O'Connor used such characters' inability to come to terms with disability, race, poverty, and fundamentalism, other than in sentimental illusions, as an example of the failure of the secular world in the twentieth century.
Flaneri O'Konor je koristila nesposobnost takvih likova da shvate rasu, siromaštvo i fundamentalizam na drugi način sem kroz sentimentalne iluzije, kao primer neuspeha sekularnog sveta u 20. veku.