Irony.

I'm a little surprised this wasn't discussed much in class--but I love Flannery O'Connor's sense of irony. There's always a good strand of it running through her stories. The reader gets wrapped up in the character's expectations of what will transpire, and consequently are able to be surprised by the endings. Unlike the characters, we as readers are ultimately able to appreciate the ironic events. Why is it that O'Connor promotes and creates irony so proficiently, though? Well, I think it has something to do with bringing the reader to a point of humility, and ultimately to divine grace. We must realize how ridiculously overconfident we are about our beliefs, or our situations, and have everything taken away from us in order to see where exactly we are. Only then can we see the need for grace and accept it. 


--Commented on Samuel's