Essay Archive - A Violent Illumination of Salvation
A Violent Illumination of Salvation
Flannery O'Connor uses violence to return characters to reality and prepare
them to accept their moment of grace. The New Encyclopedia Britannica
defines grace as the "spontaneous, unmerited gift of the divine or the
divine influence operating in man for his regeneration and sanctification"
(401). At any cost, a soul must find salvation. O'Connor states, "In my
own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my
characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace"
(qtd.in Bain 407). Dorothy Walters, Associate Professor of English ....
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