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THE ISOLATED BEING AND THE MIRAGE OF LOVE IN
FLANNERY O鈥機ONNOR鈥橲 FICTIONtc "THE ISOLATED BEING AND THE MIRAGE OF LOVE IN FLANNERY O鈥機ONNOR鈥橲 FICTION"

Flannery O鈥� Connor says that man in modern times suffers from the absence of love.聽 Her religious view of life enabled her to comprehend the true state of man in society. Her characters are deformed mad men and women, thieves, misfits, idiot children, false prophets and murderers.

O鈥機onnor鈥檚 characters have false prestige and set themselves not only above other human beings but above God.聽 Love and compassion are very much absent from their hearts.聽 With such a kind of fragmented vision, these modern people meet accidents, very violent and grotesque, leading to realisation of聽 the ultimate reality- a reality that is full of love and understanding that makes them return to normality.聽 O鈥� Connor鈥檚 idea is that the possibility of love is the most essential element for man to live a life full in itself.

The reason for the absence of love is described in some of O鈥� Connor鈥檚 tales.聽 According to her, one of the reasons for the absence of love is modernisation of the society.聽 The threat of industrialisation, the suffering of the consequences of the two world wars had left O鈥機onnor聽 notice man losing control over nature which in turn effected his consciousness.聽 He becomes a psychic freak, as the pain increases in him, in the longing for love.

The modern family in O鈥機onnor鈥檚 fiction is a fragmented one.聽 The family which is self-contained promises no security in an insecure world.聽 Love between parents and children, between wife and husband or between other family members is always absent.聽 They always eliminate themselves from God鈥檚 love and also do not realise the importance of love that should be given and taken. Love, the most important human characteristic that can be responsible for a happy family life is missing.聽 Yet, a careful study reveals the fact that the family members have an unconscious urge for love.聽 O鈥機onnor hints at this desire for love, describes the causes for the absence of love and illustrates the bad consequences.聽 O鈥機onnor鈥檚 themes are not only regional or American but universal too.聽 She gives expression to the voice of all the lonely and alienated people of the world.

鈥淭he River鈥� is the best known of O鈥機onnor鈥檚 story in which she presents love as central theme.聽 The child Bevel moves away from a profane world where he can鈥檛 get love, to a world he thinks, where he can find the ultimate solution.聽 He is forgotten and not taken care of by his parents.聽 People around him tease him and threaten him.聽 He lives in a world of total disaster.聽 Mrs. Cronin, his baby sitter, takes care of him but only as an employee.

Once she reads him a story 鈥淭he life of Jesus Christ for Readers under Twelve鈥�.聽 The child learns that a carpenter named Jesus Christ made him.聽 He understands that Christ drives 鈥渁 crowd of pigs out of men鈥�. From this moment on, the child understands the difference between love and hatred that is being given to him.聽 Now he can distinguish between good and bad in human beings and this knowledge lets him go ahead searching for love.聽 He finds it miraculously when he arrives at the river with Mrs. Cronin for the baptism.聽 At the river, the child is completely in the milieu of sacred love.

When he is lifted on to the preacher鈥檚 shoulders, he becomes the center of attention.聽 At this point of the story, O鈥� Connor presents Bevel鈥檚 yearning for love.聽 He has already changed his name to Bevel like the preacher鈥檚, 鈥榤y name is Be Vuuul鈥�, he said it in loud deep voice and let the tip of his tongue slide across his mouth鈥�.聽 (Complete stories 164).聽 The child鈥檚 mind now becomes pure and un-complex.聽 He forgets the loneliness at home and is refreshed at the words of the preacher.聽 He responds to the preacher鈥檚 invitation whole-heartedly, 鈥溾�� to be washed in the river of suffering and to go by the deep river of life,鈥濃��in the River of love.鈥� 鈥�..You can lay your pain in that River and get rid of it鈥︹�� (Complete Stories 159).

Bevel feels the comfort that settles in him with the compassionate words of the preacher.聽 He is not ready to go home now but 鈥渢o go under the river.鈥澛� The author offers spiritual solution for the child, who feels that instead of living in a world that gives no assurance of compassion and security to him, it is better to seek it at higher level, with the divine.聽 O鈥� Connor says that 鈥淏evel鈥檚 peculiar desire to find the kingdom of Christ鈥� represents the working of grace for him鈥�.

Bevel鈥檚 worries are over when he comes to the conclusion that 鈥済oing under the river鈥� frees him from all his worldly problems. 鈥淵es鈥�, the child said, and thought, 鈥淚 won鈥檛 go to the apartment鈥�I鈥檒l go under the river鈥�. (Complete Stories 165).

The boy鈥檚 suffering is caused by his parents who represent extreme secularism.聽 They do not realise either the physical or the psychological needs of the child. O鈥� Connor鈥檚 characters vainly search for human love but succeed in getting the divine love.聽 Next day morning when the parents are still asleep with hangover, the child takes some money for the carfare and moves out of the home.聽 He walks towards the river and is eager to go into it for he is impatient 鈥渢o find鈥� the divine world which is reassuring.聽 Once in the water he does not wait, 鈥溾��he didn鈥檛 mean to waste any more thing; He puts his head under the water at once and pushed forward鈥︹�� (Complete stories 160).聽 The child drowns himself to find love.聽 Devoid of love, the child鈥檚 life in this world is painful.聽 He seeks it in another world by dying.聽 Thus, the research for love continues beyond physical life.

In this story O鈥� Connor conveys a viewpoint that is complex and humane.聽 She stresses the idea that 鈥渓ove is the most special brand of compassion that the human needs.聽 She realises this need. She notices that his world is grotesque without a transcendent context as she says, 鈥淚 have found that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil鈥�.

She thinks that the world has become less hostile to human sentiments and religious sensibilities.聽 As she says, 鈥淚 keep thinking more and more about the presentation of love and charity鈥︹�澛� O鈥� Connor鈥檚 stories are remarkable for their quality of love and grace.聽 She is concerned with human life in the modern world.

O鈥� Connor鈥檚 fiction is gothic and violent, only superficially, the depth of her fiction is precisely to highlight the action of love. In her fiction, the balance of human and divine love is very important. All her characters recognise their need for love.聽 By portraying the redemptive process, the author makes more explicit the effects of love.聽 More apparently, she gives us a sense of God working through human agency.聽 She explores only one idea, that love is a manifestation of divine in human beings.