The Power of Girls and Women in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Claire Katz states that Flannery O’Connor’s portrayal of women and girls is “dominated by a need to expose their weakness.” This essay demonstrates that her view of male and female power evolved throughout her career. In her early fiction, she represents women as weak and boys as powerful. In “A Circle in the Fire,” three young boys dominate a mother and a young girl. In her later fiction, she shows that male power is a mere illusion and that girls and women are more powerful than male figures. This essay provides instances of female power in three of her later works, “The Comforts of Home,” “A View of the Woods,” and “Revelation.”