The Violent Bear It Away By Flannery O Connor

Cole Polka

Mr. Kerr

ENG III: American Literature

February 6th 2023

Escaping the Old Testament The Violent Bear it Away, by Flannery O’Connor, is a fictional novel. The novel is religious and follows the religion of Christianity. The protagonist, Francis Tarwater, has been told he is a prophet by old man Tarwater, and he must fulfill his prophecy. The old man's wish was for him to carry on his doings when he dies. This leaves Tarwater stuck with the decision of starting his own path or following the old man. Many voices try to mentor Tarwater and help him with his decision. Being a prophet Tarwater waits for God however there is silence. The silence of God leads Tarwater to open his mind and hear other voices. This leads him to struggle to

Matthew 11:12”. This verse from the Bible means “The kingdom of heaven is not to be obtained but by main force, by using the violence upon ourselves, by mortification and penance, poverty, and those practices of austerity which John, by word and example, pointed out.(Whitt 88)”. In order to enter heaven you need to bear away the violence necessary to enter the Kingdom of God. Tarwater is a perfect example of someone who needs to bear the violence away. Francis Tarwater has more trouble finding God than the old man had. This is because the old man Mason Tarwater was born into a different era of Christianity than Francis Tarwater. Francis was born many years later and is a part of the generation that testifies to the violent presence of love in the world, while Mason was born during the generation that testified to the violent demand for justice in the world. This shows that the novel was Francis Tarwaters journey out of the Old Testament. “Thus, it is the boy’s journey out of the Old Testament tradition in which his great-uncle is anchored as prophet and into a New Testament definition of messenger and Christ-witness that gives the novel its structure meaning”(Wood 55). The love Tarwater is called to by God is a violent love. Raybers loves Bishop, however it's a hated love. Rayber wants Tarwater to drown Bishop and Mason

The reason for the structure of the novel is because O'Connor is so committed to her type of religion. The article says “Thus to contradict Flannery O'Connor's fiction is to pay it the highest homage. nothing could she have dreaded more than that a cult of uncritical adulation might have risen up around her art. the Moses who pulverizes the golden calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai was a prophet dear to her own faith and imagination”(Wood 16). This quote explains the meaning behind why Flannery O’Connor decided to write about the specific type of Christian Faith that she did. O’Connor knows that the worship of idols is an abomination to God even in