O'Connor never ends her stories satisfactory. Where is the happy ending, the conclusion, the satisfaction. Everything seems to be left hanging. It leaves me feeling confused and troubled. I left with many questions, it leaves me thinking! How dare O'Connor stimulate my mind, I wanted happy peaceful resolutions. Why would O'Connor ever end her stories in an 'all is well' way? She wouldn't. Her stories aren't about good country people who all live on happy farms. Her stories are about living characters. Characters who are grotesque and appalling but reveal conditions of the human soul. She deals with things that defy naturalism, reason, practicality, dogma etc. O'Connor is trying to show that life isn't always clear to understand and isn't about happy endings. She also shows that in life you aren't given solid evidence, there's something more than what meets the eye. She wants to leave the reader unsettled.
"Then she recognized the feeling again, a little roll. It was as if it were not in her stomach. It was as if it were out nowhere in nothing, out nowhere, resting and waiting, with plenty of time." - A Stroke of Good Fortune, pg. 194.
"The sun was a huge red ball like an elevated Host drenched in blood and when it sank out of sight, it left a line in the sky like a red clay road hanging over the trees," -A Temple of the Holy Ghost, pg. 209.
These two endings are ones that I liked and didn't quite grasp the meaning of. The way O'Connor ends her tales makes me have to re-read the stories, to re-evaluate the text. I'm challenged the think. So even in my frustration, I'm thankful for O'Connor endings. Her endings make me reconsider my points of views on things. They make me want to express my ideas, they force me to cultivate new ones. They help me understand or touch on abstract ideas. So truly, O'Connor's endings are the beginnings of new influences upon my life.
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