Rating: 
Summary: oh, fanaticism
Review: A great introspective look on the effect of fanaticism on children. The main character, Tarwater, was kidnapped as a baby by his crazy great-uncle who thinks he is a prophet and that he must save the boy. They live, isoloated, in the middle of the southern backwoods until the great-uncle suddenly dies, leaving the boy, now 14, to his own devices. The boy finds himself alone is a world he barely knows, having learned almost exclusively about his uncle's version of religious history and the supposed evils of the Tarwater's other living family members. To survive, the boy sets out to find his other uncle, a schoolteacher, who the great-uncle hated with a passion. Weighted down with both pride and fear, Tarwater begins to explore the real world for the first time.
A great read for anyone with an interest and perhaps mild distaste for modern religion.
Rating:
Summary: oh, fanaticism
Review: A great introspective look on the effect of fanaticism on children. The main character, Tarwater, was kidnapped as a baby from his crazy great-uncle who thinks he is a prophet and that he must save the boy. They live, isolotaed, in the middle of the southern backwoods until the great-uncle suddenly dies, leaving the boy, now 14, to his own devices. The boy finds himself alone is a world he barely knows, having learned almost exclusively about his uncle's version of religious history and the supposed evils of the Tarwater's other living family members. To survive, the boy sets out to find his other uncle, a schoolteacher, who the great-uncle hated with a passion. Weighted down with both pride and fear, Tarwater begins to explore the real world for the first time.
A great read for anyone with an interest and perhaps mild distaste for modern religion.
Rating: 
Summary: A talented writer, but a terrible book
Review: Flannery O'Connor cheapens her considerable writing ability when producing such a book. The characters appear grotesque and unrealistic. One finds it impossible to symapthize or identify with them. While the use of symbolism and metaphor is excellent, the plot to which it pertains is dry and disjointed. Perhaps most disurbing is the brutal portrayal of violence against children. Do yourself a favor and stay FAR away from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: undeniably affecting
Review: From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent bear it away.
-Matthew 11:12 Flannery O'Connor wrote with one of the most distinctive voices in American Literature; a kind of grotesque amalgam of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Faulkner. She perceived the world in starkly Manichean terms, as a struggle between the forces of Light and Dark, Good and Evil. The Violent Bear it Away is a psychomachia--literally a battle for the soul--the story of a backwoods Southern boy named Francis Marion Tarwater (see The Violent Bear it Away and The Bible by Angela Lucey for more on this). The boy's great uncle, an Old Testament style patriarch, kidnapped him away from an uncle, George Rayber, and has raised him to be a prophet of God. Upon his great uncle's death, Tarwater rejects the prophetic mission and heads to the city to live with his uncle, who tries to wean the boy away from the teachings of the great uncle. Through a series of increasingly violent actions Tarwater is eventual driven back to the woods and a final acceptance of God and his own role in God's plans. This is powerful stuff, O'Connor felt that exaggeration and caricature were more likely to reach a modern audience than more subtle styles ever could. Combine that with her vision of violence as a sort of crucible which forces the individual to make a final choice between Good and Evil, and you've got the makings of a truly disturbing fiction. The book will surely not appeal to all tastes, but it is undeniably affecting and thought provoking. GRADE: B-
Rating:
Summary: undeniably affecting
Review: From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent bear it away.
-Matthew 11:12 Flannery O'Connor wrote with one of the most distinctive voices in American Literature; a kind of grotesque amalgam of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Faulkner. She perceived the world in starkly Manichean terms, as a struggle between the forces of Light and Dark, Good and Evil. The Violent Bear it Away is a psychomachia--literally a battle for the soul--the story of a backwoods Southern boy named Francis Marion Tarwater (see The Violent Bear it Away and The Bible by Angela Lucey for more on this). The boy's great uncle, an Old Testament style patriarch, kidnapped him away from an uncle, George Rayber, and has raised him to be a prophet of God. Upon his great uncle's death, Tarwater rejects the prophetic mission and heads to the city to live with his uncle, who tries to wean the boy away from the teachings of the great uncle. Through a series of increasingly violent actions Tarwater is eventual driven back to the woods and a final acceptance of God and his own role in God's plans. This is powerful stuff, O'Connor felt that exaggeration and caricature were more likely to reach a modern audience than more subtle styles ever could. Combine that with her vision of violence as a sort of crucible which forces the individual to make a final choice between Good and Evil, and you've got the makings of a truly disturbing fiction. The book will surely not appeal to all tastes, but it is undeniably affecting and thought provoking. GRADE: B-
Rating:
Summary: Who is the prophet and who is the walking obscenity?
Review: Grim determinism pervades the lives of an emotionally troubled family in the American South in this gripping novel by Flannery O'Connor. Female characters are curiously absent, unable to survive the withering glare of white-hot emotions that drive the old uncle, his schoolteacher nephew, and his nephew and son. All of these men have been damaged - perhaps beyond repair - by the intensely unforgiving monomania with which the old man pursues his Christian mission as a 'prophet'. O'Connor explores how such deeply ingrained childhood experiences can compromise a boy's world view, and leave him a helpless outsider for the rest of his life. The old man fritters away his days railing against a world that sees him as insane. The schoolteacher, for all that he feels he has freed himself from the old man's obsession, not only finds himself fighting perverse impulses, but allows himself to fall into the opposite trap, putting too much faith in science and intellect and failing to recognize the importance of the unseen, the unheard, and the unmeasurable. The schoolteacher's nephew Francis Tarwater, the protagonist in the story, bitterly refutes both of these legacies, determined to live his own life and follow his own personal, hard-won brand of individualism. The progress he makes toward his ultimate fate is at once terrifying, inevitable, and unforgettable. Despite its religious tropes, this book is not so much a critique of Christianity as it is about a certain kind of mental illness - an obsessive/compulsive disorder that creates an intellectual tunnel vision. The failed relationships this engenders only exacerbate the situation, and leave the sufferer feeling ostracized and angry, encouraging further antisocial acts. O'Connor is more interested in showing how the cycle of violent, antisocial behavior works than in offering advice, so the net result is more depressing than uplifting, but one can hope that modern psychiatric medicine might have found a way to help these people. This is not an entertaining book, but it is brief and throat-grabbingly powerful. Its unrelenting intensity is not for everyone, but it definitely rates as a classic example of Southern Gothic literature.
Rating:
Summary: Who is the prophet and who is the walking obscenity?
Review: Grim determinism pervades the lives of an emotionally troubled family in the American South in this gripping novel by Flannery O'Connor. Female characters are curiously absent, unable to survive the withering glare of white-hot emotions that drive the old uncle, his schoolteacher nephew, and his nephew and son. All of these men have been damaged - perhaps beyond repair - by the intensely unforgiving monomania with which the old man pursues his Christian mission as a 'prophet'. O'Connor explores how such deeply ingrained childhood experiences can compromise a boy's world view, and leave him a helpless outsider for the rest of his life. The old man fritters away his days railing against a world that sees him as insane. The schoolteacher, for all that he feels he has freed himself from the old man's obsession, not only finds himself fighting perverse impulses, but allows himself to fall into the opposite trap, putting too much faith in science and intellect and failing to recognize the importance of the unseen, the unheard, and the unmeasurable. The schoolteacher's nephew Francis Tarwater, the protagonist in the story, bitterly refutes both of these legacies, determined to live his own life and follow his own personal, hard-won brand of individualism. The progress he makes toward his ultimate fate is at once terrifying, inevitable, and unforgettable. Despite its religious tropes, this book is not so much a critique of Christianity as it is about a certain kind of mental illness - an obsessive/compulsive disorder that creates an intellectual tunnel vision. The failed relationships this engenders only exacerbate the situation, and leave the sufferer feeling ostracized and angry, encouraging further antisocial acts. O'Connor is more interested in showing how the cycle of violent, antisocial behavior works than in offering advice, so the net result is more depressing than uplifting, but one can hope that modern psychiatric medicine might have found a way to help these people. This is not an entertaining book, but it is brief and throat-grabbingly powerful. Its unrelenting intensity is not for everyone, but it definitely rates as a classic example of Southern Gothic literature.
Rating:
Summary: A dark book that shines through with the light of wisdom.
Review: I can agree with almost any reader who disliked this work. I can understand why people would not like it; this is a terrible book, but it is a wonderfully terribly book. It is in the terribleness where the lesson lies. The fact that Francis Tarwater acts out on both sides of the extreme to release himself from the religious plague that has netted itself around him is in itself the horror of this whole book. A life of extremes in whatever it is that people do, whether it be in thoughts or actions, can only lead to a form of destruction. Religion and humanistic rationalism are each wonderful things, but only if they are on an equilibrium -- a balanced scale. Tarwater is in the middle, not knowing what side to lean towards, when in actuality he should not have moved towards either. The indecision, doubt and confusion of what Tarwater goes through is horrible, but the lesson we, as readers get from his experience and decisions, make us better for seeing what O'Connor chooses to do with him.We need to see the grotesque blackness in this novel, because it is for our own betterment and salvation. The characters are stark, bold. It is absolutely impossible to symapthize or identify or connect with them. Who would want to?
Rating:
Summary: Wa-a-ait a second...
Review: I think it's important to correct a common misperception that's been cropping up in the reviews here. I can understand how someone might come to the conclusion that The Violent Bear it Away is an exposure of, or an attack on, religious fanaticism, but I can say with almost absolute certainty that this was not the author's intention. Flannery O'Connor was a devout Roman Catholic, and nearly all of her stories (check out especially A Good Man is Hard to Find) carry a very extreme and uncompromising religious message. Everything connected with her - the other stories, her personal correspondence, and the text of Violent itself - suggest that it was meant as, crudely stated, an endorsement of fanaticism; or more accurately, a spiritual call to arms, and an attack of meek secularism. This doesn't mean that the book is only for religious people. Someone reading it from an antifanatic standpoint might well benefit, if only by discovering in the person of the author herself an example of the fanaticism they find so distasteful. A religious reader, though, should not be frightened away by all these reviews suggesting that The Violent is a plea for religious moderation. O'Connor's vision, above all, was radical and unconventional, and for either a religious, an agnostic or an antireligious reader, it presents something to think about.
As for the book itself, I only give it four stars because I think O'Connor's short stories are a better exploration of her themes. In the long form, instead of presenting a more nuanced view of the world, there is only room for more brutality and meanness; which isn't neccesarily a bad thing, but which isn't a good thing either. I would reccommend either of O'Connor's short story collections before The Violent, but for a fan of her work, The Violent is indispensable.
Rating:
Summary: The virus of religious fanaticism
Review: It was predicted by Francis Tarwater's great-uncle that young Tarwater would become a prophet and would baptize the son of the great-uncle's other nephew, Rayber. Young Tarwater is orphaned in a car crash and is raised by his great-uncle, a very disturbed Tennesee backwoods religious fanatic. At the great-uncle's death, young Tarwater comes to live with Rayber apparently for the sole purpose of carrying out his mission to baptize Rayber's young, supposedly mentally defective child. Rayber, a school teacher with Hamlet-like indecisiveness, is, nevertheless, adamantly opposed to his nephew's scheme. He instead wants young Tarwater educated and to overcome his ignorant notions. Even though young Tarwater swears that he wants no part of his great-uncle's prophesies, he is nevertheless compelled to carry out his destiny. Interestingly, Rayber suffers from may of the same neurotic compulsions of his nephew, but struggles to hold them in check. Young Tarwater and a very emotionally flawed Rayber are virtually at war for the young child's soul. Ms. O'Connor freely uses metaphors and symbolism to draw her characters and to embellish her story. She particularly utilizes the elements of nature throughtout this novel: fire, water, earth, air, and often refers to young Tarwater's great "hunger," another elemental force that he cannot seem to satiate. _The Violent Bear It Away_ is very well-written and very frightening in its intensity. Some very disturbing (maybe too disturbing) things occur in this book. It is made perfectly clear that once the virus of religious righteousness infects somebody, there is nothing that person would not do to fulfill his crusade, even if it means trampling on the rights of the innocent.
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