A Violent Illumination of Salvation
Flannery O'Connor uses violence to return characters to reality and prepare them
to accept their moment of grace. The New Encyclopedia Britannica defines grace
as the "spontaneous, unmerited gift of the divine or the divine influence
operating in man for his regeneration and sanctification" (401). At any cost, a
soul must find salvation. O'Connor states, "In my own stories I have found that
violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and
preparing them to accept their moment of grace" (qtd.in Bain 407). Dorothy
Walters, Associate Professor of English at Wichita State University, believes
O'Connor's single theme is the battle between God and the devil "dueling for the
human soul in the ancient clash" (105).
The illumination of salvation through violent means is essential because "both
O'Connor and her God are ironists [unyielding] . . . her heroes
are willful
characters who must be humbled in learning that the will of......
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