Vision functions as the dynamic principle in Flannery O'Connor's fiction. From her first novel Wise Blood, through The Violent Bear It Away, and in both collections of short stories, O'Connor portrays characters who are morally blind. Her people project their true selves through the physical qualities of their eyes—through color, shape, and intensity. And their perception of the world is controlled by their limited powers of sight. The reader enters this world through the eyes of the characters, experiencing an environment fraught with extraordinary signs in the form of natural imagery. Among the recurring images a triad dominates: the treeline, the sun, and the color purple. Essentially, the tree-line suggests a delineation between the known and the unknown; the sun reflects light or enlightenment; and the color purple indicates bruising and pain. But on the metaphysical level, this triad represents an existential awareness and a spiritual process. (p. 31)

The focus on the eyes of the characters not only provides greater insight for the reader, but it also increases the reader's awareness of the conflict between individual perception and truth…. By assuming the objective point of view, O'Connor the narrator focuses closely on the telling details, especially the eyes of the characters and other elements that will inform the reader….

Vision controls not only the way a person views himself and others, but also the way he perceives nature. One of the recurring images O'Connor employs from the natural environment is the "tree-line," a demarcation of what is immediate to a character's experience and that which lies beyond. Sudden consciousness of the tree-line on the part of a character foreshadows an impending crisis. (p. 32)

Sun images work along with the tree-line images to convey impending light or enlightenment. In an O'Connor story the intensity of the sun is most acute at the point where the hero is suddenly enlightened, having experienced a moment of truth—a process like James Joyce's epiphany…. The strength of the sun is not only a reflection of the illumination occurring in the psyche of the character; it also high-lights the source of power—truth and Divine intervention. (p. 33)

The red-golds of the sun contrast with the purple tones of the imagery surrounding the moment of enlightenment. Purple suggests bruising, pain, and self-abnegation—it is always part of the process of change depicted in an O'Connor story…. The classical idea of suffering as a prelude to knowledge as well as the irony operative in classical tragedy permeates O'Connor's fiction. If illumination is to occur, the individual's defenses must be shattered in a kind of shock therapy. The outcome is a collision with truth—a metaphysical experience.

The totality of the natural imagery that reflects this metaphysical experience represents ultimately a spiritual process basic to O'Connor's orientation. The juxtaposition of earth and sky, the role of the sun, the use of the color purple portray the process of Redemption. Representing infinity and the omnipresent Divinity, the sky hovers over the earth separated by the horizon or tree-line. The barrier is penetrated by the rays of the sun—the influence of God called grace. The sun causes a purpling effect or a form of self-abnegation on the part of the individual that prepares him for change. The color purple is traditionally used in Christian liturgy to symbolize penetential seasons. The fact that the occasion for the moment of illumination arrives unexpectedly, often ironically, indicates the unique power of Divine intervention…. All of O'Connor's works are concerned with Christian values, even though some of her short stories do not touch upon religion directly. She manages to evoke a sense of the redemptive process throughout her works, however, by reinforcing the moment of truth with symbolic imagery. (pp. 33-4)

The momentum of Flannery O'Connor's fiction is basically hopeful in assessing man's limitations amid the constant possibility of redemption. Although man is thwarted by his lack of vision, the light remains a hovering presence—ready to pursue, if necessary, the recalcitrant. The process of enlightenment, so basic to O'Connor's works, is reinforced by natural imagery…. The fusion of character, situation, and imagery culminates in a unique experience, a metaphysical awakening, a spiritual illumination. (p. 36)