Flannery O'Connor's short stories were populated with characters based on her domineering, over-protective mother. Since O'Connor was forced by illness to be dependent on her emotionally smothering mother her entire life, she found ways to assert herself and achieve small moments of revenge through the only way available to her; she wrote shocking, violent short stories often about dysfunctional parent and child relationships.
             Edward O'Connor, Flannery's beloved father, died when his daughter was just sixteen years old. Before he was forced to quit his job because of deteriorating health, Edward O'Connor worked and lived in a different town than his wife and child. Regina O'Connor, Flannery's mother, focused all her attention on her daughter even before her husband died, and became even more smothering and over-protective after she lost her husband. Flannery was only out of her mother's sight when she was in the classroom. Her mother walked her to school and church every day. According to neighbors, Regina O'Connor had a shortlist of approved friends that her daughter could spend time with. On one occasion, two little girls came to Flannery's house to play, but only one was on the list. That little girl was allowed into the house, but the little girl whose name was not on the list was sent home. Flannery lived at home with her mother rather than in a dormitory when she attended college. Making her life even more restricted, her mother rented out rooms in their house to college instructors from the school Flannery attended. Only when Flannery attended graduate school was she permitted to live away from her mother, although she visited often and wrote every day.
             When Flannery finally finished her education and went to New York to work, she at last experienced freedom and independence. It didn't last long, however. Although the doctors had told Flannery and her mother than lupus that took Edward's life was not inherited, Flannery...