Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Haralson, Eric L., Huffman, Clifford
Date
2011-12-01
Keywords
American literature--Literature--Religion | Dark Comedy, Displaced Soul, Flannery O'Connor, Revelations, Short Stories, Spiritual Awareness
Department
Department of English
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71440
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Flannery O'Connor's thematic paradigm incorporates spiritual overtones, irony and black comedy into her works. The characters appear to possess displaced souls that require some type of spiritual and moral awareness through a shocking intervention. This paper provides an analysis of the introspective development that occurs within the characters; and I will examine the process in which the characters seem to come to shocking revelations about their flawed view of life. Furthermore, an investigation of the protagonist's journey from selfishness to self-awareness will demonstrate the human flaws and weakness in their lives. The circumstances surrounding these outcomes is tragic, yet they are somehow ironic and comic when main characters seem to get what they deserve. Therefore, an interpretation of the turning point and conclusion, which teaches the protagonist a lesson, will be explored. O'Connor's characters may undergo a moral revelation, but the reader also contemplates the anagogical implications presented. The characters in Flannery O'Connor's short stories, 'Good Country People,' 'A Good Man is Hard to Find,' 'The Displaced Person,' and 'Everything That Rises Must Converge' undergo possible spiritual and moral revelations of their displaced souls through the narrative form of black comedy. | 43 pages
Recommended Citation
Tomasi, Rose M., "Flannery O'Connor: Revelations of the Displaced
Soul" (2011). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 646.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/646