In Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away, a fourteen-year-old boy named Francis Marion Tarwater is the protagonist who denies Christ but finds redemption through a traumatic form of revelation. Tarwater is the great-nephew of Mason Tarwater, a religious fanatic who kidnapped Francis in order to baptize him, and who believes he is a prophet and Francis' destiny is to follow in his footsteps. The antagonist of the story is Rayber, Francis' uncle, who rejects religion and embraces a secular lifestyle. Rayber's son Bishop is mentally retarded and it was Mason's quest to baptize him, but his death prevented this mission, which now falls on Francis. Francis will reject religion and Mason's wish for burial because of his "friend," a voice in his head that represents secular (i.e. evil) thinking.
Ultimately, Francis will accept his destiny and baptize Bishop just before drowning him, which pits his religious fanaticism against Rayber's anti-religious secularism. As he returns home, Francis is raped by an older man who gives him a ride. It is after this trauma that he experiences redemption. O'Connor's view of redemption implies that both secularism and fundamentalism are aberrations of God's will, or a perversion of God's truth. When redemption comes, it is through some manner of traumatic revelation, wherein the individual's eyes are "burned clean" to the truth of God.[1] This analysis will discuss Flannery O'Connor's theology of redemption as it is conveyed through the characters and situations in The Violent Bear It Away.
Though Mason Tarwater is a religious fanatic and believes he and his great-nephew Francis are prophets, Francis tries to escape this destiny. Mason believes he is a prophet and is commanded by God to do His work, which drives him to baptize his other great-nephew, Bishop. Mason also believes Francis's destiny is to be a prophet. "The old man...had raised the boy to expect ...