Flannery O’Connor was a Southerner and a Catholic. We can see how her identity as a Southerner and a Catholic are played out in the stories she writes. I am not a Southerner; rather, I am a Northerner from Michigan, and the whole Southern atmosphere is very different than it is in the North. Some things that I picked out from O’Connor’s stories that seem very Southern to me are, first, how she talks using racial slurs in the story. I think that the use of these words are also due to the time frame that this was written in, but I also think that it is a more Southern thing to use those words. Another thing that seems very Southern to me is how there is a great deal of respect that seems to be given to the elderly and certain people like that. I am not saying that we do not respect our elders in the North, but it seems to be a different kind of respect in the South. It is kind of like the Southern hospitality idea. The whole aspect of religion in all of her stories I think ties into the Southern aspect too. I always think of the South as being very Christian, and these stories made that idea even more prominent to me. The Catholic aspect in all of the stories is very interesting too. When I think of the South, I actually do not think of it being Catholic. I think of the South as being more Protestant with all of the Baptist churches and such. O’Connor’s being Catholic is interesting to me because I am a Christian, and her view of Christianity seems very skewed and confusing to me. As a Christian, I believe that I am saved by salvation through the death of Christ; however, while reading O’Connor’s stories, it seems to me that she has the belief that she has to do good things in God’s eyes in order to be saved.
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