The Enduring Chill

"The Enduring Chill"
Author	Flannery O'Connor
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Southern Gothic
Published in	Everything That Rises Must Converge
Publication type	single author anthology
Publication date	1958

"The Enduring Chill" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was written in 1958 and published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. After suffering for many years, O'Connor died of lupus at the age of 39. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work.

Plot summary

The story involves Asbury, a writer from New York who returns home to his mother's farm in the South after being diagnosed with a serious illness. He is out of money, unsuccessful and believes he is dying. His mother finds a local doctor who draws some of Asbury's blood to examine. In bed Asbury thinks about various experiences, including one the prior year when he interacted with the African-American farm hands and, in a show of rebellion against his mother, smoked with them in the dairy barn. However, the hands refused to drink some of the milk as Asbury did. Asbury requests that his mother bring a priest to him against her wishes. She eventually complies but the priest is elderly, hard of hearing, and not the intellectual that Asbury hoped for. Asbury then requests to see the African-American farm hands and gives them cigarettes. The farm hands lie to him and tell him he looks well. Asbury finds this interaction disappointing. Later, Asbury is informed that he has undulant fever, probably from drinking raw milk. The illness will not kill him but will continually recur and cause him pain. Asbury is disappointed that he will not die a tragic death.