Flannery O Connor's Writing Style Essay

In her collection of short stories, Flannery O’Connor has a characteristic style that is shown through her narrator and figurative language regardless of the plot or scenario. In the first four novella in the collection, O’Connor introduces the reader to these aspects of her style via similar uses and different elements according to each story she tells. Her novellas have a characteristic style through color imagery, a mean-spirited (but humorous) storyteller as the narrator, strange comparisons, and allusions to Catholicism throughout, which together establish her style as one that is unique among other twentieth century writers. In the first paragraph of her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor uses the Grandmother’s comment about a hypothetical situation to suggest and foreshadow the novella’s plot. The grandmother rants on about the Misfit to her family, saying that he is “headed down to Florida” just like them, and that “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal that aloose in it” (1). …show more content…
At the end of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother is trying to save herself and discusses Catholic topics of prayer, Jesus, and mercy. One such reply of the Misfit to the grandmother is the following: “‘Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead…and He shouldn’t have done it. He thown [sic] everything off balance” (21). O’Connor’s narrator describes the Misfit as scholarly early in the story, and this reference seems to connect with this above passage in that he considers himself a scholarly, logical person (13). But, according to the Misfit, Jesus defied logic and refuses to believe He did raise the dead. This refusal is shown through the Misfit’s actions of killing the grandmother and her family, which could have been prevented (according to the Misfit) “if [he] had of been there” when Jesus rose the dead (21-