Violence In Flannery O’connor’s Wise Blood

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) is the most outstanding representative writer of theAmerican Southern literature after William Faulkner with her works known for overwhelmingpresence of violence. This thesis undertakes to study violence in her novel Wise Blood (1952)and argues for its thematic importance to expound O’Connor’s humanistic concern of thecontemporary decline of Christian faith in the West. Arguably, such a practice is too importantto be missed in understanding the meaning of O’Connor’s works. The thesis argues thatviolence reflected in various forms in the novel serves as different means for the protagonistHazel Motes to accomplish his spiritual pilgrimage to Jesus Christ. Hazel’s blasphemous actsamid his “escape from God” are deemed as the unique apocalyptic medium by which he isstimulated to realize the existence of sin and to penetrate his close relationship with Christ.Likewise, the series of his acts of an assaultive nature in the midst of his “trial on New Jesus”are argued to be the redemptive catalyst in arousing him to go back to reality and toreconsider the significance of faith so as to be ready to receive God’s grace. In the same light,Hazel’s eventual ascetic acts and his death during his “return to God” are contended to be theresurrective midwife in directing him back to Christ. Violence working as these means in thenovel is not only under the influence of American Southern Gothic and her painful experienceof disease, but also finds expression in distinctive references to the tales of the Bible. Underthe striking provocations of violence, sinners confess their sins and become new selves, whichrecalls Hazel’s pilgrimage. The perverse town Taulkinham wherein Hazel preaches his newchurch and that is suffused with violence remains just a symbol of the degenerate AmericanSouth in O’Connor’s writing. O’Connor adopts the unique but shocking literary device towake her readers up in order to allow them to perceive the moral degeneration of the Southernsociety, especially the spiritual numbness and the crisis of faith that prevail in the modernworld. The novel under discussion thus demonstrates her hope of a restored Christian faith inthe post-WWII Western society.