Flannery O Connor's Effect In Her Writing

Flannery O’Connor’s Effect in Her Writing
Flannery O’Connor is a well-known southern writer in American literature who died at the age of 39 from lupus, an illness she long fought for. Her style of writing is very unique as it focuses on the South. She is popular for writing stories concerning religion. She, being a Catholic, believes there is good and evil in this world and that faith is something everybody believes in, views that most of her characters do not share. When discussing her stories, O’Connor claims, “All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.” In most of her stories, if not all, the protagonists do not believe in God and go through an impactful experience before they come to a new realization. Because of O’Connor’s religious beliefs, her stories focus on the change of perspective the character has at the beginning and

Shiftlet, who throughout the story is mostly referred to as Mr. Shiftlet. Mr. Shiftlet is a caring, kind, friendly, and humane character. He is tramp who starts a family-like relationship with and old woman and her daughter, both named Lucynell Crater. He has half of one arm and that does not stop him from doing things he desires to do. He and the old lady are conversing about his stay and he says, “there ain’t a broken thing on this plantation that I couldn’t fix for you, one-arm jackleg or not. I’m a man” (3). His disability does not prevent him to do anything or discourage him for not being “complete.” Towards the end of the story, he ends up marrying the old lady’s daughter Lucynell, a deaf woman who is in need for special attention. The marriage does not make Mr. Shiftlet satisfied, and when the papers are signed he takes Lucynell into a bar and abandons her. The reader is left in shock as Mr. Shiftlet, a good