Lesson Plan – The Intense Vision of Flannery O’Connor

 

 

If at all possible, the activities outlined in this lesson plan should be combined with a visit to Andalusia, the home of Flannery O’Connor.

 

Location:          2628 North Columbia Street, Milledgeville, Georgia 31061

                        478-454-4029

                        www.andalusiafarm.org

                        wiseblood@andalusiafarm.org

 

OVERVIEW

 

Flannery O’Connor is one of the great American writers of the twentieth century.  In spite of challenging circumstances, O’Connor created a body of work that is quite impressive considering that she only lived to be thirty-nine.  The fiction of Flannery O’Connor examines human nature with a fierce moral vision, using an unconventional approach to explore concepts such as original sin and the presence of grace.  With vivid imagery, clever satire, and a twist of irony, O’Connor takes her readers to an often surreal world inhabited by prophets, criminals, fanatics, and good country people.  Many of her characters have their most fundamental beliefs and assumptions shattered, often through violent encounters, which ultimately leads to transformation and even enlightenment.

 

 

GRADE LEVELS: 8-12

 

 

AN INTRODUCTION TO FLANNERY O’CONNOR

 

Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah in 1925, the only child of Edward F. and Regina Cline O’Connor.  The family moved to Atlanta in 1938 and then two years later to Milledgeville, where O’Connor attended Peabody High School and Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College & State University).  While in Milledgeville, the O’Connors lived in the Cline family home, located in the heart of town just around the corner from the Old Governor’s Mansion.  Edward O’Connor died of lupus in early 1941, leaving Regina O’Connor a widow with a teenage daughter. 

 

After an accelerated program of three years at GSCW, Flannery O’Connor graduated in 1945 and soon left Milledgeville to attend the State University of Iowa.  Her thesis was a collection of short stories titled The Geranium, which contained the seed of her first novel.  In 1947, O’Connor received a Master of Fine Arts degree but remained in Iowa for another year before going to Yaddo, a prestigious artists’ retreat near Saratoga Springs, New York.  Afterwards she spent a few months living in New York City where she met Robert and Sally Fitzgerald, who became lifelong friends.  For a little over a year she lived at the home of the Fitzgeralds in Ridgefield, Connecticut, all the time continuing to work on the novel Wise Blood.

 

In late 1950 O’Connor began to exhibit symptoms of the disease that had killed her father.  She was initially admitted into Baldwin County Hospital, and then later transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.  Although she was near death, Flannery O’Connor slowly recovered as a result of blood transfusions and injections of cortisone derivatives.  She continued working on revised drafts of the novel even while she was in the hospital.  Her condition forced her to return to Milledgeville permanently in 1951; however, instead of returning to the family home in town, Flannery and her mother moved to the family farm, Andalusia, where they lived for thirteen years until Flannery’s death in 1964.

 

Although her vocation and her illness certainly imposed some restrictions, O’Connor did not live a reclusive life after returning to Milledgeville.  She traveled throughout the country for various speaking engagements, and with her mother, Flannery made frequent visits into Milledgeville to dine, to participate in social events, and to attend Mass regularly at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  Nevertheless, during her productive years as a writer, she spent the majority of her time at Andalusia.  There she wrote every morning until noon and spent her afternoons and evenings reading, tending to her domestic birds, or entertaining visitors.

 

While living at Andalusia, Flannery completed Wise Blood, which was published in 1952.  Her highly acclaimed collection of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, was published in 1955.  She also wrote another novel, The Violent Bear It Away, published in 1960.  Her second collection of short stories, Everything That Rises Must Converge, was published posthumously in 1965.  A collection of nonfiction, Mystery and Manners, edited by Robert and Sally Fitzgerald, was published in 1969.  The Complete Stories, another posthumous publication edited by Robert Giroux, was the winner of the 1971 National Book Award for Fiction, an award that, up to this time, had always been given to a living writer.  Sally Fitzgerald edited a large collection of O’Connor’s letters, The Habit of Being, published in 1979, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named by Time magazine to the list of the top ten religious books of the decade. Finally, Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works was published in 1988 as part of the Library of America, widely recognized as the definitive collection of America’s greatest writers.

 

 

TERMS TO LEARN

Use these definitions as a guide for a Web-based activity.  Students can write a report based on their research of assigned terms (can serve as a sample task for GPS ELAALRL5).

 

Allegory – a literary device in which literal characters, objects, or events represent a symbol illustrating an idea or moral or religious principle

Catholicism – the Christian faith, doctrine, system, and practice of the Roman Catholic Church, which is characterized by a hierarchic structure of bishops and priests as well as doctrinal and disciplinary authority

Cliché – a trite or overused expression or idea

Dialect – a regional variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary

Grotesque – a style of fiction where characters are flawed in such a manner as to invoke both empathy and disgust

Imagery - a word or group of words in a story which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell

Irony - the contrast between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant

Metaphor – a direct imaginative comparison between two unlike things

Plot – a series of related events that make up a story

Protestantism – multiple branches of Christianity largely descended from the Reformation in Europe during the sixteenth century, apart from the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Christian Church

Satire - a piece of literature designed to ridicule the subject of the work

Setting - the time and place in which a story unfolds

Simile – a comparison of two unlike things, using the words “like” or “as”

Symbolism - a device in literature where an object represents an idea

 

 

RESEARCH TOPICS TO CONSIDER

 

Catholics were a minority religious group in Georgia during most of the twentieth century, which was a topic of some of Flannery O’Connor’s essays and letters.  What effect would being Catholic in the predominantly Protestant South have had on Flannery O’Connor as a child and then later as an adult writer?

 

The setting for Flannery O’Connor’s fiction is the American South; however, her themes are considered by critics and readers to be universal.  What makes O’Connor’s work appealing to readers living outside the South?  Do you think her stories have more meaning for readers who live in the South?  Why or why not?  Support your opinion using specific examples from one or more of O'Connor's works.

 

Flannery O’Connor is considered to be one of the best short story writers of the twentieth century.  Based on the definition of the short story as “a short fictional narrative aiming at unity of characterization, theme, and effect,” how does O’Connor earn this reputation?

 

One element of O’Connor’s fiction that attracts so many readers is her humor.  Do you find O’Connor’s stories to be funny?  Why or why not?

 

Flannery O’Connor is a master at manipulating language, placing common words and phrases or clichés in a context that offers a deeper meaning than what initially appears on the surface.  Discuss O’Connor’s creative use of language using specific examples from one or more of her short stories.

 

 

SAMPLE TASKS

 

Based on research and biographical information, students can create an annotated timeline or chronology highlighting specific events in the life of Flannery O’Connor and the possible effects such events had on her life and her work.  This project can take the form of a multimedia presentation if the necessary equipment and software are available.  This project can also incorporate oral history interviews with relatives and community members.

 

Researching the criticism of the fiction of O’Connor and other twentieth-century American writers, students can identify common themes in these works.  Students can be divided into teams and assigned a particular author.  Either in a debate-style setting or as a panel discussion, students can defend why their assigned author is successful in presenting this theme to the reader.  Students should be encouraged to demonstrate why their author is considered worthy of his or her reputation as a great writer.

 

Using biographical information along with Flannery O’Connor’s published letters in The Habit of Being and The Collected Works, students can adopt the persona of O’Connor by writing an imaginary journal to cover one year during her life from 1952 until her death in 1964.  Students should be encouraged to focus on significant events such as works in progress, publications, trips, meeting new people, and so forth.  A follow-up class discussion could prompt students to contrast life in the 1950s and 1960s to the present day.  This project can also incorporate oral history interviews with relatives and community members.

 

Students can select a particular literary device or element of O’Connor’s fiction (allegory, dialect, grotesque, irony, satire, symbolism, etc.), research the element, and compose an essay explaining the element and demonstrating how O’Connor uses it for effect in one or more of her stories.

  

 

RESEARCH SOURCES IN PRINT

 

Brinkmeyer, Robert.  The Art and Vision of Flannery O'Connor.  Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

 

Cash, Jean W.  Flannery O’Connor: A Life.  Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 2002.

 

Coleman, Kenneth.  A History of Georgia.  Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

 

Desmond, John.  Risen Sons: Flannery O'Connor's Vision of History. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987.

 

Flannery O'Connor, edited by Harold Bloom (Chelsea House, 1986).

 

 The Flannery O'Connor Bulletin, vols. 1-26/27(1972-2000), and The Flannery O'Connor Review, vols. 1- (2001- ).  Milledgeville, GA: Georgia College and State University.

 

Gordon, Sarah. Flannery O'Connor: The Obedient Imagination.  Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2000.

 

Gordon, Sarah.  A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia.  Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2008.

 

Jackson, Edwin L.  The Georgia Studies Book: Our State and the Nation.  Athens, GA: Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia, 1998.

 

O’Connor, Flannery.  Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works.  New York, NY: Library of America, 1988.

 

O’Connor, Flannery.  The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O’Connor.  Selected and edited by Sally Fitzgerald.  New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979.

 

Whitt, Margaret Earley. Understanding Flannery O'Connor.  Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995.

 

Wood, Ralph.  Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South.  Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2004.

 

 

RESEARCH SOURCES ON THE WEB

 

 

The Flannery O’Connor – Andalusia Foundation (www.andalusiafarm.org)

 

The Flannery O’Connor Collection at Georgia College & State University (GCSU) Library (http://www2.gcsu.edu/library/sc/foc.html)

 

Georgia Library Learning Online (www.galileo.usg.edu)

 

The New Georgia Encyclopedia (www.georgiaencyclopedia.org)

 

GEORGIA PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

Language Arts: ELAALRL1; ELAALRL2; ELAALRL3; ELAALRL4; ELAALRL5; ELA8R1(a,g,h); ELA8R4(a-g); ELA8RC1; ELA8RC2; ELA8RC3; ELA8RC4

Social Studies: SS8H8; SS8H9; SS8H10; SS8H11; SSUSH17

 

NCTE STANDARDS:

This lesson plan addresses the following standards from the National Council of Teachers of English.