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Judgement Day
This is the last story in her Collected Stories.
- GenresShort StoriesClassics
20 pages, Unknown Binding
About the author
Flannery O'Connor
213 books5,533 followersCritics note novels
Wise Blood
(1952) and
The Violent Bear It Away
(1960) and short stories, collected in such works as
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
(1955), of American writer Mary Flannery O'Connor for their explorations of religious faith and a spare literary style.
The Georgia state college for women educated O’Connor, who then studied writing at the Iowa writers' workshop and wrote much of Wise Blood at the colony of artists at Yaddo in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on Andalusia, ancestral farm of her family outside Milledgeville, Georgia.
O’Connor wrote Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). When she died at the age of 39 years, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers.
Survivors published her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969). Her Complete Stories , published posthumously in 1972, won the national book award for that year. Survivors published her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988, the Library of America published Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor, the first so honored postwar writer.
People in an online poll in 2009 voted her Complete Stories as the best book to win the national book award in the six-decade history of the contest.
The Georgia state college for women educated O’Connor, who then studied writing at the Iowa writers' workshop and wrote much of Wise Blood at the colony of artists at Yaddo in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on Andalusia, ancestral farm of her family outside Milledgeville, Georgia.
O’Connor wrote Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). When she died at the age of 39 years, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers.
Survivors published her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969). Her Complete Stories , published posthumously in 1972, won the national book award for that year. Survivors published her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988, the Library of America published Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor, the first so honored postwar writer.
People in an online poll in 2009 voted her Complete Stories as the best book to win the national book award in the six-decade history of the contest.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 26, 2026
Bombshell!
July 11, 2021
I read this as part of the Great Courses: A Day's Read. It was my first introduction to Flannery O'Connor but will not be my last. The main character is not very likable and his racism is hard to take in 2021. Published in 1965, it portrays an attitude that is completely unacceptable today.
"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
The main character is an old white man named Tanner who is from Georgia, brought by his daughter to live with her in New York City. Tanner had been squatting on land in Georgia with his friend Coleman, a black man. He takes pride in his history with African Americans, including his first encounter where he threatened with Coleman who he threatened with a knife.
Tanner takes pride in his history of dealing with African Americans and remembers his first encounter with Coleman when he was going to threaten him with a pen knife. But really, Tanner sees himself as good to black people. It reminds me of a slave owner who genuinely believes he is good to his slaves and that he is acting as a benevolent father.
Tanner has a plan to get back to Georgia. Unfortunately his journey is a bit of a farce, that ends in tragedy and .
"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
The main character is an old white man named Tanner who is from Georgia, brought by his daughter to live with her in New York City. Tanner had been squatting on land in Georgia with his friend Coleman, a black man. He takes pride in his history with African Americans, including his first encounter where he threatened with Coleman who he threatened with a knife.
Tanner takes pride in his history of dealing with African Americans and remembers his first encounter with Coleman when he was going to threaten him with a pen knife. But really, Tanner sees himself as good to black people. It reminds me of a slave owner who genuinely believes he is good to his slaves and that he is acting as a benevolent father.
Tanner has a plan to get back to Georgia. Unfortunately his journey is a bit of a farce, that ends in tragedy and .
June 17, 2022
Tanner and his black companion Coleman live in a shack and operate a still poached on land that has been recently purchased by a black doctor who says they must either move or operate their still for him. Tanner’s daughter fetches him and takes him to New York City to live with her in her high-rise apartment, leaving Coleman behind. Tanner pines for his former life in Corinth; he dreams of returning in a pine box.
Five stars, essential reading for readers interested in five-star author Flannery O’Connor’s work.
Five stars, essential reading for readers interested in five-star author Flannery O’Connor’s work.
July 30, 2021
This short story was published posthumously in "Everything That Rises Must Converge" collection (also published posthumously). O'Connor wrote this as a sequel to the first story in her thesis entitled "The Geranium". And really "Judgement Day" is the flip side of that story. Here, a Negro says, "I don't take no crap off no wool-hat red-neck son-of-a-bitch peckerwood old bastard like you." Hallelujah Amen.
August 18, 2024
Summary: An old man named Tanner has been forced off of his property in Georgia where he lived with a man whom he befriended. Because of this, he moved to New York City to live with his daughter, where he met another, less friendly man who reminded him of his friend back in Georgia. He is now planning to escape New York City and head back to his home. Very reminiscent of “The Geranium” with a more violent twist.
March 8, 2024
The story is achingly beautiful as it has so many layers. It is the story that needs to be reread multiple times to see what was overlooked the first times. It is a story that breaks my heart in a way that it needs to be broken.
November 1, 2025
nice tie in to The Geranium
September 3, 2025
Judgment Day by Flannery O’Connor
When I read a book or a story, I like to know as little as possible in advance, in order to have a fresh opinion, unaltered or biased by previous knowledge. I don’t want to know the ending, therefore I will spare you details of the end of this story, and if possible I like to be in the dark about the life of the author, her views, what the critics say. For about ten years I have been reading the crème de la crème, the books included in the TIME, Modern Library or The Guardian lists of top 100 books.
A book has to be good, to be read, not popular: I will never read Dan Brown, Coelho and the like. Recently, I have started reading the best of humor: P. G. Woodhouse, Jerome K. Jerome…in other words it does not have to be high brow literature, only not speculative, trendy pulp fiction. There is simply no time for that.
And then there are writers like Flannery O’Connor: what is the point of ever reading Brown (there is also a Sandra B.) or Coelho, when you can and must read Flannery O’Connor, Maugham, John Cheever, and Evelyn Waugh… When and if I finish all there is on those best 100 book lists, I will return to O’Connor, Joseph Heller, Steinbeck.
In Judgment Day, the main theme is pretty clear…what do you think we’re talking about? The approach though is very peculiar: the main character is Tanner, an old man from the home state of O’Connor, who has to stay with his daughter in New York. In Eastern Europe, during the cold war there was a joke: “an ad in Bucharest (or Warsaw, Sofia) says: << I change a four bedroom apartment downtown the capital city, for a tent in Central Park”.
Tanner is not happy with New York. Not in the least satisfied, he longs for the poor living conditions he left back home, where he was squatting with his long time companion and friend, the African American Coleman. The owner of the place offers tanner to run an illegal distillery for him or buzz off. Because the owner was black, Tanner prefers to go and live with his daughter, a decision he will come to regret- he would rather work for the black doctor than live in New York. Here I am a little puzzled because Tanner has racist attitudes, yet he has been in the company of Coleman, a Negro, for the last twenty years.
The prejudice of the South of those years is evident in the attitude that Tanner has towards a new neighbor in the apartment building where his daughter, her husband and now his father live. This neighbor is black and haughty, both reasons for which Tanner decides to address him as “Preacher”.
He black man says that he is an actor and atheist, so the notion that he is a preacher is just nonsense.
But Tanner sticks to his position and gets entangled into a difficult situation which I will not describe so that you can savor the unexpected and humor of it.
With the comedy, there is tragedy and it is a bit frustrating to keep from mentioning anything: I was scolded once, for not putting up a spoiler, so now I am careful in the event I have another reader, somewhere, sometime willing to read this.
Religion is not my cup of tea, yet- but reading Flannery O’Connor I become very sure that religious people can be not just smart, but geniuses and spirituality, transcending one’s self is necessary. Flannery O’Connor was a devout Catholic and convinced that there is a Judgment Day and all the rest of the doctrine. I was sure of the contrary, but one reads such a powerful, convincing prose one wonders. If I meet an intelligent person, I listen very carefully. Now I am talking about genius, so I should mind very carefully what I read and what the main message is.
The message is in the title, the text and the conclusion of the story. Has it entered my mind? Definitely. Whether it will be in my soul in time to save me for a potential Judgment Day is another question, maybe solved before I review another Flannery O’Connor masterpiece, like this one.
When I read a book or a story, I like to know as little as possible in advance, in order to have a fresh opinion, unaltered or biased by previous knowledge. I don’t want to know the ending, therefore I will spare you details of the end of this story, and if possible I like to be in the dark about the life of the author, her views, what the critics say. For about ten years I have been reading the crème de la crème, the books included in the TIME, Modern Library or The Guardian lists of top 100 books.
A book has to be good, to be read, not popular: I will never read Dan Brown, Coelho and the like. Recently, I have started reading the best of humor: P. G. Woodhouse, Jerome K. Jerome…in other words it does not have to be high brow literature, only not speculative, trendy pulp fiction. There is simply no time for that.
And then there are writers like Flannery O’Connor: what is the point of ever reading Brown (there is also a Sandra B.) or Coelho, when you can and must read Flannery O’Connor, Maugham, John Cheever, and Evelyn Waugh… When and if I finish all there is on those best 100 book lists, I will return to O’Connor, Joseph Heller, Steinbeck.
In Judgment Day, the main theme is pretty clear…what do you think we’re talking about? The approach though is very peculiar: the main character is Tanner, an old man from the home state of O’Connor, who has to stay with his daughter in New York. In Eastern Europe, during the cold war there was a joke: “an ad in Bucharest (or Warsaw, Sofia) says: << I change a four bedroom apartment downtown the capital city, for a tent in Central Park”.
Tanner is not happy with New York. Not in the least satisfied, he longs for the poor living conditions he left back home, where he was squatting with his long time companion and friend, the African American Coleman. The owner of the place offers tanner to run an illegal distillery for him or buzz off. Because the owner was black, Tanner prefers to go and live with his daughter, a decision he will come to regret- he would rather work for the black doctor than live in New York. Here I am a little puzzled because Tanner has racist attitudes, yet he has been in the company of Coleman, a Negro, for the last twenty years.
The prejudice of the South of those years is evident in the attitude that Tanner has towards a new neighbor in the apartment building where his daughter, her husband and now his father live. This neighbor is black and haughty, both reasons for which Tanner decides to address him as “Preacher”.
He black man says that he is an actor and atheist, so the notion that he is a preacher is just nonsense.
But Tanner sticks to his position and gets entangled into a difficult situation which I will not describe so that you can savor the unexpected and humor of it.
With the comedy, there is tragedy and it is a bit frustrating to keep from mentioning anything: I was scolded once, for not putting up a spoiler, so now I am careful in the event I have another reader, somewhere, sometime willing to read this.
Religion is not my cup of tea, yet- but reading Flannery O’Connor I become very sure that religious people can be not just smart, but geniuses and spirituality, transcending one’s self is necessary. Flannery O’Connor was a devout Catholic and convinced that there is a Judgment Day and all the rest of the doctrine. I was sure of the contrary, but one reads such a powerful, convincing prose one wonders. If I meet an intelligent person, I listen very carefully. Now I am talking about genius, so I should mind very carefully what I read and what the main message is.
The message is in the title, the text and the conclusion of the story. Has it entered my mind? Definitely. Whether it will be in my soul in time to save me for a potential Judgment Day is another question, maybe solved before I review another Flannery O’Connor masterpiece, like this one.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews