“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”: A Plot Explicative “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a fictional short story first published in 1953 by Flannery O’Connor. The story follows a simple chronological structure, and the plot line is straightforward enough for readers to follow, but not too mundane that they lose interest. While there are many equivalent characters in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and the story isn't long enough to extensively develop any of these characters, the best choice for the protagonist is the grandmother. She is found in much of the dialogue, and her stubborn and persuasive personality influences many of the events. For example, the very first sentence is “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida.” The antagonists of the …show more content…
Occasionally, the grandmother will tell stories from her past, but otherwise the timeline is straightforward and easy to follow. The story can be divided into four main parts: the short conversations in Bailey’s house, the time spent in the car, the family's lunch at Red Sam’s, and the car wreck until the end. Most action takes place in the fourth part, near the end of the story. The conversation between the grandmother and The Misfit is especially notable; it reiterates the grandmother’s stubborn and controlling personality and exposes the reader into the mysteriously diabolical demeanor of The Misfit. O’Connor uses explicit detail in her writing to capture the image of the Deep South in a time of racial equality and frustration. The grandmother, seeing a black boy standing in the door of a shack, comments “ ‘He probably didn't have any [pants]. Little niggers in the country don't have things like we do. If I could paint, I'd paint that picture.’ ” O’Connor indeed paints us a picture—a verbal picture. Her intricate details about Georgia’s countryside and the southern way of life elicit images so vivid that readers will feel like a part of the story. She writes, “The brilliant red clay banks slightly streaked with purple; and the various crops that made rows of green lace-work on the ground.” Picturesque descriptions like this one, along with dirt roads and venues like The Tower, …show more content…
However, the parallels go much further. The family represents the average American family chasing the average American Dream; The Misfit and his gang represent the growing hostility of crime threatening those families. Growing paranoia conflicts with families’ quality of life. O’Connor uses several elements of mystery and suspense to captivate her audience. The grandmother’s suspended thought prior to the wreck is a true cliff hanger. The overall sense emanated about The Misfit is a mystery in itself. The story first mentions him in the first paragraph with the grandmother rumoring, “ ‘Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is alone from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people.’ ” This statement, along with many other references throughout the story, foreshadows the appearance of the Misfit at the end of the story. In the business of capturing and holding readers’ attention, “A Good Man Is Hard
Understanding a story requires understanding the characters and how they feel. Misfit, the character from “ A good man is hard to find,” is a man who had be...
After the accident that the grandmother had unintentionally caused by manipulating the image of a nonexistent house into her family’s head, they run into the Misfit. No one else in the family knew who he was or anything about him. They all thought someone had come to their rescue and was going to fix the car, but nothing gets over on the grandmother. Blatantly putting the whole family in danger she blurts out, “’You’re the Misfit!’…’Yes’m…but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t of reckernized me’” (192). At this point in time, she knows that she is going to die, trying to save herself and not caring about the rest of her family clearly as she has witnessed the Misfit’s goons kill off her whole family, she tries to manipulate him. She brings up that he is a “good man at heart” (192) and telling him if he “would pray…Jesus would help” (194). That was just simply her trying to plea for her life, but when she realized she was getting nowhere her “head cleared for an instant” (196), she knew this was an opportunity to try and manipulate the Misfit into letting her go, to make him feel like he didn’t have to be a killer anymore, to comfort him “she reached out and touched him on the shoulder” (196). The Misfit jolted away and shot her three times in the chest because he saw through her manipulative ways which if clear when he
Flannery O’Connor is a master of the ironic, the twisted, and the real. Life is filled with tragic irony, and she perfectly orchestrates situations which demonstrate this to the fullest extent. A Good Man is Hard to Find is an excellent example of the mangled viewpoint which makes her work as compelling and striking as it is.
O’Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The Story and Its Writer. Charters, Ann. Compact 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/ST. Martin's, 2011. 676-687. Print.
By analyzing, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” these two themes jump out at the reader. Growing up in the mid-1920’s in Georgia was a huge influence on O’Connor. Less than a decade before her birth, Georgia was much different than it was at her birth. Slaves labored tirelessly on their master’s plantations and were indeed a facet of everyday life. However, as the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began, slaves were not easily assimilated into Southern culture.
Nadal, Marita. "Temporality And Narrative Structure In Flannery O'connor's Tales." Atlantis (0210-6124) 31.1 (2009): 23-39. Fuente Académica. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
A story without style is like a man without personality: useless and boring. However, Flannery O’Connor incorporates various different styles in her narratives. Dark humor, irony, and symbolism are perhaps the utmost powerful and common styles in her writing. From “Revelation” and “Good Country People” to “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” all of O’Connor’s stories consist of different styles in writing.
The narrator starts the story giving background information about the grandmother and her son, Bailey. The narrator explains that the "grandmother didn't want to go to Florida" (320). Although a major conflict could result from her dislike of the family's choice of vacation spots, it does not. When the grandmother first speaks she asks Bailey to read a newspaper article that she has found. She attempts to change his mind about not going to Florida, by saying, "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people..." (320). Bailey does not ...
The Misfit is clearly a criminal, but he calls himself “The Misfit” because he “can’t make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment” (429). The Misfit deflected responsibility from himself and refuses to bear the results of his conflicts. Furthermore, the grandmother continuously declares that she is a so called “lady” though she is clearly racist, and is the reason why her family gets murdered. The grandmother made her son that she wanted to see until she realized that it was in a different state. In addition to all of this, she begs for her life, but never asks The Misfit to spare her family. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, it says “Throw me that shirt, Bobby Lee,” The Misfit said. The shirt came flying at him and landed on his shoulder and he put it on. The grandmother couldn’t name what the shirt reminded her of” (429). The grandmother did not even recognize that The Misfit had killed her son and taken his
The conversations between The Misfit and the Grandmother are quite interesting. When she is face-to-face with him and her death is imminent, she is the least willing of the family to accept it. Only the grandmother attempts to talk her way out of the situation even though the rest of her family lies assassinated in the woods behind her. In a last effort to escape with her life, she offers The Misfit all the money she has. He responds, “‘Lady,’ The Misfit said, looking beyond her far into the woods, ‘there never was a body that give the undertaker a tip'” (O’Connor 30).
O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." The Story and Its Writer An Introduction to Short Fiction. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2011. 1042-053. Print.
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Connor uses literary devices such as conflicts, imagery, simile, foreshadowing, and irony to develop her eccentric characters. Throughout “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Connor uses all of the previously mentioned literary devices to describe her characters in great detail. The grandmothers character
The Misfit; is the epitome of the Godless man in a Godless society. He is a killer who is also raised without spirituality as the old woman's children. He is the representative of evil.
Flannery O’ Connor’s story: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the tale of a vacation gone wrong. The tone of this story is set to be one irony. The story is filled with grotesque but meaningful irony. I this analysis I will guide you through the clues provided by the author, which in the end climax to the following lesson: “A Good Man” is not shown good by outward appearance, language, thinking, but by a life full of “good” actions.
The Misfit is the complete opposite of a typical hero, or “Good Man”, but he is honest, he is true to himself, and he knows that he is not good. When the Grandmother and the Misfit are talking, the Misfit is very mannerly towards the family he even apologizes towards the family: “I’m sorry I don’t have on a shirt before you ladies” (Ochshorn). The Misfit never lies about who he really is. He knows that he is not a good man, and he does not try to be something he is unable to be. The Grandmother is the complete opposite, she truly believes that she is good and lies to herself and everyone around her so she will be accepted. The Grandmother says to the Misfit, “I just know you’re a good man. You’re not a bit common” (O’Connor), to which he replies, “Nome, I ain’t a good man, but I ain’t the worst neither” (O’Connor). It is refreshing to see someone admit and know that they are not good, and that they will never be