The Violent Bear It Away

novel by O’Connor

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The Violent Bear It Away, Southern gothic novel by Flannery O’Connor, published in 1960. It is the story of a young man’s struggle to live with the burden of being a prophet and is representative of the author’s fierce, powerful, and original vision of Christianity.

Young Francis Marion Tarwater has been reared by his fanatical, tyrannical granduncle Mason to be a prophet; when Mason dies, however, Francis rejects his mission and consequently suffers tortures of doubt and indecision. Although for a time he weighs the value of humanistic rationalism (as exemplified by his uncle George Rayber), Tarwater unexpectedly experiences a vision and comes to accept his calling.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.