The Artistic Expressions Of Redemption Concept In Flannery O’Connor’s Novels

Flannery O’Connor(1925-1964)is a famous female writer in the southern United States in the twentieth century,known as “the literary prophet in the south”.She is a devout Catholic,her work has rich and mysterious religious connotation.In her works,she is committed to the performance of the advent of God’s grace to bring people’s revelation and redemption.This paper takes this important theme as the breakthrough point,and focuses on the artistic expression of the concept of salvation in her novels.Through the study of O’Connor’s traditional way of expression,this paper aims to further deepen the understanding of the theme of her novels.At first,the paper introduces the current research background and sorts out the research status at home and abroad.Starting from the perspective of gothic style,this paper explores the causes of much more description about violence and death and the implied theme of religious redemption.Point out that violence and death is O’Connor’s way of awakening the world to help them get the way of salvation,by which O’Connor alluding to people the possibly of regaining their faiths after suffering from violence and death.O’Connor’s works are filled with a large number of Gothic style.In addition,she also creates a far-reaching implication of the image world for readers.Due to her being familiar with the bible,O’Connor borrows a lot of the prototype from the bible in her novels.For her characters,she used the prototype of scapegoat and of Christ as the main references,and through the application of the prototype and the displacement of the character prototypes,she shaped a series of religious figures.In terms of image,“water”,“fire” and “road”are the very typical images in the bible.O’Connor widely used these prototypes to serve their own salvation theme,thus make the novel more religious.Biblical narrative theme of redemption in O’Connor’s fiction has also played a very important role,whose U-shaped narrative structure,narrative repetition and irony narrative have a very large impact on O’Connor.The application of these narrative techniques not only make the work plot full of ups and downs,but also make the works have more thought-provoking charm.O’Connor once claimed that her writing is “salvation” act.In the eyes of O’Connor,people who in the modern society are alienated with Jesus more and more,and what she tries to do is help people to regain their faith and get redemption through her works.