Judgement Day (short story)
Encyclopedia
"Judgement Day" is a short story
by Flannery O'Connor
. It was published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge
. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus
. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work. Judgement day contains many similarities to one of O'Connor's earliest short story, "The Geranium
."
Tanner takes pride in his history of dealing with African Americans and remembers his first encounter with Colemen when he was going to threaten him with a pen knife as he did most of the other African Americans who were working with him. Instead of doing this he handed Colemen a pair of hand-whittled eye glasses and they later developed a close friendship. When Tanner tries befriending his African American neighbor in New York and calls the native New Yorker neighbor, "preacher," Tanner's motivations are misinterpreted and the neighbor attacks Tanner causing him to have a debilitating stroke. While recovering Tanner seeks assurance from his daughter that she will eventually bury him in Georgia and not New York. She agrees but he overhears her saying that she will not do so. Although somewhat disabled, Tanner tries escaping back to Georgia but collapses in the stairwell, and his African American neighbor finds him and puts his arms and legs through the spokes under the bannister where Tanner dies. Tanner's daughter initially buries him in New York but eventually reburies him in Georgia when she feels overwhelming guilt about not following his wishes.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor
Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
. It was published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge
Everything That Rises Must Converge
Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of short stories written by Flannery O'Connor during her final illness. The title of the collection and of the short story of the same name is taken from a passage from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The collection was published...
. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus
Systemic lupus erythematosus
Systemic lupus erythematosus , often abbreviated to SLE or lupus, is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect any part of the body. As occurs in other autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks the body's cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage...
. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work. Judgement day contains many similarities to one of O'Connor's earliest short story, "The Geranium
The Geranium
"The Geranium" is an early short story by the American author Flannery O'Connor. It was first published in Accent: A Quarterly of New Literature in 1946 and is one of the six stories included in O'Connor's 1947 master's thesis The Geranium: A Collection of Short Stories...
."
"All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal."—Flannery O'Connor
Plot summary
Tanner is an old white man from Georgia who has gone to live with his daughter in New York City after a doctor of mixed white and black ancestry purchases the land on which Tanner and his friend Coleman, an African American, had been squatting in Georgia. Out of pride, Tanner refuses to operate a distillery on the land for the doctor and instead chooses to move in with his daughter who thinks he should leave his shack in Georgia.Tanner takes pride in his history of dealing with African Americans and remembers his first encounter with Colemen when he was going to threaten him with a pen knife as he did most of the other African Americans who were working with him. Instead of doing this he handed Colemen a pair of hand-whittled eye glasses and they later developed a close friendship. When Tanner tries befriending his African American neighbor in New York and calls the native New Yorker neighbor, "preacher," Tanner's motivations are misinterpreted and the neighbor attacks Tanner causing him to have a debilitating stroke. While recovering Tanner seeks assurance from his daughter that she will eventually bury him in Georgia and not New York. She agrees but he overhears her saying that she will not do so. Although somewhat disabled, Tanner tries escaping back to Georgia but collapses in the stairwell, and his African American neighbor finds him and puts his arms and legs through the spokes under the bannister where Tanner dies. Tanner's daughter initially buries him in New York but eventually reburies him in Georgia when she feels overwhelming guilt about not following his wishes.