A garrulous grandmother and a roaming bandit face off on a dirt road. A Bible salesman lures a one-legged philosopher into a barn. A traveling handyman teaches a deaf woman her first word on an old plantation.
Nenek rewel dan penjahat bertemu di jalan berlumpur. Penjual Injil memaksa orang bijak difabel ke dalam gudang. Tukang kayu pengelana mengajarkan orang bisu kata pertamanya di ladang.
From her farm in rural Georgia, surrounded by a flock of pet birds, Flannery O’Connor scribbled tales of outcasts, intruders and misfits staged in the world she knew best: the American South. She published two novels, but is perhaps best known for her short stories, which explored small-town life with stinging language, offbeat humor, and delightfully unsavory scenarios.
Dari perkebunan di pedalaman Georgia, dikelilingi burung peliharaan, Flannery O’Connor menuliskan kisah tentang orang buangan, orang asing dan orang luar Berlatarkan dunia yang dia kenal Amerika Selatan. Dia sudah menerbitkan dua novel, Tapi lebih terkenal dengan karya cerita pendeknya. Membahas kehidupan orang kecil dengan bahasa tajam, candaan nyeleneh, dan skenario yang menyindir.
In her spare time O’Connor drew cartoons, and her writing is also brimming with caricature. In her stories, a mother has a face “as broad and innocent as a cabbage,” a man has as much drive as a “floor mop,” and one woman’s body is shaped like “a funeral urn.”
Di waktu luangnya, O’Connor membuat kartun, Dan tulisannya dipenuhi dengan karikatur. Dalam ceritanya, seorang ibu memiliki wajah "lebar dan polos seperti kubis,” Pria memiliki semangat layaknya "kain pel,” dan wanita berbentuk seperti "kendi kremasi."
The names of her characters are equally sly. Take the story “The Life You Save May be Your Own,” where the one-handed drifter Tom Shiftlet wanders into the lives of an old woman named Lucynell Crater and her deaf and mute daughter.
Penamaan karakternya cerdik. Sebagai contoh, “The Life You Save May be Your Own,” Pemulung difabel, Tom Shiftlet, masuk ke dalam kehidupan Wanita tua bernama Lucynell Crater. Dan anak perempuannya yang tunarungu.
Though Mrs. Crater is self-assured, her isolated home is falling apart. At first, we may be suspicious of Shiftlet’s motives when he offers to help around the house, but O’Connor soon reveals the old woman to be just as scheming as her unexpected guest– and rattles the reader’s presumptions about who has the upper hand.
Meski Mrs. Crater mandiri, rumahnya yang terpencil mulai rusak. Pertama, kita mungkin curiga dengan maksud Shiftlet saat ingin membantu membetulkan rumah, Tapi O’Connor mengungkap bahwa wanita tua itu sejahat pria tersebut dan membuat bingung pembaca siapa yang lebih unggul.
For O’Connor, no subject was off limits. Though she was a devout Catholic, she wasn’t afraid to explore the possibility of pious thought and unpious behavior co-existing in the same person. In her novel The Violent Bear it Away, the main character grapples with the choice to become a man of God – but also sets fires and commits murder. The book opens with the reluctant prophet in a particularly compromising position: “Francis Marion Tarwater’s uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave.” This leaves a passerby to “drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it […] with enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.”
Bagi O’Connor, tidak ada batasan dalam menulis. Meski dirinya penganut katolik, Dia tidak takut membahas pikiran dan perilaku yang bermoral atau tidak yang ada pada seseorang. Di novelnya, The Violent Bear it Away, Tokoh utama berjuang menjadi pendeta tapi juga melakukan pembunuhan. Cerita dimulai saat tokoh utama di posisi yang mecurigakan: "Paman Francis Marion Tarwater sudah meninggal setengah hari saat anaknya terlalu mabuk untuk menggali kuburannya.. Ini membuat orang sekitar menyeret jasadnya dari meja makan di mana dia berada dan menguburnya. Dengan tanah sekadarnya agar anjing tak menggalinya."
Though her own politics are still debated, O’Connor’s fiction could also be attuned to the racism of the South. In “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” she depicts a son raging at his mother’s bigotry. But the story reveals that he has his own blind spots and suggests that simply recognizing evil doesn’t exempt his character from scrutiny.
Meski politiknya masih diperbincangkan, Karya O’Connor sesuai dengan perlakuan rasis di Amerika Selatan. Di “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” Sang anak menentang kefanatikan ibunya. Tapi dijelaskan sang anak memiliki kelemahan serta memberi kesan menyadari adanya kesalahan tidak membebaskan karakternya yang perfeksionis.
Even as O’Connor probes the most unsavory aspects of humanity, she leaves the door to redemption open a crack. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” she redeems an insufferable grandmother for forgiving a hardened criminal, even as he closes in on her family. Though we might balk at the price the woman pays for this redemption, we’re forced to confront the nuance in moments we might otherwise consider purely violent or evil.
Meski O’Connor membahas aspek tidak mengenakkan. Dia tetap membuat pertobatan terbuka lebar. Di “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Dia memaafkan nenek menyebalkan karena mengampuni penjahat kejam, Meski penjahat itu dekat dengan keluarga nenek itu. Walau kita mungkin menolak cara nenek itu untuk penebusan Kita dipaksa menghadapi suasana kejadian ini Di mana dapat dianggap jahat atau kejam.
O’Connor’s mastery of the grotesque and her explorations of the insularity and superstition of the South led her to be classified as a Southern Gothic writer. But her work pushed beyond the purely ridiculous and frightening characteristics associated with the genre to reveal the variety and nuance of human character. She knew some of this variety was uncomfortable, and that her stories could be an acquired taste – but she took pleasure in challenging her readers.
Kemampuan O'Connor membentuk cerita aneh Serta penjelajahannya tentang kepicikan dan kepercayaan di Amerika Selatan membuatnya dikenal sebagai penulis gotika di Amerika Selatan. Tapi karyanya melampaui karakteristik yang aneh dan menyeramkan diikuti dengan aliran di mana mengungkap macam dan nuansa karakter manusia. Dia paham beberapa ceritanya tidak nyaman, dan dibutuhkan selera tersendiri. Tapi dia menantang pembacanya saat membaca karyanya.
O’Connor died of lupus at the age of 39, after the disease had mostly confined her to her farm in Georgia for twelve years. During those years, she penned much of her most imaginative work. Her ability to flit between revulsion and revelation continues to draw readers to her endlessly surprising fictional worlds. As her character Tom Shiftlet notes, the body is “like a house: it don’t go anywhere, but the spirit, lady, is like an automobile: always on the move.”
O’Connor meninggal karena lupus saat berusia 39 tahun, Penyakit itu mengurungnya di perkebunan, Georgia selama 12 tahun. Selama itu, Dia berhenti menulis. Kemampuannya untuk berganti antara rasa takut dan rasa sadar Selalu mendorong pembacanya ke dalam dunia fiksinya yang mengejutkan. Seperti karakternya Tom Shiftlet berkata, Raga layaknya rumah: Takkan pergi ke mana pun. Tapi jiwa, Nona, seperti mobil: Selalu bergerak.”