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The Violent Bear It Away A Novel Flannery O'Connor 9780374505240 Books

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The Violent Bear It Away A Novel Flannery O'Connor 9780374505240 Books

I really do try to like Flannery O'Connor. I just don't. The Violent Bear It Away doesn't do anything to help me like her more. In this short novel, Young Tarwater lives out in the middle of the wood with his crazy old great uncle. He's never been to school and rarely sees another human, much less town. When his great uncle dies, Tarwater is faced with life on his own. He decides to head into town to live with his uncle, a school teacher, and his cousin, who has an intellectual disability.

The problem is, great uncle was a nut, a self-proclaimed prophet who instilled his nuttiness in young Tarwater. The boy decided it was his mission to baptize his disabled cousin, but the uncle would have nothing of it. He tried his best to educate young Tarwater and help him see the futility of their uncle's crazy ways, but the boy, well, he stays crazy, with tragic results.

There is no question that O'Connor is a great writer. Not a page of the story goes by without a remarkable phrase or sentence that bears rereading. But O'Connor drives me crazy with her depiction of Christianity. The only Christians are completely bonko, and the reasonable people in the story reject Christianity. I know there are several layers of symbolism in O'Connor's religious themes, but my simple mind doesn't read her as someone who is a faithful Christian with an important message about her faith (although she supposedly was a faithful Catholic) but as someone who has serious issues with Christianity. (Here I go again, revealing my shallowness. . . .)

I don't like to read O'Connor. But she strangely draws me in and compels me to read her work. Maybe one of these days I'll actually enjoy it.


Tags : The Violent Bear It Away: A Novel [Flannery O'Connor] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div>First published in 1960, The Violent Bear It Away</i> is now a landmark in American literature. It is a dark and absorbing example of the Gothic sensibility and bracing satirical voice that are united in Flannery O'Conner's work. In it,Flannery O'Connor,The Violent Bear It Away: A Novel,Farrar, Straus and Giroux,0374505241,Literary,Fiction,Fiction Literary,General,Literature - Classics Criticism

The Violent Bear It Away A Novel Flannery O'Connor 9780374505240 Books Reviews

…accept the fact that O’Connor was a devout Catholic. This book is not anti-religion. If you can’t wrap your mind around the idea of a writer being both a devout Christian and a literary genius, don’t bother to read it – and avoid most of English lit written in the past several hundred years, too.

Do a little background reading about the Old Testament prophets what their relationship with God was, what their mission was.
And pay more attention to the devil. Not just the one who talks to Tarwater in his head, but the one who shows up periodically in the guise of human beings (or humans who are doing the devil’s work). These are not the main characters in the book, but incidental ones, like the old drunk on the bench who encourages Tarwater in his rebellion.

These characters are one of the keys to the novel. When Tarwater hears the devil’s voice in his head, he considers him a friend. But when he sees the old man on the bench, he’s repulsed. Remember that old man when the man with the lavender and cream car shows up. (Tarwater is too sick from shock and thirst to be repulsed by the lavender man, but the reader is certainly meant to be.)

Tarwater does his own will – or what he thinks is his own will – when the innocent baby is drowned. But has God’s will not been done, then? What is the significance of Old Tarwater getting his proper buried after all, and of the baby being baptized after all? Note that Tarwater sees the grave at the end, when Buford points it out to him.

As for the scripture quote on the title page, “…the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence,” remember that suffereth means “allows.” Tie this into the idea of God allowing the baby to be drowned, the lavender man to mess with Tarwater, etc. And consider the possibility that the “it” in “…the violent bear it away” is an understanding of (and ability to preach to others) what the Kingdom is.

Compare Tarwater’s message at the end (“the terrible swiftness of God’s mercy”) with the pop culture phrase, “What goes around, comes around.” And please, please remember that Christians believe in an afterlife – mercy is often the chance to see your mistakes and repent of them, not to live happily ever after here on Earth.

(And remember that, for O’Connor, babies like sweet little Bishop end up in the God’s lap. Note the contrast between the religious people’s view of little Bishop – the woman who gives him a green popsicle, for instance – and the atheist Raybur’s.)

Remember that, when the book was written, such a scene as the one with the lavender man was truly horrific. It was not thrown in to be edgy and controversial. It was meant to horrify and to sicken.

Finally, ask yourself, at the end, what (who) was it that God finally allowed Tarwater to fully see (and understand the horror of)? When Tarwater sets fire to the trees in the woods near his home, creating a wall of fire between him and the other, who is he separating himself from?
If you were raised in the rural South or spent the summertime there with someone in your WASP family, you may still suffer the occasional nightmare, as I do, from the trauma left by hellfire and brimstone sermons or a fundamentalist Sunday "school" or two, having been left at an impressionable age (8 to 14) with the constant fear that you and all who have not yet been saved will be eternally damned if you do not save them from this blasphemous world, and spooked by the bountiful ignorance that surrounded you.

Flannery O'Connor, a devout Catholic, was super-critical of fundamentalist Protestants. Her short stories and two novels either explored dark religious themes or were tinged with often morbid religious undertones.

THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY's title is taken from a verse in the Douay-Rhiens Catholic Bible at Matthew 1112 "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away."

I'll forego delving into possible meanings of the title, and any discussion of the novel gives away what happens at and near the end of the book. I'll just say that it's a BRUTAL book, dealing with a 14-year-old boy, fanatical, Southern fundamentalists and the related themes of destruction and redemption.

If you are looking for an enjoyable summer read, perhaps you should look elsewhere. If you'd like to get a sampling of the deeply dark, morbid and haunting world of Southern fundamentalist ol' time religion, purchase now.
I really do try to like Flannery O'Connor. I just don't. The Violent Bear It Away doesn't do anything to help me like her more. In this short novel, Young Tarwater lives out in the middle of the wood with his crazy old great uncle. He's never been to school and rarely sees another human, much less town. When his great uncle dies, Tarwater is faced with life on his own. He decides to head into town to live with his uncle, a school teacher, and his cousin, who has an intellectual disability.

The problem is, great uncle was a nut, a self-proclaimed prophet who instilled his nuttiness in young Tarwater. The boy decided it was his mission to baptize his disabled cousin, but the uncle would have nothing of it. He tried his best to educate young Tarwater and help him see the futility of their uncle's crazy ways, but the boy, well, he stays crazy, with tragic results.

There is no question that O'Connor is a great writer. Not a page of the story goes by without a remarkable phrase or sentence that bears rereading. But O'Connor drives me crazy with her depiction of Christianity. The only Christians are completely bonko, and the reasonable people in the story reject Christianity. I know there are several layers of symbolism in O'Connor's religious themes, but my simple mind doesn't read her as someone who is a faithful Christian with an important message about her faith (although she supposedly was a faithful Catholic) but as someone who has serious issues with Christianity. (Here I go again, revealing my shallowness. . . .)

I don't like to read O'Connor. But she strangely draws me in and compels me to read her work. Maybe one of these days I'll actually enjoy it.