"Wildcat" is an early short story by the American author

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...

. It is one of the six stories included in O'Connor's 1947 master's thesis ''The Geranium: A Collection of Short Stories'' and was published posthumously in ''

The North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived a ...

'' in 1970. It later appeared in the 1971 collection '' The Complete Stories''. In this story, the main character "Old Gabriel," a blind, elderly African American man, is afraid of a wildcat, which he can supposedly smell. He remembers a story from his childhood of a wildcat killing someone he knew, and does not want to be left alone for fear that it will attack him. The story portrays Gabriel's struggles with his impending death. Stephen Stam calls it a "terse piece, one rich with authentic dialect that rings true to a time when the educational gap between rich and poor, black and white, created a linguistic gulf."

References

Short stories by Flannery O'Connor 1947 short stories Works originally published in the North American Review Southern Gothic short stories {{1940s-story-stub