Religious Undertones in the Work

Religious Undertones in the Work of Flannery O'Connor

While many works of literature explore religious angles such as good vs. evil, O'Connor plunges deeper into the issue by painting different faces on what we might call good and evil. Morality, which is a significant aspect of religion is also considered from a different perspective in hopes that the reader may actually stop and consider what we mean when we say good and moral. Through powerful characterization, O'Connor demonstrates the complexities of these issues. Stories that exemplify this are "Good Country People," "A Good Man is Hard to Find," and "Everything that Rises Must Converge." Each of these stores contains a character that thinks he or she knows best. These characters are then faced with a sudden moment of clarity, either through fear or through shock, that opens their eyes to what O'Connor considers to be the truth. Hulga, in Good Country People," must face her superiority while she sits abandoned by Manley, has no truth or at least everything she thought to be true was stripped from her in a moment of weakness. The Grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," faces in the last moments as her life flashes before her eyes. Julius, in "Everything that Rises Must Converge," faces his weaknesses and failures as a human being while he watches his mother, whom he loved and despised, die. Life changes circumstances shook these characters from their comfortable places and forces them to wake up and see the world around them as it actually is. Through the religious undertones of good and evil, the sin of pride, and the sin of prejudice, O'Connor demonstrates the incredible frailty of man.

O'Connor uses colorful characters to drive home her points. The Misfit is one of her most vivid characters because of his beliefs and opinions regarding God and religion. He enters into a lively conversation with the grandmother about Jesus that is very revealing about both characters. Interestingly, he can have this spirited debate about Jesus, which indicates he has thought about Jesus and what it means to be "good" but than he can shift his attention to pulling the gun and killing the grandmother. This is shocking but it is real. O'Connor demonstrates how a cold-blooded killer can operate without any emotion whatsoever. Through this man, O'Connor also brings up the issues of evil in God's world. When The Misfit blames Jesus for the majority of his problems, we see the depth of his problem. He states:

Jesus thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and it He didn't then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can -- by killing somebody of burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness.

This passage clearly demonstrates that The Misfit has not only heard but understands the gospel message. What we see through him is that it takes more than hearing the word to understand and believe it. The Misfit blames Jesus for his woes and that is all Jesus becomes for him: a reason for why he is so bad. Through this ironic display, O'Connor illustrates a conflict with religion and spirituality. Religion does not make a person good or even better; it is their spirit that must undergo a significant change.

The Misfit is only one character through which O'Connor explores religious undertones in this story. He sits at one side of the spectrum and at the other side of the spectrum, we have the grandmother. The Misfit is obviously evil -- no one doubts this, even The Misfit knows it. The grandmother, however, is not so easy to deconstruct. The Misfit is actually a foil for her and, as Irving Malin points out, she is "only a "good person on the surface" (Malin 22). She speaks with cliches and utters nonsensically through the family's trip. Her biggest problem, however, is her faulty view of the world. She is what we would term a "good person" but this is on the surface only. This is also something of which she is convinced. She believes she is a good human being and because she never sets out to do harm, she is of no harm. This is an attitude many lazy Christians have. She thinks everyone should do things her way without question and she believes her standards are the best by which to judge others. She chastises John, telling him "I wouldn't talk about my native state that way" and follows that with saying, "Tennessee is just a hillbilly dumping ground." She also says, "Children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then." Here we see how she tends to look down on people that do not do things her way. She may be sincere in her beliefs, but it becomes clear that she thinks she is superior to others. It is also important to note how the grandmother changes in each scene. In the car, she is not to be argued with and she expects everything to go her way. With The Misfit, she is weak and frightened. As she pleads with him to pray, we see her fear rather than her faith. While there can be no doubt she is confident in her religion, it comes too little and too late for us to believe it will influence The Misfit.

Superiority is a severe problem for Hulga in "Good Country People." O'Connor reveals just how superior she believes she is by placing Hulga in the same household as Mrs. Hopewell. In addition, Hulga is proud and pride is considered a sin in most religions. There are simply ugly characteristics. Hulga may be educated but this does not mean she is without flaws. In fact, those who feel superior over others often fail to see their own humanity. Even with her disability, Hulga feels advanced. Kate Oliver notes that Hulga's physical disorders "symbolize her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments" (Oliver). This is true right down to her heart condition, which symbolizes her "inability to love anyone or anything" (Oliver). O'Connor shows how this superior nature is ungodly in that it separates people. Hulga does not feel the people around her are intelligent enough to do anything for her, so simply has no relationships with them. She is consumed with what her education means to her and how everyone else is simple-minded. Her education proves to be her weakness because she thinks she understands Manley completely. Hulga is the perfect illustration of how the sin of pride truly does come before a fall.

In "Everything that Rises Must Converge," Julian's we see the sin of prejudice played out through Julian and his mother. These two characters believe they could not be any more different from one another. The truth is that they are more alike than either would like to admit. Julian's mother is full of prejudice but she cannot see it. Even when she tells Julian, "I remember the old darky who was my nurse, Caroline. . . . I've always had a great respect for my colored friends," she does not realize how she sounds. When an African-American gets on the bus, she says, "Now you see why I won't ride these buses by myself," still unable to grasp the depth of her racism. Julian realizes this and is thoroughly disgusted with her behavior but he is just as bad. Julian is quite problematic because he, like the grandmother and Hulga, believes he is somehow better than most everyone around him because of how he thinks. He sees everyone's flaws but his own. Through his God-given talent of thinking, he surpasses most of the people he encounters because they simply are not enlightened. Julian's sin is that he likes to see the ignorant suffer. Robert D. Denham writes Julian is a "self-pitying malcontent who enjoys the role of martyr and who treats his mother with an unrelenting contempt, offering her no love or sympathy and delighting in her discomfort" (Denham). He "could not forgive" her because "she had enjoyed the struggle and that she thought she had won." Julian is even more prejudice than his mother because he not only judges by skin color, he judges individuals by how they dress. He tried to "strike up an acquaintance on the bus with some of the better types" on the bus rather than the nice people. Julian's racism and prejudice is cloaked behind his education and, to a certain extent, his mother, who constantly reaffirms that he is doing well for a man of his age. However, we see Julian learned to be prejudice from his mother, a fact he would deny until he died.

Contrasts always help O'Connor prove her points. The Misfit and the grandmother are an unlikely pair and through their personalities, O'Connor delves into the extreme sides of religion. People can be affected by religion in different ways and The Misfit becomes the perfect character to uncover the grandmother's gullibility. She, in turn, is the perfect person to expose his evil nature. This contrast allows O'Connor uses to reveal the delicate nature of man. Somehow, in the midst of everything, the two people bond, leaving the grandmother with a false sense of hope. She believes, because she knows best, that she has transformed his life. She truly believes she can change him. Parini writes that at the moment he shots her, she realizes "they are connected, and through a horrible act of violence she has received a moment of understanding, if not grace" (Parini 231). The showdown becomes one between The Misfit's powerful convictions and the grandmother's shallow beliefs. O'Connor proves with these individuals the importance of being passionate about the right thing. Being passionate about Jesus is good, but one should be on the right side of that passion. This is much better than riding the fence.

We cannot discuss Hulga and contrasts without mentioning Manley. Hulga has the degrees she believes qualifies her to be rude and condescending to others. She is like Julian in that she sees nothing wrong with the fact that she is still living with her mother and actually depends upon her for care. With characters such as these, O'Connor exposes the "hypocrisy and valueless mores of contemporary American life" (Parini 230). Hulga is a hypocrite and, sadly, it takes a traumatic experience to force her to realize this. Oliver writes that Hulga's leg symbolizes her "false spirituality, that is, her rejection of religion for philosophy" (Oliver). It is clear that Hulga rejects God and even "revels in her rejection of God" (Oliver). She is proud of her religion of nothing and this sets the stage for her encounter with Manley. She finds herself daydreaming of him and considers taking "his remorse in hand and changed it into a deeper understanding of life. She took all his shame away and turned it into something useful." These kinds of thoughts are simply haughty. Hulga, the crippled woman living with her mom, thinks she can tech Manley a thing or two and she honestly thinks that while she can offer him the world, he has absolutely nothing to offer her, especially religion. Her pride led her straight into his trap. Because of this, Manley is equipped to expose her to her "true weakness and misplaced delusions" (Parini 232). Manley is a wolf is sheep's clothing but it is interesting to consider the fact that Hulga, too, is putting on a front for the world to see. She even has herself convinced of who she thinks she is. They are opposites looking to prove the same point: the world cannot get anything over on them.

Julian is contrasted with his mother in their story. Undoubtedly, these two characters share similarities, however, it is important to notice where they are different and how this difference comes about. Julian's mother molded him to be the prejudice man he was; she taught him to see through racist eyes. When Julian is faced with the sudden loss of his mother, everything in his world changes. Denahm writes, "His cries for help suggest not merely the panic of the moment, effacing his earlier claim of fearlessness; they suggest also his desperate awareness of the dark state of his own soul" (Denham). He sees her as she is, as she is leaving him and he also sees himself and he realizes that he is not the strong, able man he thought he was. Like Hulga, he is weaker than he thought he was and he is also easier to hurt than he wants to admit. Faced with morbid fear, these characters must look at what they have chosen to be their religion and evaluate whether it is beneficial to them or if they need to find fulfillment elsewhere.