Innocence Is Bliss in OConnors Short Stories Essay -- Literary Analy

There’s is no freedom from the post-lapsarian world. The attributes of this fallen world are very prominent in O’Connor’s short stories. However, she chooses not to include all of her characters into this nutshell. Instead, she gives her female characters innocence and monist ideals. Ironically, O’Connor isolates them from the rest and gives them a pitiful image as she goes on to mock their ways. The obliviousness and innocence of the characters is effortlessly destroyed in the post-lapsarian world because of their lack of foundation. O’Connor centers her stories on the attributes of the post-lapsarian world, which is the world after the â€Å"Forbidden Fruit† was eaten in the Garden of Eden. The fact that these stories were written soon after WWI also obstructed their outcome. The carnage of the war exemplifies the malevolent nature of O’Connor’s characters. For instance, in her story: â€Å"The Misfit,† a mass slaughter of an entire family occurs. After killing the last family member, The Misfit tells his assistant: â€Å"Take her off and throw her where you threw the others,† (O’Connor 22). The Misfit doesn’t bother looking back at the massacre he had just executed. This is a manner of establishing that such cruel and spiteful actions take place only in the evil of the post-laspsarian world. Likewise, in â€Å"A Circle in the Fire,† three boys take the liberty of allowing themselves to Mrs. Cope’s farm with no intentions of leaving. Not only does Mrs. Cope welcome the boys, she is also very hospitable towards them. Yet, the malicious and ill-mannered actions of these boys force Mrs. Cope feel obliged to them to leave. In response to the insult of being asked to leave, they decide to incinerate her farm. O’Connor creates these charac... ...ld beyond their homes. The characters learn the hard way that there is no escaping reality, especially since they are parts of it. This enlightening is why their blissfully happy lives have to be terminated. Works Cited 1. O'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977. Print. 2. Schaum, Melita. ""Erasing Angel": The Lucifer-Trickster Figure in Flannery O'Connor's Short Fiction." The Southern Literary Journal 33.1. Department of English of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000. Web. 12 July 2010. . 3. Sparrow, Stephen. "The Innocents of Flannery O'Connor." Flannery O'Connor: Comforts of Home, The Flannery O'Connor. N.p., 22 July 2002. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. .