|
You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead
''The Complete Stories'' is a collection of short stories by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1971 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It comprises all the stories in ''A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find'' and ''Everything That Rises Must Converge'' plus several previously unavailable stories. ''Complete Stories'' won the 1972 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction."National Book Awards – 1972" National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-30. (With essays by Alice Elliott Dark and others (five) from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) Internet visitors named it the "Best of the National Book Awards" Alice Elliott Dark, et al [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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. O'Connor was a Southern writer who often wrote in a sardonic Southern Gothic style. She relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters, often in violent situations. In her writing, an unsentimental acceptance or rejection of the limitations, imperfections or differences of these characters (whether attributed to disability, race, crime, religion or sanity) typically underpins the drama. O'Connor's writing often reflects her Catholic faith, and frequently examines questions of morality and ethics. Her posthumously compiled ''Complete Stories'' won the 1972 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and has been the subject of enduring praise. Early life and education Childhood O'Connor was born on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of Edward F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Late Encounter With The Enemy
"A Late Encounter with the Enemy" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in the September 1953 issue of ''Harper’s Bazaar'' and republished in her short story collection ''A Good Man Is Hard to Find'' (1955). It is O'Connor's only story dealing with the American Civil War, and discusses the postbellum South's efforts to reclaim and whitewash its Confederate heritage in the 20th century. Its ending also reflects O'Connor's Roman Catholicism. Plot summary General George Poker Sash is a 104-year-old veteran of the American Civil War. Afflicted by dementia, he remembers very little about the War or his family—at one point, he thinks to himself that the name "Lee" (that is, Robert E. Lee) must refer to a battle instead of a man. Even so, he is frequently invited to public celebrations of the Confederacy, which Southern dignitaries have repurposed into a socially acceptable symbol of white power. He has grown to like his role as a living memorial to the Confeder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Everything That Rises Must Converge (short Story)
"Everything That Rises Must Converge" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was originally published in 1961 and republished in 1965 as the namesake story of O'Connor's second and final short story collection. The story won O'Connor her second O. Henry Award in 1963 for the year’s best American short story. In the story, an arrogant and depressed young man stews over his mother's antiquated views about race and fixation on her family's financial decline. "Everything That Rises Must Converge" lacks the fantastical elements of O'Connor's usual Southern Gothic style, and is one of her only works about the American Civil Rights Movement. The story illustrates O'Connor's concern about the decline of Southern etiquette among both white and black Southerners, and the potential consequences of that decline for race relations in the American South. O'Connor was a Roman Catholic, and the title of the story references an epigram by Catholic Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Comforts Of Home
"The Comforts of Home" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was originally published in 1960 in ''The Kenyon Review'' and republished in 1965 in O'Connor's posthumous short story collection '' Everything That Rises Must Converge''. In the story, a compassionate woman tries to save a troubled girl, but is resisted at every turn by her son, whose callousness is intensified by the patriarchal impulses of the surrounding society. Plot summary Local historian Thomas lives with his mother. His parents had very different personalities: his mother is kind and self-sacrificing, while his late father was callous, unscrupulous, and hot-tempered. Thomas tries to strike a balance between his father's ruthlessness and his mother's selflessness, both of which he deems excessive. He attributes his mother's compassion to the fact that she is not an intellectual. When nineteen-year-old drifter Sarah Ham (who fancifully calls herself Star Drake) is arrested for passing bad checks, Thomas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Enduring Chill
"The Enduring Chill" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was originally published in 1958 in ''Harper's Bazaar'' and republished in 1965 in O'Connor's posthumous short story collection ''Everything That Rises Must Converge''. It tells the story of a snobbish and uninspired writer who tries to fill his spiritual and intellectual needs with an idolatry of art, only to realize that he has caused much of his own suffering. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor said that the story was about a man who tries to find "religious substitutes for religion" until his "artistic delusions come face to face with reality". O'Connor planned to write a sequel to "The Enduring Chill", but these plans were cut short by her early death. She adapted elements of the story for the unfinished novel '' Why do the Heathen Rage?'', fragments of which were published in 2024. Development and publication history O'Connor began writing the story in the fall of 1957. Around this time, she was very intereste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A View Of The Woods
"A View of the Woods" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was originally published in 1957 in ''Partisan Review'' and republished in 1965 in her posthumous short story collection ''Everything That Rises Must Converge''. In the story, a vindictive landowner torments his daughter's family by repeatedly selling the pastureland that his son-in-law's cattle need to survive. In the process, he ruins his relationship with his favorite granddaughter. The story reflects O'Connor's devout Catholic faith. "A View of the Woods" questions the moral authority of modernism and progress, pointing out that progress is not always ethical and can be used to rationalize materialism and cruelty. The story suggests that progress must be guided by Christian moral principles. Publication history O'Connor completed the story in the fall of 1956. She initially submitted it to ''Harper's Bazaar'', although she correctly predicted that ''Harper's'' would reject it, as it was "a little grim" for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenleaf (short Story)
"Greenleaf" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was originally published in 1956 in ''The Kenyon Review'' and republished in 1965 in O'Connor's posthumous short story collection ''Everything That Rises Must Converge''. The story won O'Connor her first O. Henry Award first prize in 1957 for the year's best American short story. In the story, a snobbish landlady who believes in her family's genetic and cultural superiority struggles to understand why the children of her lower-class tenants have become more successful than her own children. The upwards mobility of her tenants' children reflects the gradual weakening of the Southern social class system. Plot summary Mrs. May owns a struggling dairy farm and employs Mr. Greenleaf, a tenant worker, to help her run it. She is rude to Mr. Greenleaf, due to her social snobbery and insecurity. She also resents Mr. Greenleaf's wife, who she considers white trash. The two women disagree about faith: Mrs. May attends church but does ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Violent Bear It Away
''The Violent Bear It Away'' is a 1960 Southern Gothic novel by American author Flannery O'Connor. It is the second and final novel that she published. The first chapter was originally published as the story "You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead" in the journal ''New World Writing''. The novel tells the story of Francis Marion Tarwater, a fourteen-year-old boy who is trying to escape the destiny his uncle has prescribed for him: the life of a prophet. Like most of O'Connor's stories, the novel is filled with Catholic themes and dark images, making it a classic example of Southern Gothic literature. Plot summary Mason Tarwater, an outspoken evangelist and self-ordained prophet, dies many years after kidnapping his great-nephew Francis, raising him in a backwoods cabin and preparing him to someday take his place as a prophet. Prior to his death, Mason asked the now-teenaged Francis to give him a proper Christian burial with a cross marking the grave so that his body would be resurre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Good Country People
"Good Country People" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1955 in her short story collection '' A Good Man Is Hard to Find''. In the story, an educated Southern atheist resents her affluent mother's overbearing manner and patronizingly dismisses a traveling Bible salesman as a "good country person". When she goes on a date with the salesman, her worldview is quickly upended. The story is often considered one of O'Connor's best works. Plot summary Mrs. Hopewell owns a farm in rural Georgia which she runs with the assistance of her tenants, Mr. and Mrs. Freeman. She finds Mrs. Freeman annoying, but patronizingly thinks of the Freemans as "good country people". Mrs. Hopewell's daughter, Joy, is thirty-two years old, unmarried, overweight, and disabled, having lost her leg in a childhood shooting accident. She has a doctorate in philosophy and would prefer to leave town and teach at a university, but a debilitating heart condition forces her to live with her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Artificial Nigger
"The Artificial Nigger" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1955 in her short-story collection '' A Good Man Is Hard to Find''. The title refers to statues popular in the Jim Crow-era Southern United States, depicting grotesque minstrelsy characters. In the story, an impressionable young boy and his ignorant, fearful grandfather visit Atlanta. The grandfather betrays the boy, sundering their relationship, but they bond over their shared unfamiliarity with black people, and the grandfather experiences a spiritual revelation about his own moral depravity. The story suggests that people are not intrinsically racist: rather, racist views are handed down from generation to generation because some people stand to profit from racism. O'Connor said that it was her favorite story she had written. Plot summary Mr. Head lives in the Georgia countryside with his grandson Nelson. A long time ago, Mr. Head's daughter ran away from home to Atlanta, showed up one day wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Temple Of The Holy Ghost
"A Temple of the Holy Ghost" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was written in 1953 and published in 1955 in her short story collection ''A Good Man Is Hard to Find''. Although O'Connor was a devout Roman Catholic who often used religious themes in her work, "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" is one of her few explicitly Catholic stories. O'Connor frequently wrote about white Protestant characters with negative personality traits—including racism, arrogance, and condescension—and the Southern white Catholics in "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" display many of the same negative traits. Through the divine revelation that closes the story, O'Connor concludes that Southern Catholics' negativity does not reflect authentic Christian principles. Plot summary A 12-year-old girl (hereafter "the girl") hosts her cousins, 14-year-old Susan and Joanne, for the weekend. The girl dismisses the cousins as shallow and self-absorbed. However, the girl is rude and immature. She harbors a malicio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Displaced Person
"The Displaced Person" is a novella by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1955 in her short story collection ''A Good Man Is Hard to Find''. It tells the story of a struggling landowner who hires a Polish Catholic refugee ("displaced person") to revitalize her failing farm. The refugee's talent and hard work alarm the American-born farmhands, who appeal to the community's racial, ethnic, nationalist, and religious prejudices to save their own jobs. Although a Catholic priest appeals to the landowner's sense of charity, the landowner finds that her capitalist self-interest is a more persuasive argument against prejudice. To write the story, O'Connor drew from her personal Catholicism and her family's experience hiring a Polish refugee family after World War II. Plot summary Part One In post-World War II Georgia, farm owner Mrs. McIntyre hires Mr. Guizac, a Polish refugee from the Soviet Union (the "displaced person"), to work as a farmhand. Mr. Guizac's industriousness ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
