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.
Bibi muongeaji na mhalifu anayezurura wakizozana katika barabara chafu. Muuza Biblia anampeleka mwanafalsafa mwenye mguu mmoja bandani. Fundi anaesafiri anamfundisha mwanamke kiziwi neno lake la kwanza shambani.
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.
Kutoka shambani kwake vijijini Georgia, akizungukwa na kundi la ndege wa kufugwa, Flannery O'Connor aliandika simulizi za waliotengwa, wavamizi na wasioleweka waliunda dunia aliyoifahamu vizuri: Marekani Kusini. Alichapisha riwaya mbili, lakini anajulikana zaidi kwa simulizi zake fupi, ambazo zilichunguza maisha ya mji mdogo kwa lugha kali, na ucheshi usio wa kawaida, na mazingira ya kufurahisha yenye karaha.
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.”
Kwenye muda wake wa ziada O'Connor alichora katuni, na uandishi wake pia umejaa masihara. Kwenye simulizi zake, mama na sura "pana na ya upole kama kabichi", mwanaume ana nguvu sana kama "dekio la sakafuni", na mwili wa mwanamke mmoja una umbo kama "chombo cha kuzika".
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.
Majina ya wahusika wake yamejawa ujanja. Chukulia simulizi "Maisha Unayoyaokoa Yanaweza Kuwa ya Kwako", ambapo mtembezi mwenye mkono mmoja Tom Shiftlet anaenda kwenye maisha ya ajuza mmoja aitwae Lucynell Crater na binti yake ambaye ni kiziwi na bubu.
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.
Japo mama Carter anajiamini, nyumba yake iliyojitenga inaanguka. Mwanzoni, tunaweza kushuku nia za Shiflet alipojitolea kusaidia kwenye nyumba, lakini O'Connor anaenda kuonyesha kuwa yule ajuza ni mjanja kama mgeni wake asiotarajiwa- na kutikisa mategemeo ya msomaji kuhusu nani ana faida zaidi.
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.”
Kwa O'Connor, hamna somo lililokuwa na kizuizi. Japo alikuwa ni Mkatoliki aliyejitoa, hakuogopa kufuatilia uwezekano wa mawazo mema na tabia isiyo njema, inayokuwepo kwa mtu mmoja. Kwenye riwaya yake ya Wajeuri Wanaiondolea Mbali, mhusika mkuu anatingwa na mawazo ya kuwa mtu wa Mungu - lakini pia anawasha moto na kuua. Kitabu kinaanza na nabii amaesita akiwa kwenye nafasi yenye utata: "Mjomba wa Francis Marion Tarwater alikua amekufa kwa nusu siku tu pale huyo mvulana alipolewa sana akashindwa kumalizia kuchimba kaburi lake". Hii inamuacha mpita njia "kuvuta mwili kutoka kwenye meza ya chai ambapo ulikuwa umekaa bado na kuuzika [...] na udongo wa kutosha kwa juu kuzuia mbwa kuufukua".
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.
Japokuwa siasa zake bado ni za kulumbana, bunilizi ya O'Connor inaweza pia kulinganishwa na ubaguzi wa Kusini. Kwenye "Kila Kinachopanda Lazima Kikutane", anaelezea mvulana anayechukizwa na upendeleo wa mama yake. Lakini simulizi inaelezea kuwa ana mapungufu yake na inasema kwamba kuyagundua mabaya tu haitetei tabia yake kutokuthibitiwa.
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.
Hata O'Connor anavyochunguza mambo potofu ya ubinadamu, anaacha mlango wa ukombozi wazi kidogo. Kwenye "Mwanaume Mzuri ni Mgumu Kupata", anamkomboa ajuza anayeteseka kwa kumsamehe mshitakiwa aliyekubuhu, hata anavyoikaribia familia yake. Japo tunaweza kushtushwa na malipo anayolipa huyu mama kusamehewa, tunalazimika kukabiliana na yanayoendelea kwenye mda tunapoweza kuzingatia kuwa ukatili au ubaya.
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.
Uwezo wa O'Connor wa ajabu na tafiti zake za kujitenga na ushirikina wa Kusini ulimpelekea kutambuliwa kama mwandishi wa Kigothi wa Kusini. Lakini kazi yake ilisogea kupita tabia za kijinga kabisa na za kutisha zilizohusishwa na huo mtindo kuvumbua tofauti na mchanganyiko wa tabia za binadamu. Alijua baadhi ya hii tofauti ilileta karaha, na kuwa hadithi zake zingekuwa na ladha inayohitajika - lakini alisikia raha kuwachanganya wasomaji wake,
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 alikufa kwa lupus akiwa na miaka 39, baada ya ugonjwa kumweka shambani mwake Georgia kwa miaka kumi na mbili. Kwenye miaka hiyo, aliandika kazi zake nyingi alizokuwa akiwaza. Uwezo wake wa kuhama kati ya maudhi na uvumbuzi unaendelea kuvutia wasomaji kwenye dunia yake ya kufikirika isiyoisha. Kama mhusika Tom Shirlet anavyosema, mwili ni "kama nyumba: haiendi popote, lakini roho, mwanamke, ni kama gari moto: daima lipo kwenye mwendo".