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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper showing how O'Connor develops her themes of grace and redemption through the ornery character of Mrs. May in this short story. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Violwork.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the characters in OConnors work, and if there is a common, humanistic moral in OConnors stories, it is that those who think too well of themselves generally get their just
desserts in the end. However, Flannery OConnor was not trying to give her stories a humanistic moral; she did not consider herself a humanist at all, but first and foremost
a Catholic. In looking at the character of Mrs. May, it is possible to see how this is developed in "Greenleaf." Ever since the publication of her first novel, Wise
Blood, in 1952, critics have been trying to figure out Flannery OConnors work. John Desmond points out that her "short stories lie at the crossroads of several important traditions," (Desmond,
1983). For example, he finds in her work strains of the Gothic, emphasizing a highly imaginative, symbolic, and in fact exaggerated view of reality. Her work also are distinctively Southern,
dealing with the people and culture of that region, in fact to the extent that they could not be transplanted to any other setting in the world without losing the
storys essence. Part of the Southern tradition grows out of its love of storytelling, and this is reflected in OConnors work too; no matter how bizarre the events or grotesque
the characters, the entire thing is related as though it were the most normal thing in the world, and this contributes to the stories quirky humor. But in
OConnors own estimation, her most important source was her Roman Catholicism. Her placement of God as the cause of every event, her unabashed belief in mystery and miracles, and her
diminution of man against the backdrop of the greatness of God -- all these derive from Catholicism, and it is from Catholicism that she gets the message she wishes to
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