Self-righteousness and entitlement is a common theme among each individual in modern society. When people begin to believe that they are superior and hold more entitlement than their surrounding peers, those people tend to get themselves into trouble socially and culturally. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story Greenleaf, the main character Mrs. May has an issue of not being able to see the grace present in those she does not consider her social equals. Flannery O’Connor, known to be one of the best short story authors of all time, is widely known by the literary community to write about southern culture. Also, according to her biography on www.biography.com, there is one common theme among her writings: “if there is a common humanistic moral in O'Connor's stories, it is that those who think too well of themselves generally get their just desserts in the end.” With a clash between religious beliefs and Mrs. May’s own self-righteousness and entitlement, the theme of faith, grace, and control end up turning the tables on Mrs. May …show more content…
in the end of the story. Within southern culture, religion plays a large role in society and even in O’Connor’s writings. Ultimately, Greenleaf boils down to a clash between Protestantism and Catholicism. Protestants believes that each individual determines his or her own belief while salvation comes only from a relationship with God at the personal level. On the other hand, Catholicism beliefs state that salvation comes through a correct and just relationship to God through the action of His Church. For example, throughout the story Mrs. May frequently remarks “I have to do for myself.” During one of these remarks and conversation with Mr. Greenleaf, she adds “thank[s] God for that!” while Mr. Greenleaf adds that he “thank[s] God for ever-thang.” O’Connor is reiterating the fact that Mrs. May believes people should do more for themselves rather than for God as she states, "You might as well, she had thought in the fierce silence that followed: you've never done anything for yourself." From a spiritual standpoint, O’Connor believes there is nothing one can do for oneself, as keeping faith and depending on God’s grace is an important aspect to southern culture. Furthermore, Mrs. May’s refusal for help from anyone, including Christ, digs her into even a deeper hole within the story. Mrs. May continuously refuses the help of her own sons, and insists that she can complete all of the farm duties on her own as her husband had recently passed away, leaving her a widow with two adult children. Mr. Greenleaf seemingly becomes the victim of Mrs. May’s belief that she can “hire” everything to be done around the farm. However, imperiously hiring those who someone considers inferior to do the dirty work is not how the religious and spiritual world functions, according to O’Connor. The author believes that those who depend on God’s grace receive help and guidance from Him, while those who only help themselves do not receive help from God. The use of symbolism further shows Mrs. May’s lack of faith in the story. For example, O’Connor uses the sun, or lack of sun, to show Mrs. May’s lack of faith and not allowing God into her life. While she is looking out of the window after finding out that the bull belongs to O.T. and E.T. Greenleaf, the reader is given the image that behind the cows “fencing them in, was a black wall of trees with a sharp sawtooth edge that held off the indifferent sky,” as the reader is made aware that the sun is blocked by the trees. On the other hand, while Mrs. May is visiting O.T. and E.T’s milking parlour, O’Connor writes that the parlour is “filled with sunlight that came from a row of windows head-high along both walls.” Finally, in order to again highlight the idea of faith within Mrs. May’s life while she is daydreaming, O’Connor writes: “she became aware after a time that the noise was the sun trying to burn through the tree line and she stopped safe in the knowledge that it couldn’t, that it had to sink the way it always did outside her property.” While the Greenleafs are open to letting God into their lives and depending on His Grace, O’Connor uses the sun as a symbol to show that Mrs. May unfortunately refuses to let God in her life. Moreover, the reader is made aware that Mrs. May claims herself to be a Christian, but she does not believe any of the religion is true. Her lack of faithfulness and religion in her life is in stark contrast to the Greenleafs. For example, Mrs. Greenleaf is a very religious woman who prays everyday and cuts snippets out from the newspaper and buries them in the ground while lying down and praying in order to seek redemption. Unfortunately, Mrs. May looks down on Mrs. Greenleaf because of her beliefs as Mrs. May believes Mrs. Greenleafs time would be better spent washing her kids’ clothes rather than lying in the dirt praying. Ironically, Mrs. Greenleaf’s praying acts as a foreshadow to the fate of Mrs. May as Greenleaf exclaims “Oh Jesus, stab me in the heart,” and later this becomes how Mrs. May gets killed by the bull’s horns. Finally, as Mrs.
May was left the farm by her husband who passed away, she believes that the farm is successful only because of her, despite knowing nothing about farming. She is not a willing recipient of grace, if anything she rejects grace such as when she rejects Mrs. Greenleaf’s prayers in the woods. In addition, the idea of grace plays an important role in the end of the story as Mrs. May is killed by the horns of the bull. Unfortunately for Mrs. May it is through death that she achieves grace when the bull kills her for “she continued to stare straight ahead but the entire scene in front of her had changed – the tree line was a dark wound in a world that was nothing but sky – and she had the look of a person whose sight has been suddenly restored but who finds the light unbearable.” Mrs. May possibly realizes in the end of the story that her way of life; not accepting faith or grace, self entitlement, is not the path to
God. O’Connor uses her knowledge and ability to write about the southern culture in order to create religious and social themes throughout Greenleaf. Self-righteousness, grace, faith, and self-entitlement all turn the tables on Mrs. May with her gruesome death by getting speared by a bull’s horns in the chest. While Mrs. May worried about living for herself rather than for God, and not allowing grace into her life, she was destined to not let God into her life. Her way of life which included believing everyone was inferior to her and rejecting others grace lead to her gruesome and sad realization that behaving in a materialistic way was not the correct path to God.
Finding one’s soul mate is a difficult and lengthy process for most, as it is for Janie in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. She marries Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake Woods who seem to be alike; however, the motives for the actions they each take are completely different.
Have you ever had something of great value be taken from you and then feeling emotionally empty? In Celia Garth, Gwen Bristow desires to share the important message of Celia Garth’s past to the characters and readers. Memories prove that Celia got through the war and the bells provided a stress free period. Her memories were resembled through the bells of St.Michaels Church. The past demonstrated in Celia’s eyes about the war and what the bells reminded her of.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is about the cross-cultural ethics in medicine. The book is about a small Hmong child named Lia Lee, who had epilepsy. Epilepsy is called, quag dab peg1 in the Hmong culture that translates to the spirit catches you and you fall down. In the Hmong culture this illness is sign of distinction and divinity, because most Hmong epileptics become shaman, or as the Hmong call them, txiv neeb2. These shamans are special people imbued with healing spirits, and are held to those having high morale character, so to Lia's parents, Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee, the disease was both a gift and a curse. The main question in this case was could Lia have survived if her parent's and the doctors overcame the miscommunication, cultural racism, and the western way of medicine.
Lauren Olamina, the protagonist in Parable of the Sower. She lives in the walled town of Robledo, near Southern California in 2024, which is a devastated world caused by the environmental degradation and economic, governmental corruption. Lauren’s father was a Baptist minister, who emphasize Bible based religion and also raising her under an intensely religious belief. Though Lauren admires her father she
Mrs. Turpin in Flannery O’Connor’s short story Revelation, is a prejudice and judgmental woman who spends most of her life prying in the lives of everyone around her. She looks at people not for who they are, but for their race or social standing. In fact, Mrs. Turpin is concerned with race and status so much that it seems to take over her life. Although she seems to disapprove of people of different race or social class, Mrs. Turpin seems to be content and appreciative with her own life. It is not until Mrs. Turpin’s Revelation that she discovers that her ways of life are no better then those she looks down upon and they will not assure her a place in Heaven.
Zora Hurston was an African American proto-feminist author who lived during a time when both African Americans and women were not treated equally. Hurston channeled her thirst for women’s dependence from men into her book Their Eyes Were Watching God. One of the many underlying themes in her book is feminism. Zora Hurston, the author of the book, uses Janie to represent aspects of feminism in her book as well as each relationship Janie had to represent her moving closer towards her independence.
Communication is cited as a contributing factor in 70% of healthcare mistakes, leading to many initiatives across the healthcare settings to improve the way healthcare professionals communicate. (Kohn, 2000.)
Janie and the Pear Tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Southern gothic is a type of literature that focuses on the harsh conflicts of violence and racism, which is observed in the perspective of black and white individuals. Some of the most familiar southern authors are William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Cormac McCarthy. One author in particular, Flannery O’Connor, is a remarkable author, who directly reflects upon southern grotesque within her two short stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” These two short stories are very similar to each other, which is why I believe that O’Connor often writes with violent characters to expose real violence in the world while tying them in with a particular spiritual insight.
the novel, the pear tree symbolizes Janie's idealized vision of love and marriage. The mule, on the other hand, represents the oppression and mistreatment of African Americans during the time period in which the novel is set. The storm symbolizes chaos and upheaval, both in nature and in Janie's personal life. Finally, Janie's journey itself is a symbol of self-discovery and empowerment. As she navigates through different relationships and experiences, she learns more about herself and what she wants out of life.
Flannery O’Connor's perception of human nature is imprinted throughout her various works. This view is especially evident in the short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” She conveys a timeless message through the scope of two ignorant, southern, upper class women. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor presents readers to a family who is going on a road trip with their selfish grandmother. She is a religious woman who does not follow the set standards that she preaches. Similar characteristics are exposed in “Revelation.” As the self centered Mrs. Turpin sits in the waiting room, she contemplates on her own status with God. Nevertheless, she still commits the sin of judging others. In both of O’Connor’s short stories, these controversial protagonists initially put up a facade in order to alienate themselves from their prospective societies. Although the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin both believe in God, O’Connor utilizes theme to expose that they also convince themselves that they can take on His role by placing judgement on people who, at the most fundamental level, are in the same category as them.
Janie sets out on a quest to make sense of inner questions. She does not sit back and
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are two short stories written by Flannery O’Connor during her short lived writing career. Despite the literary achievements of O’Connor’s works, she is often criticized for the grotesqueness of her characters and endings of her short stories and novels. Her writings have been described as “understated, orderly, unexperimental fiction, with a Southern backdrop and a Roman Catholic vision, in defiance, it would seem, of those restless innovators who preceded her and who came into prominence after her death”(Friedman 4). “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are both set in the South, and O’Connor explores the tension between the old and new South. The stories are tow ironically twisted tales of different families whos lives are altered after trusting a stranger, only to be mislead. Each story explores the themes of Christian theology, new verses the old South, and fallen human nature.
From the beginning of society, men and women have always been looked at as having different positions in life. Even in the modern advanced world we live in today, there are still many people who believe men and women should be looked at differently. In the work field, on average women are paid amounts lower than men who may be doing the exact same thing. Throughout the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston brings about controversy on a mans roles. Janie Crawford relationships with Logan, Joe and Tea Cake each bring out the mens feelings on masculine roles in marital life.
In her well-known short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor skillfully describes the difficulty of finding a morally upright human being, whether it is a man or a woman. No one is perfect, everyone has inadequacies and shortcomings, and she presents this cleverly in her story. She is able to support this view of mankind through her characters. They are self-centered, egotistical human beings who can be judged by their words and actions. This is especially true of the protagonist (the grandmother) and the antagonist (the Misfit). The grandmother tries to portray herself as a virtuous woman, but in the end O’Connor shows that her actions are always self-serving and that morally, she is not that different from the Misfit.