A Violent Illumination Of Salvation :: essays research papers fc

A Violent Illumination of SalvationFlannery OConnor uses violence to return characters to realness and prepare themto accept their instant of grace. The New Encyclopedia Britannica defines graceas the "spontaneous, unmerited gift of the divine or the divine influence in operation(p) in man for his regeneration and sanctification" (401). At any cost, asomebody must find salvation. OConnor states, "In my own stories I have put in thatviolence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality andpreparing them to accept their moment of grace" (qtd.in Bain 407). DorothyWalters, Associate Professor of English at Wichita State University, believesOConnors hotshot theme is the battle between matinee idol and the devil "dueling for thehuman individual in the ancient clash" (105).The illumination of salvation through violent means is essential because "bothOConnor and her God are ironists unyielding . . . her heros are voluntarycharacters who must be humbled in learning that the will of God must prevail"(Master-pieces 497).OConnor portrays two varieties of sinners who possess either excessive superciliousness oraggressive evil traits. The price of buyback is high. OConnor violentlyshocks her characters, illuminates their shortcomings, and prepares them forredemption as seen in "A Good gay is Hard to Find," "Revelation," "The River,"and "The feeble Shall Enter First."Walters reasons, "The instruction of pride through lessons of humility is, in distributively story, the means by which the soul is prepared for its necessaryillumination by the Holy Spirit" (73). The grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard toFind" and Rudy Turpin in "Revelation" is each convinced that she is a madam ofelevated status. When threatened by superior beings, their self-imposed facadesfall. organic human weaknesses are not tolerated and the faulty soul is damnedor violently returned to realit y (Walters 72).     In The Habit of Being, OConnoremphasizes "My devil has a see . . . His name is Lucifer, hes a fallenangel, his sin is pride, and his aim is destruction of the churchman plan" (456).The grandmother is extremely prideful and identifies herself as a "lady" asOConnor reveals in the clothing descriptionThe childrens mother still had on slacks . . . but the grandmother had on anavy unconsecrated straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navyblue dress . . . trimmed with lace up . . . In case of an accident, any one seeingher dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. (A Good 11)When the grandmothers piffling scheming causes the family to leave the paved