Flannery O'Connor's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Flannery O'Connor's - Essay Example The Hopewell farm is in a somewhat rural area. This is known because of the fact that Joy-Hulga lost her leg in a hunting accident when she was 10, something girls arent normally a part of unless they live in the country, and that Manley Pointer was able to leave her, abandoned and legless, in an old barn where no one would be likely to hear her cries for help. This is important to OConnors stories because of the tradition she pulls from: ""The Southern writer is forced from all sides to make his gaze extend beyond the surface, beyond mere problems, until it touches that realm which is the concern of prophets and poets." Simply placing her stories in the South immediately associates her work with the strong tradition coming out of the South at that time and programs her readers to look for the deeper meanings. Other than her love of the South, one can also see OConnors preoccupation with the grotesque in this story. Joy has changed her name to Hulga in a deliberate attempt to make her name match her ugly self-image. This is, to some degree, a reflection of OConnors struggle with lupus, an illness that wasnt well understood at that time but that can cause ugly red splotches on the face and elsewhere and that causes unexplained pain at random. She usually explained this interest in another way though: "Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one." Although she watched her father die of the disease at a young age and struggled with it herself for 14 years, OConnor always tried to keep it in perspective. Part of the reason she was able to keep it in perspective so well was because of the deep nature of her Catholic faith, elements of which also play a big role in this story. The surface action of the story is that of a young Bible salesman coming to the Hopewell farm, charming