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Analysis of Flannery O'Connor's Story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Analysis of Flannery O'Connor's Story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Flannery o'connor short stories Revelation
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Views and Characters
	Flannery O’Connor wrote the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" in the hopes of portraying to the reader the racist views of the time: many of the ideals possess "a kind of holy madness or beauty." (Kirszner 238). These are the words mentioned in Literature, and express the emotions that O’Connor made the grandmother experience in the story.
	The story takes on a sort of irony throughout to provide a comedic look at old values and traditions, displaying to the reader how we advance over time. The grandmother very ignorantly describes just how separate dark and light colored people were during the period:
"Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!" she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. "Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?" she asked and they all turned and looked at the little Negro out of the back window. He waved.
	"He didn’t have any britches on," June Star said.
"He probably didn’t have any," the grandmother explained. "Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do."
The language that is shown in this section of the story clearly demonstrates the difference between what is acceptable, and what is racist. O’Connor clearly provides us that she never has the intent to be racist herself, but rather her characters, possibly an influence in her life, are to blame. The grandmother shows her politeness to June, but also shows her rudeness by describing the dark colored boy with such racist terms, providing the reader with a sense of the "holy madness" that resides within her.
The story contains eleven characters, of which only one illustrates her lack of coming together and recognizing everyone as a whole, rather than as separate races. Despite the obvious difference in language barriers, the grandmother does reflect a soft side:
"Two fellers come in here last week," Red Sammy said, "driving a Chrysler. It was a old beat-up car but it was a good one and these boys looked all right to me. Said they worked at the mill and you know I let them fellers charge the gas they bought? Now why did I do that?"
"Because you’re a good man!" the grandmother said at once.
Of notable importance, the name Sam means to listen, or to hear, supporting the fact of racial differences. (Babycenter) This could be the explanation why the characters, Sam and the grandmother, have the most polite conversation in the entire short story.
Blacky’s friendship with Dumby Red causes Blacky to stop making racist jokes and comments. Throughout the novel Gwynne drives the reader to reject the racist values, attitudes and beliefs of Blacky’s community, as seen in his portrayal of racist ideas in the town, the marginalisation of the Nunga community, Blacky’s emerging ideology and how it influences and empowers him to respond to the death of Dumby.
At one shack they lived in, Anne’s neighbors had a couple of white children, and they would play with her often in the backyard. While going to elementary school, Moody did not have a clear sense of what it meant to be black or white. She only knew people as being people. It was when she was scolded and dragged out of a mo...
As a child, Moody played, and made friends with, white children. She saw no difference between them but the fact that they nicer things than she did. While living with the Johnsons, this difference was first pointed out to her. One day as her mother took them to see a movie, she and her siblings ran into the white children who lived near them. Without second thought she and her siblings followed them into the whites only lobby. When their mother realized where they had gone she dragged them out, going home without seeing the movie. As she dragged them home she saying “we couldn’t sit downstairs, we couldn’t do this or that with white children.” (pg.33) After this the white children stopped playing in front of their house for a few weeks, but then they started playing again. Moody and her sibling began to
If O’Connor wanted to present the South as strong and righteous, she probably would have chosen a character more like Red Sam to be the main character, but nonetheless the grandmother is the main character and that provides enough criticism by itself. Throughout the bulk of the story, the grandma doesn’t seem much different from any other elderly grandmother. She is stubborn, as evidenced by her unwillingness to admit her wrongdoing after the car accident. She is also forgetful, forgetting what state she is in and the appearance of the Misfit, despite fawning over his image in the newspaper. Because of her relation symbolically to the South as a whole, the reader associates these negative qualities with the South as a
Those two events may seem like nothing but it shows how even at the early age of 8, children are taught to spot the differences in race instead of judging people by their character. Directing after this Twyla mentions how her and Roberta “looked like salt and pepper standing there and that’s what the other kids called us sometimes” (202). On the first page of this short story we already have 3 example of race dictating how the characters think and act. With the third one which mentions salt which is white and pepper which is black we understand that one girl is white and one girl is black. The brilliance of this story is that we never get a clear cut answer on which girl is which. Toni Morrison gives us clues and hints but never comes out and says it. This leaves it up to us to figure it out for ourselves. The next example of how race influences our characters is very telling. When Twyla’s mother and Roberta’s mother meeting we see not only race influencing the characters but, how the parents can pass it down to the next generation. This takes places when the mothers come to the orphanage for chapel and Twyla describes to the reader Roberta’s mother being “bigger than any man
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the author uses the character of the grandmother to show the dangers of self-centeredness. Although the grandmother lacks self-awareness, she still describes herself as a good woman, a lady. The grandmother is an old, southern, Caucasian woman; her way of speaking and how she dresses are indications that she considers herself a lady. Throughout the story, the grandmother’s selfishness, judgmental actions, dishonesty, and forgetfulness put the family in danger. It is the grandmother’s lack of self-awareness about these characteristics that leads to the death of her family.
Just some of the last pleading words of the grandmother in the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. In the story, the author uses colloquialism, point-of-view, foreshadowing, and irony, as well as other rhetorical devices, to portray the satire of southern beliefs and religion throughout the entire piece.
Flannery O’Connor was writing in the times of high racism and the civi rights movement, which may have influenced a few racial slurs in the story on page 2, such as “‘…look at the cute little [black child]!’…‘He didn’t have any britches on’…‘He probably didn’t have any.’”
Stella‘s Mother decided to have a potluck with their whole neighbor hood because Spoon Man hardly ever came into town. One night, Stella‘s mother made dinner for one of her mother‘s friend and she was bringing it down to her house. After she dropped it off she smelt smoke and she heard the clomping of horses hooves. She turns around to see the Spencer‘s house burning to the ground and a bunch of horses coming strait at her. On the horses were KKK members. They burned the Spencer‘s house. The whole negro population of Bumblebee was trying to help put out the fire because the fire department wasn‘t coming to help save the house. The Spencer‘s couldn‘t find one of their kids and Stella found her. The Spencer‘s got clothes and food, and the negro community worked on building a new house for the large family. Later on in the story, Stella goes with her father to vote at the town next to theirs and the white men treat her father
The first, Class 1 gaming, is defined as (1), traditional Indian gaming, which may be a part of tribal ceremonies and celebrations and (2), social gaming with minimal prizes. Regulatory authority over Class 1 gaming is vested exclusively in tribal governments and is not subjected to IGRA's requirements. The second, class II gaming includes bingo, (whe...
In the book, the readers see the wall between black and white people during the movement. An example is a reaction to Fern’s doll which is white, while Fern, however, is black. On pg.65, it reads, “‘Li’l Sis, are you a white girl or a black girl?’ Fern said, ‘I’m a colored girl.’ He didn’t like the sound of a colored girl,’ He said, ‘Black girl.’ Fern said, ‘Colored.’ ‘Black girl.”
The Industrial Revolution had poor working conditions. It was a very cruel time for children. Many children as young as six years old worked hard and long hours for a little amount of money. Sometimes children worked nineteen hours a day for only one hour of pay to help support their family. These children sometimes lost limbs due to careless actions working with the dangerous machiner...
...ith money on the floor and tell the blacks to get the money. The blacks dive on the rug, only to find that it is electrified. The whites push the blacks onto the rug so that the whites can laugh at the black people’s pain and suffering. This demonstrates the stereotype of whites in charge of blacks and blacks being submissive to the whites. The white people are forcing the blacks to do something for the whites’ entertainment. The narrator wants to overcome these stereotypes and have his own individual identity.
The following day the family heads off to Florida. Another major point of irony happens as the story revolves around the grandmothers traditional southern values of respect for other people; especially elders, respect for your home and country. At the same moment as the grandmother is lecturing her grand kids about respecting their home state she sees a young Negro boy and says: “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” (Pg 208). Her hypocrisy becomes evident as she wants the family to do what she says not what she does.
Horn, Jeff, Leonard N. Rosenband, and Merritt Roe Smith. Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution. Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010.