Masters Theses
Date of Award
5-2013
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Major
English
Major Professor
Thomas F. Haddox
Committee Members
Allen R. Dunn, William J. Hardwig, Katherine T. Chiles
Abstract
The purpose of this study will be to begin to answer the question, “What is ‘justice’ in the work of Flannery O’Connor?” by approaching three stories—“The Comforts of Home,” “The Partridge Festival,” and finally “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” Each of these stories applies pressure to both individual and social conceptions of justice while fixating primarily on individuals’ just or unjust convictions and principles, usually in tension with those of their family or community. Flannery O’Connor’s work, while it seriously questions the possibility of “perfect” justice among a fallen humanity, exemplifies the paradoxes that arise from the contingency of our conceptions of justice based on her characters’ orientation to human conflict and suffering. My central claim will be that justice, in O’Connor’s work, is always preceded by a love ethic that transcends political realities and familial dysfunction, and because of this, political and governmental arbiters of justice are unable to achieve it completely.
Recommended Citation
Bryant Cheney, Matthew Holland, "Flannery O'Connor and the Mystery of Justice. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2013.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/1598
Included in
Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Law and Society Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons