A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Is anyone truly good? In Flannery O 'Connor’s short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, she seems to ask just that. As her story unfolds, it seems clear that she is suggesting that there are none to be found. She expresses this idea of the depravity of man and that people are not as pious as they may seem. Since O’Connor was from the south, and attended Catholic church, she would have had a good idea of how often southern religious people hold morality high, but do not always live up to what they preach. ( "Flannery O’Connor") As we get to know her characters, it seems none of them are favorable candidates for good morals. It is imperative that we look to the characters of this story to get an idea of the true theme
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The grandmother is not any better than her son or his family. First of all, grandmother is quite racist. When a black boy waves at them, June Star comments that “he doesn’t have an britches on.”(O’Connor 358) The grandmother does not correct her, but instead suggests that “he probably didn’t have any” (O’Connor 358) However, grandmother does try to instil in her grandchildren good character in other ways. She reprimands them, and she even hissed “aren 't you ashamed” after June Star is very rude to Red Sam’s wife.(O’Connor 360) However, this proper behavior seems to come from a need to be self righteous instead of a true necessity to nurture her grandchildren. Her self righteous nature is shown more when she asks the Misfit, “do you ever pray?”(O’Connor 365) She tells the Misfit that he ought to pray, but she never once prays when she and her family are in peril. Not only does the hypocritical grandmother not pray, but she also does not bother to plead for her family member’s lives to be spared. However, she does plead for herself, and says “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady!”(O’Connor 366) In her plea, it is evident that she is trying to appeal to the Misfit’s good nature. However, the commentary seems to be that he has none, and that man is in fact not good at
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.
To buttress this she pointed out that even at the grandmothers death misfit confirmed her to be a good woman in his statement “she would have been a good woman if she was to face death every minute of her life” (437). In contrast to her opinion Stephen Bandy a notable literally critics in one of his articles “One of my babies “: The Misfit and the Grandmother” he compared the characters of both and argued that despite the fact that O`Conner claimed the grandmother was merely filled with “prejudice” of her time, He described the grandmother as racist, busy body and utterly self-absorbed. When she saw that her child and grandchildren was been killed tried to manipulate Misfit to spare her own life whereas she was the one that lead them to their death.
The story of A Good Man Is Hard to Find begins as a family road trip, but tragically ends when a family of six cross paths with an escaped convict. Set in rural Georgia around the 1940s, Grandmother, her son Bailey, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren plan a vacation to Florida. While en route, they’re involved in a car accident that leads to a chance encounter with a murderous convict, The Misfit, and his two companions. Confronted with their own mortality, can this somewhat dysfunctional family escape with their lives from these unfavorable circumstances? Dictionary.com defines the word mortality as the state or condition of being subject to death; mortal character, nature or existence. The idea of mortality in this story not only signifies physical death, but also calls into question the condition of the character’s virtue. The writer of A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor, explores the concepts of mortality and salvation through her use of foreshadowing, characters, and symbolism.
In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, O’Connor gives brilliant support to the theme, even going so far as stating it in the title itself. Through her creative details and intentional use of rhetoric, O’Connor strengthens the idea that the true definition of a ‘good man’ is skewed and difficult to pinpoint. Defining a ‘good man’ varies because it is individualized from reader to reader and a generic definition cannot be composed. This gothic piece of literature is realistic, and through its theme, the reader is exposed to the flaws of society as a whole.
“…in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart” –Anne Frank (Frank 237). Frank, a young Jewish girl who, among many, suffered terribly during the Holocaust still believed in the good in people. She believed, after being forced to hide in an attic and being taken to a concentration camp (where she would eventually die), that people are really good at heart; but what does it take to be good? The short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor confronts us with what it means to be “good” through the use of the characters, plot, setting, and theme.
Boudreaux, Armond. "There Are No Good Men To Find: Two Stories By Flannery O’Connor." Explicator 69.3 (2011): 150. Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). 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.
Flannery O 'Connor is considered to be one of America 's most finest fiction writers in her time. Growing up as an only child, O’Connor was a devout catholic. All of her stories focused on morals, ethics, and religion. Most of her characters were southern protestants who were forced to undergo change as a result of painful and violent situations, by doing so this brought them closer to God. Her work is said to be classified as gothic, meaning it is characterized as gloomy, grotesque, mysterious, and violent. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, she uses many literary devices like irony, foreshadowing, and tone to convey her message throughout the story. What makes a person good; is it their choices, their actions, or maybe their beliefs?
She is a manipulator when it comes to any aspect of her life. Ideally, the grandmother was selfish and care about herself. For instance, when the author has her saying “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (O’Connor). The author let it be known at that second that the grandmother was only thinking about herself. As if she was traveling with a group of strangers. Throughout the story, the grandmother shows that she can be dishonest towards her family. “She woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (O’Conner). The grandmother did this to manipulate the situation causing the ride to be delayed. Thus, she was lying to the children about the secret panel in the house. Therefore, she caused chaos in the car. The author made it seem that the grandmother was very content with that she has caused. Even when she realized that the location of the house that she was referring to was not up that road at all. But she remained quiet or did she know this along. She was quick to judge and tell someone what not to do. But she never turned her eye on herself. That she was selfish and dishonest to her
The grandmother has never truly understood what being saved means. She is also ignorant to what salvation is. The Misfit is missing the ability to empathize and bind with other people. He does not hold respect for human life. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, it says “She would of been a good woman, The Misfit said, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (430). In “‘One of My Babies’: The misfit and the grandmother”, written by Stephen C. Bandy, it says “The Misfit has already directed the execution of the Grandmother’s entire family, and it must be obvious to all including reader and the Grandmother, that she is next to die” (108). These example justifies that The Misfit does not have any regard for human life. The only people that he has are the two goons that help him murder people. The grandmother sees that The Misfit has never had anyone to take care of him. At the end of this story she tries reach out to him on a spiritual level, but he shoots her three times in the chest as soon as she touches
The grandmother says “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people,” showing how she is trying to find a shred of hope in a murderer. O’Connor’s use of southern diction and religious banter develop the grandmother away from superficiality and towards genuineness. The grandmother says “’Listen,’…’you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell.’” The Misfit replies “I pre-chate that, lady,’” by using the phonetic spelling instead of proper diction O’Connor is showing that the grandmother believes he is a fellow southerner. The grandmother is talking to The Misfit about salvation and she has an epiphany, O’Connor writes “His voice seemed to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’” After discussing religion and seeing his perspective the grandmother finally feels real sympathy for The Misfit; up until that point the grandmother had been trying to compliment and talk her way out of being killed along with the rest of her family. Unfortunately this is also when the struggle between good and evil ends with the grandmother being killed, “The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.” The Misfit then says “‘She would of been a good woman’ … ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’” He realized that her gesture at that moment was out of pure kindness and
...dly evil character, The Misfit, is able to help the grandmother to find grace makes him redeemable as well. Whatever the reason was for Flannery O’Connor to write A Good Man Is Hard To Find, it will forever be one of her best works as well as one of the best and most unusual short stories of all time.
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are two short stories written by Flannery O’Connor during her short lived writing career. Despite the literary achievements of O’Connor’s works, she is often criticized for the grotesqueness of her characters and endings of her short stories and novels. Her writings have been described as “understated, orderly, unexperimental fiction, with a Southern backdrop and a Roman Catholic vision, in defiance, it would seem, of those restless innovators who preceded her and who came into prominence after her death”(Friedman 4). “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are both set in the South, and O’Connor explores the tension between the old and new South. The stories are tow ironically twisted tales of different families whos lives are altered after trusting a stranger, only to be mislead. Each story explores the themes of Christian theology, new verses the old South, and fallen human nature.
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.
Flannery O 'Connor utilizes multiple biblical references, such as Jesus raising the dead, to create a foundation for what the Grandmother and Misfit believe in terms of morality. The Grandmother references Christianity in a positive and redeeming sense while the Misfit claims that “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead, and He shouldn 't have done it. He shown everything off balance” (O’Connor 151). Her reality before the incident was the people such as the Misfit were evil, while those similar to her who grew up in the classic traditions of the south were better off. Although she was raised in a highly religious and proper setting, she does not realize the fault in her logic until she is staring down the barrel of a gun. The grandmother attempts to use this religion to save her life by telling the Misfit about prayer and salvation. By asking the Misfit "Do you ever pray?" and then repeatedly saying “pray, pray, pray”, she is attempting to show him the fact that he does not have to do evil acts because of his past (O’Connor 149). Because the Misfit does not view himself as evil, his reality is that his actions and beliefs are morally