The Violent Bear it Away


Abstract:
For people like herself, for people of gumption, it was a social occasion providing the opportunity to sing; but if she had ever given it much thought, she would have considered the devil the head of it and God the hanger-on.

Body:
I've been on a Flannery O'Connor binge this month. The past few days I've been hamstrung by a sinus infection, but I did manage to finish reading this book. I just completed The Violent Bear it Away, which I think of as a prequel to her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find.

Flannery understood religion better than most theologians. Some of these lines are priceless [spoilers!]:

She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick. - A Temple of the Holy Ghost (189).

(To a haughty atheist): "You ain't so smart! I been believing in nothing ever since I was born!" - Good Country People (261).

She had never given much thought to the devil for she felt that religion was essentially for those people who didn't have the brains to avoid evil without it. For people like herself, for people of gumption, it was a social occasion providing the opportunity to sing; but if she had ever given it much thought, she would have considered the devil the head of it and God the hanger-on. - The Displaced Person (270).

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." - A Good Man is Hard to Find (143).

In the darkest, most private part of his soul, hanging upsidedown like a sleeping bat, was the certain knowledge that he was not hungry for the bread of life. Had the bush flamed for Moses, the sun stood still for Joshua, the lions turned aside before Daniel only to prophesy the bread of life? Jesus? He felt a terrible disappointment in that conclusion, a dread that it was true. - The Violent Bear it Away (315).

The last one, The Violent Bear it Away, is so packed with pithy goodness that it is difficult to tell where one gem ends and another begins. Take this bit of wonderful dialogue on religion:

The way I see it, you can do one of two things. One of them, not both. Nobody can do both of two things without straining themselves. You can do one thing or you can do the oppposite.
Jesus or the devil, the boy said.
No no no, the stranger said. there ain't no such thing as a devil. I can tell you that from my own self-experience. I know that for a fact. It ain't Jesus or the devil. It's Jesus or you (326).

The crazy thing is, I feel like I've met some of these characters Flannery wrote about. I've heard dialogue from hospital waiting rooms - people wondering, if they donate their dead mother's eyes to someone who needs them, will she be able to see in heaven? I've met the charismatic prophet who crept into the back of the sanctuary to hear my sermon so he could accost me on the steps to "correct" my theology - just trying to be helpful, you understand. I've met the determined young man who claims to be an atheist but what he really means is that he is super-angry at God for letting his stepfather molest him. She writes about faith and real life. And if she's writing fiction, and the people she describes are not real, how come I meet them so often?

Posted: Wed - December 20, 2006 at 10:08 AM           |

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