Extra credit

Flannery O’Connor was an American writer that wrote two novels and about 34 short stories. She was raised in the American south “the Bible belt” as a devout Catholic; religion is often present theme in her writings. Along with religion playing an important role in her writing she often brings up questions about morals and ethics.

When O’Connor was fifteen her father died of lupus, leaving her extremely devastated. The loss of a strong parental father figure can influence anybody at such a young age. Often in her writings she questions religions, or at least her writing might suggest that she does. Losing her father might have attributed to this because she could think that it was all in Gods divine plan.

O’Connor was also very fond of birds which she incorporated into her writings. She also wrote an entire essay devoted to the peacock called “The King of Birds”

Many of her books and essay were written while she battling Lupus. She was dying while she was writing which is evident in her morally flawed characters. Growing up in the early nineteen hundreds, in the American south meant that she was surrounded by racial tension. The Jim Crow laws were in full swing and she would have seen how unfairly the black communities were treated.

In her essay “a Good man is hard to find” the stories setting is in the Deep South where there are very large black communities. Through the main character of the grandmother she conveys the ignorance a stereotypical view of the old south that she grew up in. Where a lady was a lady and black person was second-class citizen and they knew their place. O’Connor parallels the grandmother with the old south and the grandmother eventually dies at the end of the story, in a sense the way that O’Connor wanted racism to die.

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