The Postmodernism Catholic

Flannery O'Connor is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. Since O'Connor had identified her belief in Catholicism as well as her preoccupation with religious concerns, a bewildering assortment of interpretations with regard to religion arise. Nevertheless, the author posits that it is more than redemption. A more critical reader can readily discover several passages in her works in which the texts misspeak and dismantle themselves.This paper consisting of five chapters proposes to make an attempt at a reinterpretation of O'Connor's works in terms of postmodernism features. To assume that her work is merely a monologue on redemption is to see it only in part, to ignore much of its meaning. Religion, or rather, Catholicism is a peculiar way of her constructing stories with the purpose of showing O'Connor's penchant for postmodernism.First of all, the author illuminates that the intention of writing this paper is for the reinterpretation of O'Connor's stories and initiates her postmodernism concerns escaped from the horizons of critic's attention.Then, two pairs of opposites are discussed: good/evil & god/devil. The author points out that the two sides of each pair are in confusion as the story develops. In O'Connor's mind, good sometimes may be evil and vice verse. O'Connor even goes a step further by undermining the orthodox binary opposition because she obscures the boundary of each set.For instance, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the "good" grandmother calls just about anyone she wants to please a "a good man". She bemoans, with others, the lack of any real respect or goodness in the present day---people make this complaint all the time. At the same time, she lies, and manipulates, and is generally a pain to everyone---she gets her entire family killed. On the other hand, the "evil" Misfit greeted the whole family politely when he first encountered them. Still, He is well-educated by saying "Lady, would you mind calling them children to sit down by you?" When the grandmother announces that she recognizes her captor, the Misfit...