Holm is a freelance writer, as well as a genre novel and short story author. In this essay, Holm looks at how O'Connor develops complex human characters who drive this intense and dark story.
In Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away, the reader gets an in-depth look at religious fundamentalism. O'Connor skillfully lets the reader see the effects of such fundamentalism through the eyes of an old man who thinks he is a prophet, a boy who is cynical and questioning beyond his years, and a schoolteacher who believes that salvation comes within oneself rather than from Jesus. O'Connor develops this disturbing story through these complex characters. Using her own understanding and portrayal of human nature, the author allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about the effects of fundamentalism and extremist.....
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