Nothing engages a reader more than making them laugh. As an author, Flannery O’Connor has always been a master at utilizing humor in her work in order to draw her readers deeper into her stories and characters. Catherine Sustana wrote in an article about Flannery O’Connor’s use of humor that “because O’Connor’s humor is so engaging, it allows her stories to pull in readers who might not want to read…her stories at all” (1). Because of this, O’Connor has also attracted a sizeable amount of attention from scholars who seek to further analyze her humor in her writing. Through her exquisite use of Bergsonian humor in her writing, Flannery O’Connor succeeds at enticing her readers and scholars alike. Only the greatest and most renowned authors can pique the interest of other authors and scholars to the point …show more content…
Flannery O’Connor is obviously one of these outstanding authors because Dorothy Walters, who holds a PhD in English Literature, was so taken by her that she made the decision to complete a study of O’Connor’s fiction and publish a book about it about ten years after Flannery O’Connor’s early death at age thirty-nine. In her study, one of Walters’s observations was that in response to O’Connor’s use of humor the readers’ “initial reaction may be a superior grin at the spectacle of a world teeming with inanity. But, through our laughter, we are involved; and we are led to reflect upon the most serious questions touching the human experience” (25). This is precisely how Flannery O’Connor works her magic through her words. She pulls her readers in through her use of humor by involving them and then forcing them to confront the hard facts and flaws of themselves and their neighbors. Walters indicates that when O’Connor makes her readers scoff at one of her character’s flaws, such as Joy-Hulga’s unswerving pride in O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People,” our uneasy laughter is turned back on ourselves as we