Am I Sanctimonious?

The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am still thinking about these stories and I finished them a week ago.

These stories!

First,I am not generally a short story fan. But, I kept running into mentions of Flannery O'Connor in different articles, and her literary greatness,so I decided to give her a try. It helped that I only paid $1.99 through a Kindle book deal.

These are not warm, funny heartwarming stories. In fact, many of them are a bit macabre, and honestly, I don't know exactly why, but I was compelled to read them all. Of course, now I am just busting to talk about them and I can't find anyone who has read them.Bah!

These stories beg to be talked about. Why? Because you will come up against your own sanctimonious attitudes. Because they make you think! Because the stories make you realize it is just a reality that there are bad people and bad things in this world.

Perhaps you already know this. Perhaps you don't want to think the best of everyone you meet like I do. My family is forever telling me I am naive,and guess what -I think I prefer to stay that way.

The first bothersome thing for me in the book is the use of the word "nigger". It's as bad as that "f" word that authors want to overuse these days. Actually, worse. The author was from the South, so I'm sure she captured the dialect of the times, but it was hard to get used to. Then there's the fact that many of the main characters saw themselves as so superior to black people, to "white trash", or to their parents. The main character in most of the stories could find nothing amiss in themselves, but only in those around them. It was not possible that they were in the wrong. Stories included people who were mean spirited or just plain bad. The people in the stories did not have much patience with anyone who was not them.

O'Connor's stories made me think: How often am I, without even thinking about it, making a judgment about another person-thinking myself superior to them. I don't believe you would often catch me being unkind to someone, but what is going on in my mind, am I being unkind in there? Am I choosing to be part of that person's story, or am I distancing myself from them. Am I being religious instead of clothing myself with "compassion,kindness,humility, gentleness and patience"?(Col. 3:12). In other words, is my Christianity real?

Then there's the whole bad people thing. In one of the stories(The Lame Shall Enter First), a father befriends a boy (sadly to the detriment of his relationship with his own son), and nothing he does makes a difference in that boy's life. The boy remains bad. This story really has my wheels turning. What does that mean for me personally and as a Christian? What does that mean for the world? (I told you I was naive!)

For me, O'Connor's stories are making me take a look at myself and my attitudes about people. About what I believe and how I put that in play. They are bothering me. I don't think that is a bad thing, but be prepared if you choose to try them for yourself.

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