The Double Life of Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit: Illustrating a New Perspective on American Romance Characterization

Abstract: The reading in this essay is made possible by the identification of a mode of distinctive characterization found in the American literary romances, including Flannery O’Connor’s. This insight has generated an original, literary-psychological way of reading that is partly biographical, and focuses on mood rather than desire. Characters that function in this mode are identifiable by how their characterization deviates from realism, and, in addition to their role in the overt narrative, they can be seen as embodying preoccupying feelings of their authors. Here, in a departure from previous readings, O’Connor’s Misfit is read as voicing the feelings of distress that she herself was experiencing after having received her diagnosis of a terminal illness. Reading from this perspective reveals an additional, sustained dimension of significance in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” It also gives further insight into O’Connor’s intention in including extreme violence in this story and others.