Point of View

The stories are all told from the third-person-attached point of view. We can see all the deep thoughts of the main characters, but the reader also gets a more holistic and less biased narrative. For each main character, the reader can understand exactly how the characters view themselves. But the third-person narrative gives a wider perspective and shows the reader the main characters are actually hypocritical.

Setting

Except for the last story, all the tales are set in the South. Some areas are not explicitly stated. However, O’Connor always made the South its own character. The time period is set during the 1960s, right after the government banned segregation between blacks and whites in public. There was extreme tension between blacks and whites, which made the characters have unique feelings and interactions with people of other races.

Language and Meaning

Typical of O’Connor...