) world.OConnor personifies the contemporary views dominating the modern world with her use of the Misfit. As society evolves, it begins to ignore traditional values, and tally to OConnor, acts as a catalyst for the eventual match breakdown of society. In our time, there are misfits and there are disoriented souls, many of whom unexpectedly play the roles in OConnors s tories as prophets, searching for faith and absolution, the messengers of lost conscientiousness.These prophets are used as tools to not only expose the truths and cruelties of the modern world, but also ushers the readers into a psyche of dark and desperate thoughts and feelings which engulf the human soul, imbuing them with a state of utter helplessness in view of the imminent doom in which the reader can foresee during the story. This exposed darkness, which is a braggy figure in the human condition, takes the concept of the human condition itself to a particularly unnatural train and undesired truth of human understanding.From a grandmother who indirectly destroys her own family through her acts of attempted dandy will, to a non-existent and unresolved mother son alliance united and divided under the influence and public of racism and the tragedy that concludes the story, Flannery OConnor makes a statement on the affiliation between the justification of religious and tradi tional values, and the corruption and destruction of society, ranging from the 40s / 50s era of black loss to an almost ludicrous extent of religious fanaticism.OConnors main statement was that creation as a whole has strayed off its path, just as the Grandmother and her family did in A Good Man . This story can arguably be labeled as a form of foreshadowing itself, as it shows what would happen if humanity cover ups on its irregular path. Just as the Grandmother and her family met brutal and untimely death as a result, OConnor is showing us that we too, will experience this, should we continue life this way. Her numerous statements on the dark realities of our world are reminders of what we have to overcome.She demonstrates the constant clash between the modern and the traditional. We must understand that we contain and check over our fate. It seems plain that OConnor feels that the eventual outcome will be the death of society. In the stories A Good Man is Hard to Find and Eve rything that Rises must Converge, Flannery OConnor uses her second-sighted characters in combination with Christian imagery, apocalyptic foreshadowing, and the ubiquitous evils permeating society to this particular level, and leaves the reader determination the book with a feeling of complete despondency for the future of mankind.