Violence as a Vessel of Grace: The Fiction of Flannery O’Connor

Abstract

Scholars have tried to define the grace depicted in Flannery O’Connor’s short stories by putting it in different categories, rarely coming to the same conclusion. I argue that O’Connor is not writing about a new or different kind of grace, but instead the same grace that the Bible expresses. Her fiction can serve as a reminder to our Christian belief that God extends grace, even in grotesque or violent situations.