“A Good Man is Hard to Find”: An Analysis of False Morality
This story takes place in the South somewhere around the 1940’s or 50’s; thereby, providing the reader with a plot rich in historical, cultural, and social aspects. Throughout the narrative, many other places are mentioned and the characters’ insights on them are explained, thus an emotional attachment to places like Tennessee and Georgia are evident. However, the importance relies on what each character’s emotions and reactions reveal about themselves and about the society at that time. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor uses symbolism and diction to contrast the good and evil nature of humans through a hypocritical, morally-driven old lady and a criminal that embraces his evil acts by placing the blame on society.
The grandmother in O’Connor’s narrative symbolizes the classism and false morality present at that time in the South. The characteristic that stands out the most about this old lady is precisely the manner in which she perceives herself; morally superior than others by means of being a “lady”. This is the remark that the Grandmother makes throughout the story for different purposes: to portray superiority, to demand respect and admiration, and to reflect the “goodness” in society. These are attributes that her own family did not seem to believe she possessed nor did they seem to care about. O’Connor employs symbolism to depict the old lady’s false morality mainly through her clothes. The author provides a vivid description of her “lady-like” attire:
The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window. The children’s mother still had on slacks a...
... middle of paper ...
...he story. Ironically, at the end of the story, Misfit ends up wearing Bailey’s shirt, which represents the satisfaction he gets from what he does and at this point he is trying to cover up his most recent atrocity.
Generally speaking, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a story that accomplishes a picture of what humans are capable of doing to obtain what they want and their hypocritical actions in society that help them get through with it. At last, the old lady seemed to have an epiphany and realized that she was at her most vulnerable moment ever. She died knowing that all she ever cared for was what leaded her to her death. On the contrary, Misfit’s outcome in the story displays the prevalence of evil in this world.
Works Cited
O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Introduction to Literature. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 96-108. Print.
The grandmother is by far the most outstanding of O’Connor characters. Although all the characters contribute to the theme of the story the grandmother contributes the most because through her O’Connor’s views and opinions about society are expressed. The grandmother, the protagonist, is developed as bossy, manipulative, and grouchy. Not only is she random and frivolous, but she also demonstrates hypocrisy. ”Aren’t you ashamed?” she ask when June Star insults the owner of Red Sammy’s Barbeque, but experiences no personal shame when stating that “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do.” (383) John Wesley and June Star have little if any respect for their parental grandmother....
Two different stories, two different individuals, two different lives, but one thing is obvious in both stories, each situation is the same. Whether it is the hardships that one faced or the wealth that the other enjoyed, each grandmother was a victim. A victim to something many people are afraid to talk about. In both stories each grandmother goes through a form of disrespect, because of their race. Racism was an issue then to some it is still an issue now. To me these two different ladies are not different at all they are actually the same. They are both individuals that were placed in certain situations for certain reasons. Not everything in life will be filled with enjoymen...
In the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, written by Flannery O’Connor, the theme that the definition of a ‘good man’ is mysterious and flawed is apparent. The reader must realize that it is difficult to universalize the definition of a good man because every person goes through different experiences. Thus, these experiences affect his or her viewpoint and in turn flaw ones view on a good man. O’Connor conveys this theme through her excellent use of diction, imagery, foreshadowing, and symbolism as well as through a creative use of repetition and an omniscient point of view.
"Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (O'Conner 138).
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.
At first glance we see the Grandmother who is trying to pressure her son into taking her where she would like to go on this family trip. She does so by bringing up a convict on the loose by the name the Misfit stating she would not take her children to Florida with a convict loose in that area (O’Connor). The Grandmother tries to get them to go to Tennessee where she wants to go, this shows her selfishness. Then later in the story the Grandmother sees a little Negro boy and she remarks “Oh look at that cute little pickaninny!” (O’Connor) this shows a side of her racism.
“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.
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.
In this short story, O’Connor depicts a violent character to the reader known as ‘The Misfit.’ The Misfit can be described as a distorted, violent character that questions the true meaning of life and his role within it. The Misfit uses the anger that he possesses inside of him as a form of violence, and this is why he is known to be a wanted murderer, ever since he escaped from the penitentiary. This Misfit was put into the penitentiary when he was accused of murdering his own father, which might have been a lie based upon the head-doctors accusations. O’Connor reveals violence in a very peculiar way, and this is based upon the struggle of living in a world where finding a good man is hard to find in our society.
“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.
In her well-known short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor skillfully describes the difficulty of finding a morally upright human being, whether it is a man or a woman. No one is perfect, everyone has inadequacies and shortcomings, and she presents this cleverly in her story. She is able to support this view of mankind through her characters. They are self-centered, egotistical human beings who can be judged by their words and actions. This is especially true of the protagonist (the grandmother) and the antagonist (the Misfit). The grandmother tries to portray herself as a virtuous woman, but in the end O’Connor shows that her actions are always self-serving and that morally, she is not that different from the Misfit.
In this part of the essay, I will show how O'Connor made use of symbolism through her characters to symbolise an abstraction of class-consciousness. The issues of class consciousness was brought up through the rounded character of the grandmother, who is the protagonist of the story. On the surface, we see the characteristics of the grandmother portrayed as a "good" woman, having faith in God and doing right in her live. However, the sin lies within her, whereby she thinks she is better than others around her. Viewing appearance and self-image as important, which is reflected through her gentility, the grandmother wears "white cotton gloves, straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim, navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print and the collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace" (p.2117). Through her attire, the grandmother implies that people who looked at her will know that she is a respectable and noble lady. Repetitive use of the colour white is symbolic as it reflects the way the grandmother perceives and associates herself with - perfection, goodness, and purity. The grandmother also predicts that she would have done well if she had married Mr. Teagarden, "who had died a wealthy man few years ag...
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 their home and country. At the same moment as the grandmother is lecturing her grandkids 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. It’s when the family gets ready to stop for barbecued sandwiches at Famous Sam’s, the first of the symbols is the story starts to take shape.
Mrs. Turner is a sight; however, Carol Shields portrays her as a sight that others don’t want to look at. She is often seen in clothing that disgusts the neighbors and the teenagers walking home when she is in her yard doing yard work. Clothing that is not suited for an elderly lady to be wearing. Mrs. Turner is described to be wearing “ancient pair of shorts… halter top… wedges… crepe-soled sandals… covers her red-gray frizz with Gord’s old golf cap.” Her articles of clothing are old fashioned and she is unkept in social standards. She doesn’t want to buy new clothing, as she is content with her way of living. Mrs. Turner wears Gord’s ten-year-old golf cap even though he passed away from a Seizure because she wants to remember him for the aspects that he had. She repels the teenagers and
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the readers are lead to believe that the Grandmother is a good Southern woman who lives her life by God’s grace, and the Misfit is a horrendous, murderous, mad man that believes in nothing. Although these first impressions seem spot on at a first glance, the actual characteristics and traits of these characters are far more complex. The Grandmother and Misfit have a very intriguing conversation before he murders her, but in the short time before her death, the readers see the grandmothers need for redemption and how the murderous Misfit gave her the redemption she so desperately needed,