Can art even exist within naturalist works? Because
art achieves beauty through uniformity and order, but a naturalist shows the
natural disorder of the world through detailed characters and daily life.
According to Maritain, "The imaginative and verbal riches of romanticism,
the instinct of the heart, for all its intimate lack of poise, and spiritual
penury, still keep alive within it the concept of art. With naturalism it
disappears completely" (Maritain, 63). For Maritain, there is no art in
naturalist works; this implies that art can only exist in romanticism because
of how it expresses the ideal and because of its lofty morals imposed on the
characters that exist within the work.
O'Connor
expresses naturalist qualities in her work Wise
Blood, through the extensive use of the grotesque. Haze Motes and the other
characters in this story exist in a grotesque world, whether it is a prostitute
clipping her nails with scissors, wrapping yourself with barbed wire, or
blinding yourself by destroying your eyes with quick lime. The details that
O'Connor gives are detailed to the point of being grotesque, which she uses
masterfully to covey the grimy details of everyday life to the reader. Haze
repents for his sinful life by stuffing rocks and broken glass in his shoes, so
that he injures his feet while he walks around. Why does O'Connor give these
details to the reader? Why could she just not say that Haze hurt himself to
repent for his lifestyle? She gives the details to emphasize the pain he is
inflicting upon himself, because this makes the pain a real experience for the
reader. These details make it both real and believable. O'Connor does the same
thing when she describes Mrs. Leora Watts, "Mrs. Watts was sitting alone
in a white iron bed, cutting her toenails with a large pair of scissors. She
was a big woman with very yellow hair and white skin that glistened with a
greasy preparation. She had on a pink nightgown that would better have fit a
smaller figure" (O'Connor, 17). O'Connor describes the details to the
reader to emphasize the fact that in real life, there are disgusting details
that are experienced every day. And on top of that, Haze has intercourse with
said woman. Mrs. Watts is described in such a way to make no man in his right
mind actually desire her, yet Haze does. Why would O'Connor create such gross
characters? Because these characters show distorted qualities that emulate
natural qualities of people in real life. Regular people can be gross, so
O'Connor makes her characters downright disgusting. The grotesque details of
this story also emphasize the extent of the depravity of her characters.
This
is her way of being an artist, despite Maritain's claims that art cannot exist
in naturalist works. O'Connor is artistic because she uses the grotesque to
emphasize natural, gross details to the reader. Art exists O'Connor's works
because she uses the grotesque to create believable characters. Some would
argue that her characters are seen in a fun-house mirror, because they are
distorted to the point where they are hyper-real, or simply unbelievable. O'Connor
acknowledges this in her essay The
Grotesque In Southern Fiction, "The problem for the novelist will be
to know how far he can distort without destroying" (O'Connor, 821). Does
O'Connor ironically do this in her own work, Wise Blood? She does not, because even though her characters are
very distorted, they are still believable. Any man could become as
anti-religious as Haze if the right buttons are pushed. And any person could
become as crazy as Enoch if he is pushed to his limits. This is why O'Connor
can function as an artist that utilizes the grotesque: she has the balance necessary
to create grotesque, but ultimately, real characters.
Excellent first post! How do you think O'Connor squared what she was doing with what Maritain writes? A couple of things to keep in mind. Dealing with the deformities in human life is nothing new to art--you have it in the ancients and you have it supremely in folks like Dante and Chaucer (near to Maritain's heart). The question is the larger form that harmonizes that vision.
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