Grotesque Themes In Flannery O Connor

Flannery O’Connor is well known for her unique type of writings that involve grotesque themes and the Christian religion. In most of her stories, she always has that one character that is a “religious” hero, even though they might be represented as evil, they tend to express or preach their beliefs. Some stories that show the contrast between good and evil are “Wise Blood”, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, “Good Country People” and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”. Most of her stories fall under the category of Southern Gothic because of her strong use of moral and physical themes. The use of grotesque themes gives the reader and idea that the world can or does have appalling alterations. In the story “Wise Blood”, Hazel Motes conveys to the reader and his audience that he is preaching to, that he knows what he believes in, but when a strange policeman stops Hazel. The policeman orders Hazel to move his car nearby a cliff and to get out. He then tells Hazel that without a license he doesn’t need a car, so the policeman pushes Hazel’s car off the cliff. “Haze shook his head. His face didn’t change and he didn’t turn it toward the patrolman. It seemed to be concentrated on space” (O’Connor 108). Due to this incident it causes Hazel to become sullen and

By the end of the story, after he abandoned both Lucynell Crater and the boy hitchhiker, he later states that he “felt that the rottenness of the world was about to engulf him”(O’Connor 7). Color imagery can play a big part in this story as well because the imagery used in the story provides insight into O’Connor’s intentions. The black suit that Shiftlet arrives to the house with, has been viewed as a symbol of physical death, while the color brown is a symbol for the spiritual death. The color imagery associated with the daughter is designed to show virtue and innocence. Due to Shiftlets mind games he can be described as an evil character because he uses the Craters for their home, car, and