Flannery O’Connor: Violence as a Christian Literary Tool

Flannery O’Connor was an American writer who wrote several short stories. O’Connor was known for shocking her readers with violence. O’ Connor had strong Christian beliefs that were reflected in her writings. O’ Connor once said:
The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make them appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can 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 blind you draw large and

“Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children, she reached out and touched him (O’Connor)”. The grandmother startles The Misfit with the touch and he jumps back. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her son, the realization that she is going to die came to her, and The Misfit feels that motherly feeling for the first time in a long time. When the grandmother reaches out to The Misfit she is trying to save herself from murder, but she also wanted to show The Misfit a feeling he has not had. The triggering of this touch was because the grandmother realizes she is going to die. This touch is a last minute attempt to save herself. The moment the grandmother touches The Misfit, is a time of kindness and grace for her. At this time the grandmother is trying to stop her death, but also trying to get right with the Lord. The touch is a sign of forgiveness towards The Misfit because the grandmother realizes her faith. In the end the grandmother believes she needs to forgive The Misfit before she died in order to find her