Flannery O'Connor
1925 - 1964

“I plan to be the world authority on peafowl.
Believe I’ll be offered a chair someday at the chicken college.”

     Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, on March 25, 1925. Her father owned a construction company and a realty company. After his death in 1941 from complications of lupus, Flannery and her mother moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, where Flannery later attended Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College and State University). While at Georgia State College for Women, Flannery’s cartoons were published in the college newspaper, The Colonnade, and many other campus publications. She had hoped to support herself as a writer by selling her cartoons to major publications. Her cartoons, however, did not sell.

     After graduation, Flannery went to the State University of Iowa and took writer’s workshop courses that led to some of her first poems. In 1948 Flannery moved to an artist’s colony in Saratoga Springs, New York called Yaddo. She intended to use this time to work extensively on her writing. However, shortly after arriving in New York, she was diagnosed with lupus. Flannery knew her fate, and thus moved to Andalusia, a quail farm owned by her uncle, where she raised peacocks and delved into her writing. Although she was on crutches for several years, she dedicated much time to lectures and traveled quite a bit. Flannery O’Connor died in Milledgeville, Georgia, on August 3, 1964, also from complications of lupus.

     O’Connor’s stories are set in the rural south and illustrate human alienation, similar to William Faulkner’s characters. The violence and absurdity commonly found in her work shocks the reader, while at the same time, provoking humor. The characters, stories and situations are all disturbingly familiar.

     Like Sherwood Anderson, O’Connor also portrays her characters as grotesques with exaggerated features, showing the contradictions and inconsistencies of life. No matter how disturbing or absurd the situation, one can sympathize with the characters, who are very human. Likewise, themes of individuals concerned with their relationship with God abound.

     “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is just example of the modern Southern style for which O’Connor is famous. The farmhouse is described as a “desolate spot” time and again, with all  the characteristics of a forgotten place (2012). Clearly, the elder Lucynell Crater and the younger are not used to seeing others wandering through their isolated part of the world. Therefore, it is appropriate that the disabled Tom T. Shiflet is the wandering worker who stops.  What is also interesting about this story is that O’Connor lets the reader decide who good and who is not. Tom Shiftlet’s name connotes one who is cunning or shady, while hollowness comes to mind when Mrs. “Crater” is mentioned. Both are negotiating deals for themselves. Yet, the one word that Tom teaches the younger Lucynell—“bird”—clearly symbolizes the freedom that he refuses to give up.

     It becomes clear, though, that the younger Lucynell, who is said to look “like an angel of Gawd,” is the only innocent person. It is interesting that although she is “saved” from the two morally corrupt people in her life, she was not the one who was responsible for the change. To be sure, only in a Flannery O’Connor will one read of the mad character speeding toward his fate, yet taking the time to notice the moralizing statement “The life you save may be your own” on a billboard.       

Flannery O'Connor as a child.

Click on the photo above for a link to a comprehensive biographical site devoted to O'Connor, maintained by Georgia College and State University.

Click on the Peacock to learn more about the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home Foundation.  Click here to learn about O'Connor's cartoons.

This is a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci entitled "Five Grotesque Heads."  It is included to illustrate O'Connor's use of the grotesque.  Click here for the comprehensive archive from I found the picture. 

Click here for a fun and informative commentary by the Literary Traveler after she visited O'Connor's home town.
Click here or here for extensive links to criticism and essays about Flannery O'Connor.
Click here for information regarding disseminated lupus.

--created by Jennifer Shaner, whose formatting was much nicer than that of her editor, LG.