Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Form Of Writing Flannery O'connor - 1,139 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

... e qualities in the grotesque in her statement in "A Memoir of Mary Ann" that " a new perspective on the grotesque had occurred to her as she learned about the child, who had a tumor on the side of her face" (14). According to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, "Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept the fact that its face too is grotesque that in the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a clich or a smoothing down that will soften their real look when we look into the face of good, we are liable to see a face like Mary Ann's full of promise" (Fitzgerald 226).

Gentry wrote, "O'Connor's characters use the positive grotesque to realize that they can transform the grotesqueries into a force for redemption (15). According to Gentry, O'Connor took it as her artistic enterprise to transform images of negative grotesqueries into part of a redemptive process. Gentry also states that O'Connor produced work after work in which the grotesque reveals itself conclusively as redemptive (18). He goes on to say that O'Connor's characters generally have to annihilate themselves to conclude the grotesque process in redemption" (19). Several of Flannery O'Connor's characters demonstrate this concept that the grotesque reveals itself as redemption. It is seen in Mrs.

Shortly (" The Displaced Person"), Mrs. May ("Greenleaf") and in Mrs. Turpin ("What Rises Must Converge"). Eggenschwiler states that "O'Connor's characters begin as godless people filled with anxiety and comprehension, and when grace is offered, the characters can accept it only when their demonic or grotesque defenses have collapsed; it is usually moments before death" (33 - 34). According to Muller, "O'Connor used the grotesque in an exaggerated form for melodrama, to surprise and shock" (9). In many of O'Connor's stories, the conclusions or endings are surprising, as they are ridiculous and horrible; thus, she uses the grotesque for a melodramatic effect.

I do not see much humor in Flannery O'Connor's use of the grotesque even though some critics believe it is there. According to Gentry, "on a basic level, the term grotesque describes images of degraded physicality with an effect at once humorous and disturbing" (11). I do not feel that O'Connor uses the grotesque to be humorous, but to show the absurd, the bizarre and the disturbing. I think O'Connor uses grotesque in her wok to degrade her characters or to show that they feel or see themselves in a degraded sense not comically or humorous. Muller states that "O'Connor's work is comical in the sense that she uses the grotesque in an exaggerated form (6). He also states that the grotesque character is either exerting himself against the absurd or is part of the absurd and therefore is comical" (6).

One point Muller makes that I agree with is the fact that "O'Connor uses an exaggerated form in development of her characters" (10). Muller states that "O'Connor's uses of caricature that frequently establishes a comic rhythm partaking of the incongruous, the irrational, and the grotesque (10). Muller comments that some of the more "memorable' characters who are thus caricatured are Tom T. Shiftlet, the shifty and shiftless prankster in The Life You Save May Be Your Own and his prospective mother-in-law Lueynell Crater, whose name reflects a wasteland environment; Mr. Paradise, a pig-like en carnation of the devil and Joy Hopewell, the cynical and atheistic cripple in Good Country People, who by the end of the story is the benefit of joy, hope and well being" (10).

This form of humor I can see in Flannery O'Connor's works. Some critics have stated that O'Connor's use of the grotesque is demonic and that it cannot be religious. They believe her work does not state religious intent. Robert Golden identifies these critics to be "Josephine Hendic, John Hawkes, and Claire Khan" (5).

I do not agree with this school of thought. I believe O'Connor's use of the grotesque as I stated earlier is a form of writing to show the extreme transformation her characters must make for redemption. I think her work is religious and has meaningful vision. According to Gentry, "O'Connor herself described her work as deeply Catholic" (3). Flannery O'Connor stated, "I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy.

This means that for me the meaning of life is centered in our redemption by Christ. I describe the subject of my fiction as the action of grace in a territory held largely by the devil" (q. in Gentry pg. 3). I think O'Connor uses the grotesque and untraditional to make the redemption more convincing. O'Connor uses the grotesque in her stories to provide emphasis on the characters' need for grace. Muller stated, "O'Connor emphatically denied that she utilized violence and the grotesque as a gothic contrivance, because gothic fiction had no moral foundation and no moral vision (77).

He goes on to say that violence and grotesque in O'Connor's fiction forces the reader to confront the problem of evil and because O'Connor's uses violence to shock her readers, it becomes the expression of sin in her stories and work" (79). In Fitzgerald's classic statement on the value of the grotesque, one can see how violence fits Flannery O'Connor's works: "The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across. When you assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it. When you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock - to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large startling figures" I have discussed many ways in which Flannery O'Connor uses the gross and grotesque in her writing. I believe O'Connor uses this form of writing to startle the audience, and to get her point across. Not only does she use the grotesque to astound, but she also uses it for its comical effect, and for the melodramatic effect.

I do not feel she uses the grotesque, as many gothic writers do, for a purely evil or demonic effect. I believe she uses the grotesque in a religious sense to show how degraded her characters are, and how far they must go to achieve redemption. Bibliography:


Free research essays on topics related to: o'connor's, form of writing, flannery o'connor, grotesque, mary ann

Research essay sample on Form Of Writing Flannery Oconnor

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com