Flannery O'Connor: A Critical Analysis of Two Short Stories

Flannery O'Connor, in dealing with her recurrent setting of the post-Civil War South, once said that "[w]hile the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is certainly the most Christ-haunted." In analyzing the representation of Christianity in two of her short stories -- "Good Country People" and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" -- it becomes obvious that her characters' religious affiliations are less spiritual than they are simply a means of obtaining something desired. However, the treatment of religion in these two stories is problematic. While the treatment of religion in "Good Country People" suggests that the expression of religious beliefs can be persuasive when dealing with others, in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," it suggests that the expression of religious beliefs can be entirely unpersuasive.

Flannery O'Connor was most well-known for writing stories about the South, stories that were generally placed into the genre of grotesque. Her stories most commonly deal with themes of religion, race, and class. O'Connor addressed these themes by way of her characters through pain, violence, and ridiculous behavior. A strict Roman Catholic woman, O'Connor commonly used irony and ambiguity in order to inflate the dysfunctional religious attitudes and behaviors of the people in the southern United States.