Revelation by Flannery O\'Connor God\'s Grace Via

¶ … Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor

"God's Grace via Violence" is a Major, Controversial Theme in Flannery O'Connor's Work

Born in Savannah, Georgia on March 25, 1925 and deceased from Lupus at the age of 39, (Gordon), Flannery O'Connor led a brief but meaningful literal and literary life. Praised for attaining "an excellence not only of action but of interior disposition and activity' that struggled to reflect the goodness and love of God" (Gordon), O'Connor and her writings are earnestly studied to this day (Loyola University Chicago). Chief among the reasons for O'Connor's enduring popularity is her consistent use of symbolism and devices to explore humanity, God's grace and our relationship with God (Hub Pages: Eric Denby). "Revelation" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" are notable examples of O'Connor's sometimes-controversial "God's grace via violence" theme, which has been denounced by some but staunchly defended by O'Connor.

O'Connor's Recurring Use of "God's Grace Via Violence"

O'Connor's most controversial method is use of violence as an instrument of God's grace. In "Revelation," Mrs. Turpin's violent awakening from her self-satisfied, judgmental brand of Christianity begins when Mary Grace strikes her with a deliberately hurled book, accosts her with a howling "raw face" and chokes her (Unfolding Flannery O'Connor). Startled into believing Mary Grace knows her beyond their chance encounter, Mrs. Turpin asks, "What you got to say to me?" An unrepentant Mary Grace whispers, "Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog" (Unfolding Flannery O'Connor). Mrs. Turpin tries to continue her smug life but is repeatedly confronted by her new perceptions of her old life, for example, in seeing through the insincere flattery of her black farm hands (Unfolding Flannery O'Connor). Mrs. Turpin continues perceiving aspects of her life anew until she finally sees a vision of "souls tumbling toward heaven," led by "white trash…and bands of black niggers…and battalions of freaks and lunatics," with herself and others like her at the back (Unfolding Flannery O'Connor). The clear implication is that Mrs. Turpin's false sense of Christian superiority has been upended by Mary Grace's violent dispensation of God's grace, so Mrs. Turpin finally sees all those "beneath" her now spiritually superior to her (Meghan, Flannery O'Connor's Stories Study Guide: Summary and Analysis of "Revelation").

"Revelation's" use of God's violent grace is not unique. In the same vein as Mrs. Turpin, the grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a boldly drawn smug, southern Christian to whom God's grace is revealed via violence. Through the grandmother's deceit, she manipulates her traveling family into an alternate car route that she misremembered (Cummings). As the family continues to drive lost on the unfamiliar road, the grandmother is so startled by a "horrible thought" that she lifts her valise, unleashing her cat from its hidden basket (Cummings). The cat jumps on the driver's shoulder, so startling the driver that he crashes the car into a ditch. As they are stuck in the ditch, the family is confronted by a serial killer known as "the Misfit" and his two minions (Cummings). The Misfit and his companions are friendly at first; however, the grandmother recognizes him and says so. As a result, the Misfit and his companions kill the entire family, though only two or 3 at a time, leaving the grandmother for last (Meghan, Flannery O'Connor's Stories Study Guide: Summary and Analysis of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"). As the grandmother hears each shot ring out, killing her family one by one, she tries every trick in her smug Christian valise: telling the Misfit that he's a "good man" and not of "common blood"; telling the Misfit that Christ will help him; begging for her life; even offering a bribe (Hub Pages: Eric Denby). The Misfit rebuffs all her attempts. When the Misfit, who is now wearing her dead son's shirt, speaks of wishing to know whether Christ raises the dead because that would change him, the grandmother touches him in perhaps her first sincere act and says, "…you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children" (Hub Pages: Eric Denby), at which point the Misfit recoils and shoots her 3 times in the chest. After some discussion with his companions, the Misfit says of the dead and smiling grandmother, "She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" (Hub Pages: Eric Denby). Even the Misfit is changed by grace, shifting from belief that "meanness" is the only fun to belief that even meanness is not much fun (Hub Pages: Eric Denby). In sum, having propelled her family into these deadly circumstances, the grandmother changes as violence takes each family member and relentlessly approaches her. When this horrible grace finally transforms the grandmother into accepting the Misfit's humanity and acknowledging their kinship in Christ by reaching out to touch the Misfit, it is enough to make the Misfit kill; yet, that terribly violent grace is also enough to slightly transform the Misfit (Hub Pages: Eric Denby).

O'Connor's penchant for showing grace via violence has led to arguments for and against its use. One critique notes that many scholars are bothered by O'Connor's use of violence because it amounts to "her passionate endorsement of that violence as the only way to startle her secular readers into a spiritual awareness" (Hub Pages: Mymastiffpuppies). O'Connor is unrepentant about her use of violence, answering, "I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace" (Votteler). In sum, O'Connor believed that God's grace comes through the "trauma of the cross" and that many of her readers had forgotten that aspect of grace (Hub Pages: Mymastiffpuppies), so her stories were designed to remind them.