Symbolism Of Eyes In Flannery O Connor's Works

Eyes in Flannery O’Connor’s Works
As most well-written authors do, Flannery O’Connor incorporated a lot of symbolism into her writing. One common symbol in her storytelling was eyes. Eyes were a significant symbol in Flannery O’Connor’s works, especially, it seemed, in these four stories: “The Displaced Person,” “Revelation,” “Good Country People,” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” She used eyes as subtle ways to communicate a character’s mindset or to build tension.
Eyes in “The Displaced Person” tend to be illustrated with violent terms. The eyes are harsh and very rarely are they described softly; Mrs. McIntyre has eyes like “steel or granite,” characters’ gazes often “pierce,” and “icy blue eyes” and other similar descriptions are common.

With such harsh descriptions, it’s hard to imagine the story being anything but dark and disturbing. This feeling is encouraged by Mrs. Shortley visions. Her visions are brutal and unforgiving. Her first vision isn’t relevant, but her second vision contained is. It contains “a gigantic figure” with “fiery wheels with fierce dark eyes in them, spinning rapidly.” Those “fierce dark eyes” could be the eyes of God ominously watching Mrs. Shortley waiting for the inevitable disaster. That disaster turns out to be right around the corner with Mrs. Shortley’s death. O’Connor foreshadows her death with Mrs. Shortley’s eyes. Just before she collapses it is noted that “there was a peculiar lack of light in her icy blue eyes” which is often how dead eyes are described.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” has the least amount of eye description, but eyes are still a major symbol.

O’Connor uses her character’s eyes to describe them further and give them more depth. For example, the grandmother has bright aye when the Tennessee Waltz starts playing. She is happy, probably the happiest we see her. Later, we see the exact opposite of this happiness as the family is killed one by one. Bailey and John Wesley are the first to go, Bailey with "blue and intense" eyes. When someone has intense eyes they typically have a very firm and confidant stare and blue is a very hopeful color. I think Bailey was planning on coming back, possibly attacking Hiram before he could do anything, or maybe he was just deluding himself. Just before he disappears into the trees Bailey shouts, “I’ll be back in a minute, Mamma, wait on me!” This further supports the idea that he was planning on coming back. When it’s revealed he’ll never be coming back, the mother and June Star’s eyes turn glassy. We could take this to mean their eyes were filled with tears or that they have disassociated from what is happening around them, probably both, though June Star seems less affected than her mother. She is still able to sass her soon-to-be killer, while her mother is very compliant and out of it. The grandmother dies staring at the sky; staring up into the heavens. The Misfit immediately begins cleaning his glasses after he murders her, he takes away his ability to see what he has done

because he is guilty. His eyes show that, they are “red-rimmed and pale and defenseless-looking.” He has become aware of his actions and he is guilty.
O’Connor tends to gloss over the eyes in “Revelation,” giving only tiny details, but the eyes are still really symbolic. Mary Grace’s eyes are a catching point in the story. The readers have not had much eye action so far, just brief descriptions, but then O’Connor describes Mary Grace’s eyes. Mary Grace has blue eye, but unlike her mother’s eyes which “sparkled pleasantly,” Mary Grace’s eyes “appeared alternately to smolder and to blaze.” This imagery, combined with Mary Grace’s name, brings to mind the pits of hell. According to the Bible, hell is a “blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (New International Version, Matt. 13:42) and a “fiery lake of burning sulfur.” (New International Version, Revelation 19:20) With these pictures in mind it is not hard to envision Mary Grace as an avenging angel sent from God to guide Mrs. Turpin to become a better person. Mary Grace’s eyes also look “directly through Mrs. Turpin” and “[they are] fixed like two drills on Mrs. Turpin.” It is as if she can see right into Mrs. Turpin’s soul and is judging her.
When Mary Grace has finally had enough she violently throws her book at Mrs. Turpin and hits her above her left eye. Mrs. Turpin is essentially blind in her left eye now. This is interesting because of the brain’s hemispheres. The left brain is very logical while the right is emotional, so if we take this a bit more literally Mrs. Turpin’s logical side has just been “blocked” and she only has her emotions to guide her. We can see as the story progress Mrs. Turpin has become more emotional, she wants affection from her husband, she talks about what happened with her workers, despite not respecting them, and at the end she yells out to God expressing everything she has thinking about since Mary Grace attacked her. Mrs. Turpin has her revelation and seems to be happier for it.
In “Good Country People,” eyes are dealt with in a slightly different way.

O’Connor focuses on the lack of sight rather than what can be seen. Close to the end of the story, Joy/Helga’s vision becomes clouded; both literally and figuratively. O’Connor shows that through Manley Pointer’s actions, “when [Joy/Helga’s] glasses got in [Manley Pointer’s] way, he took them off of her and slipped them into his pocket.” Her actual vision is impaired as well as her rational vision. Her glasses got in Pointer’s way, so he took them away; her ability to see clearly got in the way of his goals. He takes her ability to see anything he doesn’t want her to see. Up until this point in this story, Joy/Helga has been rather distant, like she has been experiencing this through another person’s eyes, she isn’t connected to what is happening around her. So when Pointer takes her glasses, her last thread to sanity, she is forced back into her body to experience everything she’s never gotten the chance to before. She becomes completely overwhelmed by all

this.
Eyesight, or rather, the lack of eyesight, is also mentioned quite early in the story. Joy/Hulga has become “blind” to her mother to protect herself from her mother’s narrow-mindedness. She “would stare just a little to the side… with the look of someone who has achieved blindness by an act of will and means to keep it.” I believe this is commentary on Joy/Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell’s relationship with one another. Mrs. Hopewell wanted a certain type of daughter, a girl who liked boys and dancing and wanted to get married and have kids, so she ignores the person Joy/Hulga has become, preferring to gush over Mrs. Freeman’s “perfect” daughters. Joy/Hulga knows her mother will never accept her so she becomes “blind” to her mother. She chooses to withdraw from her mother and stops trying to maintain and grow that relationship instead of pretending to be the perfect daughter for her and having a relationship that’s only skin deep.
Flannery O’Connor’s use of eyes in her stories “The Displaced Person,” “Revelation,” “Good Country People,” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is her way of adding detail and foreshadowing. She uses eyes to convey blindness and develop characters.