Piety in the Face - The Humor of Flannery O'Connor

In a world of pious pretenders and religious hippocracy, Flannery O'Connor introduces us to a host of bizarre characters who not only compel us to take a second look around us, but also force us to look deeper into ourselves. O'Connor's use of humor in religion is completely appropriate because the hypocrisy which exists in a society where zealots run rampant without a leash is a comedy in its own right. With the use of distortion and exaggeration, O'Connor brings to light the ridiculousness of self-righteous fanatics who are all too common.The characters we meet in O'Connor's stories are the literary equivalent of the exaggerated caricatures in political cartoons. Consider the bizarre response of the children in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" after having been involved in a car accident: "'We've had an accident!' the children screamed in a frenzy of delight. 'But nobody's killed', June Star said with disappointment...". The purpose of a political cartoon is to get attention and to make us laugh, and to have the side effect of making us think about a serious issue. O'Connor's use of distortion and humor is designed for the same purpose.However bizarre, O'Connor's work usually introduces us to someone whom we know in our own life. How many of us know (or are related to) a judgemental soul like Mrs. Turpin in "Revelation": "Sometimes Mrs. Turpin occupied herself at night naming the classes of people. On the bottom of the heap were most colored people... next to them -- not above, just away from -- were the white trash...". The sad thing is that these poor souls, like Mrs. Turpin, feel completely justified and at ease in their thinking. Mrs. Turpin's "revelation" occurs in a pig parlor which brings a serious issue to a comical setting. It drives home the point that we are living in a farcical comedy of pious pretenders.For those who would deem the combination of humor and religion inappropriate, consider the fact that we need look no further that our own religiosity to find a wealth of sidesplitting guffaws. The televangelists who pollute our airwaves supply us with a plethora of material: Jimmy Swaggart and his feigned tears of regret; the million-dollar death threat from God to Oral Roberts; the Jim Bakker fiasco; Robert Tilton's animated pleas for "vows of faith", and Ernest Angley (the symbolism of this name is comical enough). But it does not stop there. New religious sects and divisions are multiplying faster than bunnies. There are more Protestant divisions than there are calories in a gallon of Haagen Daas, and the doctrine of the Catholic church is directed so poorly that the Pope's name might as well be Ed Wood. So we see that nothing, including religion, is above ridiculousness and, therefore, is not above poking fun at.So, from the ultra-conservatism of Pat Robertson to the liberal "tree-hugging" pagans, how can comedy not be appropriate in such a diverse religious culture? O'Connor realizes that it is not the quiet little old lady in church who captures our attention. It is the wild and outrageous that causes our jaws to drop and take notice. This is the element that she brings to her characters and her work. Comedy in religion is all around us but some of us will choose to see only what is convenient or appropriate to our belief systems. It is comical the way that fundamentalists choose to ignore evidence in favor of clinging to the dogma of what they wish to be true. O'Connor's characters strip away the blinders and force us, through the use of humor, to take a close look at those around us, and a deep look into ourselves. dr seuss cat in hat book