Do You Know Your Flannery O'Connor Stories? Quiz

Answer: A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery's second story collection is named after this piece. It is arguably her most famous work, as well as her most terrifying and painfully honest. A rare recording of Flannery reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is available on YouTube. I recommend checking it out--she reads it with passion!

Answer: Jesus

"'Idolatry!' Sarah Ruth screamed. 'Idolatry! Enflaming yourself with idols under every green tree! I can put up with lies and vanity but I don't want no idolater in this house!' and she grabbed up the broom and began to thrash him across the shoulders with it."

Yeah, she didn't like his tattoo very much. The story ends with poor Parker crying under a tree, reduced to tatters of the man he once was.

Answer: A gang of thieving boys grab it

This story is almost parabolic in its simplicity and message: Ruller's pride gets the best of him, and all he is left with in the end is a hard-earned lesson.

Answer: The Geranium

It is particularly chilling to read these stories back to back, because it is reflective of how much Flannery changed as a writer. "The Geranium" was written when she was only twenty-one, whereas "Judgement Day" was written when she was thirty-nine and on her death bed.

Although "The Geranium" is a beautiful piece in itself, her rewrite has a much broader scope of life, and a shocking knowledge of the reality of death.

Answer: Gored by a bull

"She did not hear the shots but she felt the quake in the huge body as it sank, pulling her forward on its head, so that she seemed, when Mr. Greenleaf reached her, to be bent over whispering some last discovery into the animal's ear."

Like many of Flannery's characters, Mrs. May dies a dramatic and revelatory death. The bull is an image of hatred to her as it continues to intrude on her property, and her insistent anger is what ends up (literally) goring her in the end.

Answer: Condoms, alcohol, and pornography

"Good Country People" is my personal favorite, and one of Flannery's, too. It is clean and delightful, funny, and, as always, kind of scary. Definitely a must-read!

Answer: Drowning by self-baptism

"The River" is one of her only stories written in the eyes of a child, and, as a result, Bevel's narrative has a beautiful blend of childhood innocence and Flannery's own intelligence. Bevel, captivated by the act of baptism, attempts to perform the act upon himself in a dangerous river, and it does not end as planned.

Answer: "Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog"

"The girl raised her head. Her gaze locked with Mrs. Turpin's. 'Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog,' she whispered. Her voice was low but clear. her eyes burned for a moment as if she saw with pleasure that her message had struck its target."

Isn't this the best insult you've ever heard? Mrs. Turpin didn't think so. In fact, the statement crushed her resolve entirely.

Answer: A Late Encounter with the Enemy

General Sash is forced to attend his sixty-two-year-old daughter's college graduation. Sash is physically immobile, and Flannery manages to trap us inside his brain, forcing us to see the rather twisted thoughts of this grumpy Civil War veteran.

Answer: A nymphomaniac

Her presence in protagonist Thomas's home draws such an incredible moral anger from him that he is forced to come to terms with his own philosophies entirely.