The element of grace is not an anomaly among Christian Literature, but Flannery O’Connor presents redemption to her readers in a much darker, atypical way. No angels harking, no characters praising, not even church bells ringing. Considered a Southern Gothic author, O’Connor strategically displays the flaws of Christianity as a whole and Catholicism in particular. However, despite these flaws, both “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” portray characters in devastating situations of unlikely grace. Dorothy Walters describes O’Connor’s strategy:
Thus, because she perceives grace as the central need of human experience and redemption as the essential aim of life itself, she also insists on the reality of sin and the inevitability of judgment. Unlike many modernists who complain that God has turned His back on the world, she contends that it is man who now shuns God (35).
The most troubling issue of these stories is the struggle to justify such grotesque atrocities as the will of the benevolent God Christians faithfully adore. Arthur Kinney grapples with the matter and wonders how Christians are supposed to believe:
Joy/Hulga of "Good Country People," left helpless in a barnloft, robbed of her artificial leg some distance from her home and stranded, invalid, no longer whole, by a Bible salesman with pornographic playing cards and a box of contraceptives, is justly treated (Kinney 71).
Perhaps, though, O’Connor used Hulga’s feeble attempts at nihilism to contrast sharply with Manley’s outright evilness. Recalling a phrase from Brideshead Revisited, it seems as though God pulled Hulga toward grace with a mere “twitch of the thread.” Her belief in nothingness complicated the matter, thus God needed to shock her into ...
... middle of paper ...
...tire lives are spent sinning. Flannery O’Connor used the atrocities of raw human sin to show that even in utter nonbelief, total selfishness, and blatant disregard for life God will still try to reach every soul. Hulga found her metaphysical sight by losing her literal sight, the Grandmother found grace in her moment of selflessness towards the Misfit, and the Misfit himself tastes redemption when he expresses no joy in killing the Grandmother. In her “Introduction” to A Memoir of Mary Ann Flannery O’Connor describes this phenomena of grace and goodness by stating, “Few have stared at [good] long enough to accept the fact that it is too grotesque, that in use the good is something under construction” (Walters 226). Both “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” conclude brutally, harshly, but with the understanding that there is something good to come.
On July 8th 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in Enfield, Connecticut. Edwards states to his listeners that God does not lack in power, and that people have yet not fallen to destruction because his mercy. God is so forgiving that he gives his people an opportunity to repent and change their ways before it was too late. Edwards urges that the possibility of damnation is immanent. Also that it urgently requires the considerations of the sinner before time runs out. He does not only preach about the ways that make God so omnipotent, but the ways that he is more superior to us. In his sermon, Edwards uses strong, powerful, and influential words to clearly point out his message that we must amend our ways or else destruction invincible. Edwards appeals to the spectators though the various usages of rhetorical devices. This includes diction, imagery, language/tone and syntax. Through the use of these rhetoric devices, Edwards‘s purpose is to remind the speculators that life is given by God and so they must live according to him. This include...
He has qualities of “good country people” by selling bibles and “not attending college but devotes his life to Christian service” (178). His appearance and name is a great symbol that signifies of something that is not real which connects to Hulga’s name. Manley’s name has an impact towards Hulga because his name signifies a manly figure which is a missing part in Hulga’s life. On the other hand his last name Pointer symbolizes great divulge of something amazing that will stand out in Hulga’s way. However his name is seen as a false and in reality symbolizes the emptiness of a male presence and the revelation that her life consists of only falsities. O’Conner also used a great mirror description between a bible and his name. Manly pulled out two bibles though one “was hollow and contained a pocket flask of whisky, a pack of cards and a small blue box with printing on it” (192). O’Conner used this hallow bible filled with several profane and contrary items as a symbolism to expose the meaning of Manley’s true self character. Manley is seen as a true nihilist, and through his name, hollow bible and false Christian morals he has revealed himself towards Hulga, as a true meaning of simply believing in nihilistic
4). This is an excellent point, as it is clear that many of the characters O’Connor writes about-face tough or “harsh” moments, usually before they face a religious influenced climax. With this in life this is when most people come to find religion and grace in their lives. An excellent example of this involves the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, as she faces a traumatic accident and the murdering of her family. All these terrible things happen to the grandmother, just as she comes to a revelation that she is not in the right place with grace and spiritual awareness. This is what Flaum is pointing out, that O’Connor uses unique ways to express her beliefs within her work, often harshly. O’Connor also uses the concepts of nature to represent grace, or perhaps the opposite. O’Connor describes the landscape in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, as being rather eerie. It’s a way of foreshadowing the events that will happen to the family. As Clark M. Brittain describes it, “the feeling that sinister forces have laid a trap for the doomed family” (Brittian par. 5). It seems like O’Connor uses the concept of God’s wraith, or some force of evil, both of the family’s faith. With a lack of grace in their lives the family appears as being doomed because of these
Religion is a pervasive theme in most of the literary works of the late Georgia writer Flannery O'Connor. Four of her short stories in particular deal with the relationship between Christianity and society in the Southern Bible Belt: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "The River," "Good Country People," and "Revelation." Louis D. Rubin, Jr. believes that the mixture of "the primitive fundamentalism of her region, [and] the Roman Catholicism of her faith . . ." makes her religious fiction both well-refined and entertaining (70-71). O'Connor's stories give a grotesque and often stark vision of the clash between traditional Southern Christian values and the ever-changing social scene of the twentieth century. Three of the main religious ingredients that lend to this effect are the presence of divine meanings, revelations of God, and the struggle between the powers of Satan and God.
...ose words she underlines with a blue pencil: “science wishes to know nothing of nothing.” In denying God and asserting the belief of Nothing, Hulga lacks the ability to recognize Manley for who he is because, to her evil has no more meaning than God has. This “innocent” view allows Manley to spiritually take advantage of her, symbolized by him taking her wooden leg. When she pleads, “Aren’t you just good country people?” he replies, “I hope you don’t think that I believe in that crap! I may sell Bibles but I know which end is up and I wasn’t born yesterday and I know where I’m going!” This last word is very ironic, for without a leg and without a soul and/or belief in God, Hulga can go nowhere. Through him she falls into the world of experience, knowing that evil does infact exist, that there is meaning beyond the nothing she embraced at the beginning of the story.
In Flannery O’Connor’s stories, “Good Country People”, “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, ”A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, there are many similar characters and situations. Few, if any of the characters are likeable, and most of them are grotesque. Two of the stories have characters that view themselves as superior in one way or another to those around them, and in some cases these characters experience a downfall, illustrating the old proverb, “Pride goeth before a fall” (King James Bible ,Proverbs 16:18). Two of the stories include a character that has some type of disability, three of the stories showcase a very turbulent relationship between a parent and child, and three of the stories contain a character that could easily be described as evil.
...cares for her and thus encourages her into letting down her guard and trusting him. This becomes Hulga?s downfall and the most important theme of O?Connor?s story: people aren?t always what they appear or ?you can?t judge a book by its cover.? Her narcissism allows Manley to talk her into removing her leg. He grabs it and runs off with it, but not before letting her know that he has played her for the fool. O?Connor?s comprehensive character development leads her readers into complacently judging Hulga as superior to the other characters in her story. She takes this a step further in her development of Manley Pointer as an innocent. Through this development, O?Connor lulls her readers into stereotyping the characters into the personas she wants them to see. Hulga?s epiphany is thematic. The ultimate irony is that not only is Hulga duped by Manley, her readers are too.
In “Good Country People,” O’Connor effectively symbolizes Christian hypocrisy in her narrative. The same man who is selling bibles is the one who carries “a pocket flask of whisky and a pack of cards” (“Good Country People,” 289), in his hollowed-out bible. A bible salesman using a hollowed-out bible as storage for whisky represents those who use religion to cover up for their sins and achieve society’s approval. Additionally, in Revelation, a person’s name symbolizes the sole theme of the narrative. While Mrs. Turnip is busy denouncing other people’s appearances in the waiting room, a girl named Mary Grace exposes Mrs. Turnip for who she really is, and tells her to “go back to hell, where [she comes] from, [and calls Mrs. Turnip an] old wart hog” (“Revelation”, 21). Although Mrs. Turnip believes she is a noble person, Mary Grace symbolizes the need for grace in Mrs. Turnip’s life for her to become aware of the ugliness that lies beneath her beautiful face, and clean skin. Furthermore, symbolism is a significant element in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The Misfit arrives in “a big black bettered hearse-like automobile” (“AMIHTF,” 6). The car designed to carry coffins, indicates and symbolizes the family’s death, and all the others that the Misfit
There are many themes within Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People”. Religion is definitely one of the more prominent themes that the story holds. Like most of O’Connor’s works, it plays a big part in the actions or characteristics of the main characters. This is all on the surface however. The more important and less accentuated theme is the various facades the characters create for themselves. These facades prevent them from facing their true “grotesque” selves. These facades also hide their weaknesses that they have no wish to face ort just can’t understand. People must be comfortable with every aspect of themselves, because certain people, who in this story are represented by Manley Pointer’s character, can easily exploit their weaknesses. He’s “good country people” and “the salt of the earth” as Mrs. Hopewell refers to Manley Pointer who really is a demon that they must face. A demon to remind them of their weaknesses.
An ardent Catholic as she was, Flannery O’Connor astonishes and puzzles the readers of her most frequently compiled work, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. It is the violence, carnage, injustice and dark nooks of Christian beliefs of the characters that they consider so interesting yet shocking at the same time. The story abounds in Christian motifs, both easy and complicated to decipher. We do not find it conclusive that the world is governed by inevitable predestination or evil incorporated, though. A deeper meaning needs to be discovered in the text. The most astonishing passages in the story are those when the Grandmother is left face to face with the Misfit and they both discuss serious religious matters. But at the same time it is the most significant passage, for, despite its complexity, is a fine and concise message that O’Connor wishes to put forward. However odd it may seem, the story about the fatal trip (which possibly only the cat survives) offers interesting comments on the nature of the world, the shallowness of Christian beliefs and an endeavour to answer the question of how to deserve salvation.
O’Conner believed that one must be shocked into salvation to be saved. Thus, Hulga’s trauma is the start of her journey to redemption. Ironically, Manley Pointer was used as an “agent of God” to change Hulga’s life even though he was lying when he said he has devoted himself to Christian service. The moment of truth for Joy occurs when she realizes she has been swindled and Pointer was only after her prosthetic. However, the fleeting feeling of belonging to someone and being completely surrendered has placed a new yearning in her heart. According to O’Conner’s beliefs, the path to salvation is not easy and it is marked by suffering and disaster, but the joy and hope that results is worth any pain along the way. Whether “redemption” is the right word or not, every person will have a moment in their life when they are stripped of control and must rely entirely on a constituent beyond their
Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most well-known short stories in American history. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a disturbing short story that exemplifies grace in extremity as well as the threat of an intruder. The story tells of an elderly grandmother and her family who embark on a road trip to Florida. The grandmother is a stubborn old woman with a low sense of morality. While on the trip, the grandmother convinces her son to take a detour which results in a broken down car and an encounter with a convicted fugitive, The Misfit. Although the grandmother pleads for mercy, The Misfit kills off the rest of her family. Through the grace she finds in her extreme circumstance, the grandmother calls The Misfit her own and implores him to spare her life. The Misfit does not oblige her and states after her death, “She would have been a good woman if it had been someone to shoot her every day of her life.” Through Flannery O’Connor’s disturbing and shocking display of the grandmother’s demise, she gives the reader a sense of the threatening power of an intruder and the idea of extreme situations bringing about a state of grace. The reason for such a powerful work may have resulted from Flannery O’Connor’s religious upbringing as well as the state of the nation at the time.
The story “Good Country People”, by Flannery O’Conner is a work that uses characterization in a new and interesting way to help shape and present the characters of this story. One of the main characters is Hulga Hopewell, also known as Joy Hopewell. This characters name plays a very ironic role in the story. Through the use of such a peculiar name O’Conner helps to develop and build the characteristics of Hulga. In the story “Good Country People” the use of the name Hulga (Joy) Hopewell helps to further build upon the characterization of Hulga and give the reader a deeper understanding of the character.
In Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the theme of good vs. evil unravels throughout the series of tragic events. The Grandmother’s epiphany introduces the idea of morality and the validity is left to the interpretation of the reader. By questioning the characteristics of right and wrong, morality and religion become subjective to personal reality and the idea of what makes individuals character good or bad becomes less defined.
Flannery O’Connor’s religious background influenced almost all her stories. She received criticism for her harsh representation of religion. Richard Giannone describes “A Good Man is Hard to Find” as “God’s transforming love by confronting the reader with a condition of true goodness amid the stark brutality of serial murder” (46). In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor frequently references religious symbols to describe the characters and their actions. Toward the end of the play the grandmother frantically tries to persuade The Misfit to pray and that Jesus would help him. The Misfit replied stating, “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead, and he shouldn’t have done it. He thown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do ...