Dealing With Mystery : Imagery in The Violent Bear It Away and Selected Stories by Flannery O'Connor

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to categorise and examine the most important imagery in Flannery O Connor s novel The Violent Bear It Away (1960), and in six selected short stories from her collections A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965). My main focus is on three main sets of images in O Connor s fiction: natural, mechanical, and scriptural (Biblical) imagery. I study how they operate both individually and in opposition to each other, with a view to examining how they come together as a whole.

The thesis consists of two chapters. Chapter One deals with the opposition between natural and mechanical imagery. I show that there is a connection between the dominating imagery in the stories I discuss and their thematic outcome. When natural imagery dominates a story the protagonist experiences a revelation and transcendence is possible. On the other hand, when there is an abundance of mechanical imagery in a story the protagonist undergoes no change and transcendence does not take place.

In Chapter Two the religious dimension of O Connor s work is investigated even further. In addition to discussing fire imagery in both "A Circle in the Fire" and The Violent Bear It Away, I look at four other (sub)sets of Biblical images in the novel.

My analysis in both chapters demonstrates O'Connor's preoccupation with the spiritual dimension of life, and, in my opinion, her conspicuous use of imagery contributes greatly in conveying her message.