声明
摘要
Abstract
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Flannery O’Connor and her literary works
1.2 Literature review on Flannery O’Connor’s literary works
1.3 A brief introduction of this thesis
2 O’Connor’s Patterns of Violence Presentation
2.1 Definition of violence
2.2 Various patterns of violence presentation
2.2.1 Grotesques foreshadowing violence
2.2.2 Sudden violence with abrupt endings
2.2.3 Death:an extreme outcome of violence
3 Causes of Abundant Violence in Flannery O’Connor’s Short Stories
3.1 Socio-culturalcauses
3.1.1 The tradition of violence in American literature
3.1.2 Justifications of O’Connor’s employment of violence
3.2 Psychological Elements
3.2.1 Anxiety—psychological representation of modernity
3.2.2 Loneliness—the product of broken familial bond
4 Functions of Violence in O’Connor’s Short Stories
4.1 Revealing Absurdity
4.1.1 Absurdity:the essence of modern lire
4.1.2 Absurdity revealed in violence
4.2 Enlightening Spirit
4.2.1 Violent means and Christian ends
4.2.2 O’Connor-styled baptism by violence
4.3 Illustrating existential consciousness
4.3.1 Individuals seeking meaning in a meaningless world
4.3.2 O’Connor’s characters’ quest for meaning of existence
5 Conclusion
Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS