Violence and Religion Within Flannery O'Connor's Writing Style Flannery O'Connor can most easily be described as one of America's most distinguished literary artists. She has created a stunning reputation for herself through her novels and the many short stories written during her time. Within each of these pieces of literature are similar styles of writing, techniques, and themes. Each short story or novel written by Flannery O'Connor resembles another piece of her literary work in many different ways. For example, the references to death in her work are extremely abundant as are her use of similes. The reader can find the phrase "as if"� in almost every description that O'Connor is trying to shape. Meaning and theme were also very important to Flannery O'Connor as were her stories' endings. The end is where O'Connor finally reveals the point and the meaning that she had in store.
Flannery O'Connor always had an ending in mind even before she began to write her story.
English: Robie Macauley with Flannery O'Connor at ...
English: Childhood home of American author Flanner...
English: Portrait of American writer Flannery-O'Co...There was always some meaning that she was trying to get across to the audience, but unfortunately she always ran into trouble with presenting these ideas within the story. This is why she always changed her endings many times after editing her stories(Quinn 106). Still, while Flannery O'Connor's endings may be different, her stories' settings were constantly similar. O'Connor continuously used the southern scene with characters that were usually poor, God-driven, and religious(Desmond 98). Religion also plays and extremely large role in Flannery O'Connor's work. Religion was an important factor in each of her short stories. One of O'Connor's short stories that displays each of her writing techniques well is "Greenleaf."� This short story does, in fact, take place on a southern ranch and the references to death and to religion are countless. After reading the...