Flannery O'Connor Essay
... total surrender to him. “She decided that for the first time in her life she was face to face with real innocence” (O’Connor 402). When Joy convinces herself that Manley Pointer is truly innocent, she is defeated. He has successfully convinced her that he is someone who he is not. Waves of grief wash over Joy after she realizes that no human is truly innocent. It took the act of someone completely drawing her in and then crushing everything in which she trusted, in order for Joy to realize, disparity is the result of ignorance. She came to realize the depth of the situation only after Manley Pointer took from her all hope in a society dominated by integrity. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” a family is on their way to Florida when they are all brutally murdered by three men. Yet again in this story, O’Connor uses violence to bring about an epiphany. The grandmother in the story is constantly portrayed with a highly unrealistic view of the world. She is a hypocrite, a liar, and she seems to care nothing about others. Through the character of the Misfit, O’Connor is able to put the grandmother face-to-face with her worst fear, death. It is while she is in this position that the grandmother casts aside all other preconceptions and sees the Misfit for who he truly is. She sees the wandering soul in desperate need of love and compassion. “Violence is strangely capable of returning characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace” (O’Connor 434). The Misfit is able to extend this violence to the grandmother and it is violence which allows her to cast aside her selfishness and show the compassion the Misfit so desperately needs. For the first time in her life, the grandmother puts others before herself and the reward of satisfaction is incredible. The Misfit says “She would of been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor 416). The Misfit is conveying that only when the grandmother was faced with death, did she make the righteous choice. In “Revelation,” the main character, Mrs. Turpin, comes to the realization that she is no better than anyone else. Throughout her life she thanks God for all that He has done for her. However, never once does she seek to extend the grace which she has received to other individuals. She repeatedly tells herself that she is better than ugly people, better than white trash, and better than niggers. This consumes her to the point that it becomes a reality. She is no longer able to distinguish between reality and imagination. She also puts others down in an effort to raise her self-confidence. While in the doctor’s office, Mary Grace seems to sense this character flaw about Mrs. Turpin. Through the ph...