Truth in Art: Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor

In the third section of his book Grace and Necessity, Rowan Williams takes time to discuss the art and philosophy behind the literary work of Flannery O’Connor. Regarded as one of America’s greatest fiction writers, her work wrestles with what she refers to as the “stinking mad shadow of Jesus.” The daughter of Georgia’s two oldest and most devout Roman Catholic families, O’Connor became a strong apologist for Roman Catholicism throughout the twentieth century. 

Writers of faith encounter questions and struggles unique to their beliefs. In the art of writing, how much should the author impose their own beliefs and moral convictions upon their characters? O’Connor’s writings hold up a mirror to her own spiritual journeys; often contemplating the “search for God and the quest for the holy.” However, her spiritual connection does not seem to be a limitation. On the contrary, O’Connor’s work centers predominantly on fundamentalist Protestants, whom she commended for their search for Truth. For O’Connor, it is not a matter of writing about character and action, but rather speaking with character and action. She goes into this at length, stating;

"This means that [the work] must carry its meaning inside it. It means that any abstractly expressed compassion or piety or morality in a piece of fiction is only a statement added to it. It means that you can't make an inadequate dramatic action complete by putting a statement of meaning on the end of it or in the middle of it or at the beginning of it. It means that when you write fiction you are speaking with character and action, not about character and action."

Williams goes so far as to say that in regards to the work, to question the moral consequences of creating is to interrupt integrity. Williams says,

“The paradoxical point is that if the writer urgently wants to lay bare a moral universe or a dogmatic structure, she has to do so exclusively in the terms of the work itself, not by introducing a moral excursus or by holding back because of possible undesirable results in a venerable reader.”

A self portrait by O'Connor.

So, therefore, the writer must let go of their need for self-expression and search for the central necessity of the work at hand. The author must act as narrator, but within the work of fiction - as a character. In this way, all personal presuppositions and opinions of truth, morality, and religion are shed so that the work may speak for itself. It is easy for artists to fall into a mindset that they cater solely to their audience, and can edit work beyond recognition in an attempt to please the crowd. But this, as discussed by O’Connor and Williams, is not portraying truth nor being honest in the work. 

Artists do not wake one day and decide that they will be an artist. The inherent need to create is something which an individual is born into - they depend upon it. They create because they must, and the process of creation is something which the artist serves. When inspiration strikes and a work demands to be brought into existence, the artist must be true to their revelation. To impress one’s own beliefs upon a work is to compromise its integrity - to compromise the truth.

In a letter O’Connor sent to a friend, she writes;

“Strangle the word dreams. You don’t dream up a form and put the truth in it. The truth creates its own form. Form is necessity in the work of art." 

Sources

Gordon, Sarah. "Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 29 September 2014. Web. 20 October 2014.

Webb, Charles Harper. "The Art of Sentence: Flannery O'Connor." Tin House. 3 April 2012. Web. 20 October 2014.

Grace and Necessity by Rowan Williams