“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” O’ Connors, “A good man is hard to find” is a short story about a grandmother who causes her family to get into a car accident and end up in a deadly predicament with, ‘The Misfit’, who had escaped from the federal pen. The characters are clear, with both motivation and credibility. O’Connors use of third person is brilliant, even though there’s one weakness with the point of view. The theme is enlightening; changing from evil to good. Not only is this short story enlightening, but it is also entertaining and keeps the attention of the reader throughout the entire story. To begin with, the characters are clear and possess both motivation and credibility. The grandmother …show more content…
The third person point of view allows the reader to hear from each character’s point of view. Even though the reader gets to hear from each character, the main focus is on the grandmother. What makes O’Connors point of view so brilliant, is the fact that it is a wider perspective. If O’Connor had used a 1st person point of view, the grandmother might have not known how another character felt, but with the 3rd person the reader gets to see how the other characters feel. For example, “He didn’t have a naturally sunny deposition like she did and trips made him nervous.” O’Connor knew what she was doing when she picked this point of view because when the main character gets shot the story is still able to continue, “Take her off and throw her where you thrown the others.” The only weakness present in the story, is that there’s not much insight on the grandmother's thoughts, as much as if the story was in 1st person. With the 3rd person point of view, we have to get to know the grandmother through what she says and her actions throughout the story, instead of directly from her. With this point of view, it is less of a personal connection with the main
The grandmother is very conscious of how to manipulate people in order to obtain what she wants. She executes her personal ideas and plans in well thought-out processes that are not obvious to her family until she pushes and pushes. the conclusion will include the end of the story that i stated at the beginning and sum up what I overall thought of the story and the parts I analyzed. The hero is typically a strong, good-natured person by Hollywood standards, but some authors take the freedom to change this definition. Authors like Flannery O'Connor in her short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” redefine the hero with the character, Grandma.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O'Connor tells a story of a dysfunctional family on a roadtrip to Florida to illustrate the theme of self-awareness. The main protagonist in this story is the self-centered Grandmother whose lack of self-awareness is the reason why her family, including herself, are murdered by The Misfit (the Floridian convict). Throughout the story, the Grandmother considers herself as a good woman; however, it is through dialogue that reveals her true self. In reality, she is selfish, manipulative, inconsiderate, and dishonest. No matter how much she attempts to manipulate others into thinking she is full of integrity and a good example to follow, her actions contradict everything she wants people to believe.
The Flannery O’Connor story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” illustrates a parallel between the Misfit and the grandmother, showing that good and evil are not mutually exclusive in an individual. The grandmother and the Misfit display a flowing, changing state of character, representative of this shift. Flannery O’Connor develops these two characters on the surface as simply being a good person and a bad person. However, there is more to each character than the surface level, as they exhibit traits that wouldn’t ordinarily seem fitting in regards to what would be expected. It is this complexity in human characteristics that O’Connor takes the time to develop and show the audience the depth of humanity.
In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor shows the dynamics of a 1950’s family, hypocrisy and finally grace. In the story, the family is taking a vacation by driving to Florida. The grandmother, who is one of the central characters, convinces her son to take a side trip to visit an old plantation that she had seen in her youth. Only she misremembered about the plantation and it wasn’t there at all. On the way, the family has an accident and their car ends up in a ditch. This is where the family meets The Misfit. This story is a Southern Gothic, that has damaged characters who meet a violent end.
Works Cited Bandy, Stephen C. "One of my babies": The Misfit and the Grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's short story 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find'. Studies in Short Fiction; Winter 1996, v33, n1, p107(11). O’Connor, Flannery. The Complete Story of the. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Everyone is faced with decisions and choices in life, and sometimes they are combined with impelling and inevitable consequences. Flannery O'Connor’s religiously symbolic short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" portrays a family of unappreciative adults and children traveling to Florida for a vacation. While traveling the family has an unfortunate accident and encounter a wanted and deadly criminal named The Misfit. As they are forced to face their own destruction, the grandmother attempts to find some mercy in the misfit to prevent her own death and subsequent Judgment. O’Conner in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, skillfully uses noticeable foreshadowing, elaborate symbolism, and dramatic irony to portray the message that people sometimes experience
Shortley and the Grandmother,” in this book by Marshal Gentry compares and contrasts two different stories that are thematically the same. Gentry finds the theme of religious awakening in both of O’Connor’s works, “The Displaced Person” and “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” The main difference between the two is how each character in the stories acquires the concept of redemption. Unlike Mrs. Shortley, who attains it primarily through her own psyche, redemption is forced upon the Grandmother. Although this chapter is a comparison, both characters share the feeling of self-righteousness, which is exactly what I need for my argument.
As I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with every sentence and by doing so, the characters within the story are infinitely real in my mind’s eye. As I consider these factors, the story focuses on two main characters; that of the grandmother, who comes across as self-centered and self-serving and The Misfit, a man, who quite ingeniously, also appears to be self-centered and self-serving. It is the story behind the grandmother, however, that evidence appears to demonstrate the extreme differences between her superficial self and the true character of her persona; as the story unfolds, and proof of my thought process becomes apparently clear.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is an example of Southern Gothic literature because it has many disturbing and violent events taken place in the south. O 'Connor wrote this story in 1953 and uses this type of literature to convey the personalities of the unusual characters. O’Connor places two important characters in the story: the protagonist and antagonist. The Misfit, the antagonist, is represented as a philosopher with wise words to advise people about faith, and the grandmother, the protagonist, believes herself to be an idealized woman with her self obsession of her status of a “lady.” In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Connor conveys how characterization can be the underlying concept of the story, and she makes the readers question the
“A Good man is hard to find,” is about a family who decide to go on a trip to Florida. The story revolves around a self absorbed grandmother who loves to talk about how everything used to be back in her day and takes the time to dress herself so that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (358).” She sneaks the family cat with her despite her son’s disapproval of bringing the creature along violating her boundaries to how a lady would act. The family encounters an accident along the way and happens to come across ‘The Misfit,’ a runaway criminal. Using ‘The Misfit’ as a tool, O’ Connor sends a message to her readers of how hypocritical a person can be when it comes to belief.
Elmore Leonard once said “I don’t judge in my books. I don’t have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It’s just how it comes out. I’m just telling a story.” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O'Connor, is one of the most interesting stories that we have read in this class. The protagonist in this story is the grandmother and the antagonist is The Misfit. In any other short story, the protagonist and the antagonist would not have much in common, but that is not the case in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. The three major similarities between the grandmother and The Misfit is that they are both the oldest one in their groups, they are both hypocrites, and they both are missing important spiritual relationships.
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.
Lessons are learned through mistakes and experiences, but to completely understand the lesson, a person must be smart enough to profit from their errors and be strong enough to correct them. However, this was not the case for the main character in the short story; A Good Man is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor. In this tale of manipulation and deception, O’Connor depicts the main character, the grandmother, as a shrewd self-centered woman, who considers herself morally superior than the other individuals. Throughout the entire story, she is seen using her manipulative tactics on everyone, which brought her to a sinister ending. O’Connor expertly portrayed the grandmother as a character that did not correct her negative characteristics throughout the story. To prove this statement, the use of time will be applied to help focus on the main idea of the grandmother not changing her deleterious ways throughout this story.
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.
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.