The Violent Bear it Away

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.

— Matthew 11:12

Flannery O'Connor is one of the greatest Southern writers, and in my opinion, the finest in the Southern Gothic tradition. Her work is dark and macabre and filled with deeply religious themes, but what truly sets her apart from her Southern counterparts is the unique influence of her Catholic faith. In a predominantly Protestant Southern literary world, O'Connor's devout Catholicism gives her writing a distinct and powerful voice. Themes of guilt, redemption, and the looming presence of the crucifix, rooted in her faith, heighten the intensity of her narratives and accentuate the unique flavor of Southern Gothic literature.

Nowhere is this blend of faith and Gothic style more evident than in her second and final novel, The Violent Bear It Away. In this novel, O'Connor explores the ideas of prophecy, free will, and God's call with both haunting and profound impact. Through vivid imagery and morally ambiguous confrontation, she crafts a story that embodies her rare ability to combine the grotesque and the sacred. The beauty of O'Connor's unparalleled talent to create something simultaneously monstrous and beautiful is on full display.

The Violent Bear It Away centers around a few fateful days in the life of fourteen-year-old orphan Francis Marion Tarwater. Raised in the hills of Tennessee by his great-uncle Mason, a self-proclaimed prophet, Tarwater has been taught to expect God's call. After his great-uncle's death, Tarwater begins digging a grave as instructed but is interrupted by a black couple wanting to buy Mason's moonshine. Instead of fetching the liquor, Tarwater gets drunk and passes out.

Later that night, he wakes hungover, sets his great-uncle's house on fire (believing Mason’s body is still inside), and flees. He eventually arrives at the home of his uncle Rayber, an atheist schoolteacher who lives with his mentally disabled son, Bishop. Rayber is his great-uncle's enemy, and Bishop has long been the object of Mason's obsession—a boy destined to be kidnapped and baptized, a duty Mason has now passed to Tarwater.

Rayber takes Tarwater in, hoping to free him from the religious indoctrination that he believes burdens the boy. But Tarwater’s rejection of his great-uncle's demands escalates into violence. In a moment of rage, he drowns Bishop, yet finds himself instinctively performing the baptismal rites he learned from Mason as the boy dies.

Shocked by his actions, Tarwater flees, hitching a ride with a man who drugs and rapes him, leaving him naked in the woods. When Tarwater regains consciousness, he sets the forest on fire and returns home on foot. Upon arrival, he discovers that his great-uncle received a proper Christian burial—one of the black neighbors, who had earlier come for moonshine, had removed Mason’s body and laid him to rest. At this moment, Tarwater experiences a final revelation: he realizes he has been called by God and heads toward the city, ready to fulfill his prophetic destiny.

The novel’s most profound theme is the certainty of God’s call. Throughout the story, Tarwater tries to escape his fate—he drowns his nephew and burns his great-uncle's body—but God's will is inescapable. The drowning becomes a baptism, and Mason is buried according to Christian rites. When Tarwater refuses to embrace his prophetic calling, he is given over to evil, symbolized by the perverse violation of his soul in the form of rape. Yet even this act becomes a catalyst for his vision of what is to come.

The Violent Bear It Away is fierce, dark, and disturbing, yet paradoxically, it is also a profoundly beautiful Christian story. It echoes the book of Job more than the Gospels, but it is no less hopeful. O'Connor pulls no punches: God's will shall be done, no matter the obstacles. We can run, we can resist, but in the end, His will is inevitable.

-TJS