Alienation Paper
The novels The Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises are both written by Ernest Hemingway. Some of the aspects of the stories are similar, and some are different. Each book presents a character that has been alienated, but the method used to present the character varies.
The most obvious similarity between the two books is the author. This similarity leads to several others since Hemingway seems to have a certain writing style that can be found in all of his works. For instance, both stories are written in a very concise manner. The sentences are short and to the point, and he doesn’t add any unnecessary words. After a first reading, the sentences even seem drab and emotionless. Another similarity between the books that could be due to the author’s writing style is the lack of physical description for the characters. In most books, a mental image can be formed of the characters, but in Hemingway’s novels, the physical portion of the image is hard to form. Both of the books also seemed to lack closure and resolution at the end. The endings left the reader to believe that none of the events that occurred during the story had any effect on the characters. In both books, the characters went on living as they always had.
Even with all the similarities in the two novels, there was plenty of room left for differences. The setting was one noticeable difference. In The Sun Also Rises, the setting changed a lot. It moved from country to country, and from city to city. There were so many different places in the book that it was hard to keep track of all of them. On the other hand, The Old Man and the Sea, had only one setting. Another difference can be found in the importance of vocations and money. In The Sun Also Rises, the characters didn’t have a strong vocation. The characters had money, but the reader never really knew how they got it. In The Old Man and the Sea, the whole book was centered around vocation. It stressed the need for money and how important Santiago’s vocation was for survival.
Other differences in the novels centered around the presentation of the alienated character. In The Old Man and the Sea, the book was written from the point of view of Santiago, the character that was alienated.
In A Good Man is Hard to Find, O’Connor introduces the Grandmother a small-minded, angry, and annoying old lady who reaches grace right before the end of her life. The Misfit is an escaped criminal who ends up killing the entire family when encountering them, but seems to believe that
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 “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader can see multiple cases of foreshadowing throughout the story, and especially in the opening scene(O’connor). The grandmother a southern raised women remains nameless throughout the story, and is the protagonist and often finds secretive ways to benefit herself. The opening scenes are a major factor because the reader knows there is a killer on the loose and he 's going to be near where the family is planning on traveling to. The grandmother a lady raised in the south who 's moral obligations are criticizing others and finding devious ways to make herself happy, and holding money more valuable than anything. The grandmothers
Despite the fact that we are not instantly aware of O’Connor’s indication of foreshadowing, we begin to see a pattern of this family’s inevitable rendezvous with
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.
With the plot essentially focusing around a forgetful grandmother, the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O 'Connor has created a large number of debates over its controversial and open ended contents. The story is considered one of the more well known writings from the Southern Gothic genre. The genre, often characterized by grotesque storytelling about a damaged or delusional character, was popularized during the 1940s by Southern writers like O’Connor. Throughout the story, a small cluster of characters are introduced. Each character is unique and have been analyzed by scholars to discuss the role they play in the story. The grandmother, however, seems to be the one analyzed the most because of her actions throughout the
Sparta was a city-state based on strict military ruling, at the age of seven a young Spartan would start out training and be trained into killing machines. When a Spartan baby is born, high elite Spartan soldiers would observe the baby to see if it was healthy and strong, if not the baby was ill and weak so it would be taken up a mountain and left there to die. This is just one example that shows how Sparta only wants a strong army and doesn't care about anything else. Strict rules of the government made it so that every Sp...
In today’s society, people are so concerned about others people life’s that they lose the real meaning to theirs. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a great example of that. The short story was about a grandmother that lived her life pointing out other people’s defects but had not realized her own. The short story was first published in 1959, and it all started with a family planning a road trip to Florida. Although, the grandmother wanted to go to Tennessee, her son, Bailey insisted in going to Florida. As they were traveling to Florida, the grandmother started to talk about an old house that she thought was close by. As a result, it caused the family to deviate the road they were on due to a tantrum the kids made. The grandmother then realized that the house was in Tennessee and not in Georgia, as a result it caused Bailey to lose control of the car and crash. As they were checking if everyone were okay a car pulled over besides them, and 3 men got out all carrying guns. Quickly, the grandmother recognizes the driver as The Misfit, as a result it led to everyone dying in the hands of the driver with his two accomplices. What I got from the literature is that life is too short to live pointing out others defects. Before people point out others defects, they might want to take into consideration and examine their defects. For example, the grandmother was too concerned about others defects that she did not realize that her defects were just as bad since she was selfish, racist, and arrogant.
Sparta was a strict military city-state. The people were Dorians who conquered Laconia. This region lies in the Peloponnesus, which lied in southern Greece. The invaders turned the conquered people into state owned slaves, called helots. Since the helots greatly outnumbered their rulers, Spartans established a strict and brutal system of control. The Spartan government had two kings and a council of elders who advised the monarchs. An assembly made up of all citizens approved all major decisions. From child-hood, a Spartan prepared to be part of the military. All newborn were examined and the healthy lived and the sickly were left to die. Spartans wanted future soldiers or mothers of soldiers to be healthy. At the age of seven, boys trained for a lifetime in the Spartan military. They moved to the barracks and endured brutal and extensive training.
“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.
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,
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.
By adding biographical features into their novels both Fitzgerald and Hemingway are able to give their novels that extra depth because the plot of the novels are more realistic and accurately reflect the society of the times. The story in Fitzgerald's book contains basic ideas from his life, not nessesarily actual events. Several characters have biographical characterization and the novel reflects his own experiences. Hemingway's novel, however, is almost entirely based on actual events that happened to Hemingway and a group of his friends. This enhances the realism of The Sun Also Rises.
Hemingway has a way of making his readers believe that the feats and strengths that his characters obtain in his novels are actually possible. Although this statement may be too critical, and maybe there is a man out there, somewhere on the coast of Cuba who at this very moment is setting out to the open sea to catch a marlin of his own. The struggle many readers have is believing the story of Santiago’s physical powers and his strength against temptation bring forward the question of whether or not The Old Man and the Sea is worthy to be called a classic. Hemingway’s Santiago brought Faulkner and millions of other readers on their knees, while to some, believed Hemingway had swung his third strike. As we look further into Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, we can analyze the criticism and complications of the character Santiago. He is portrayed as a faulty Jesus, an unrealistic and inhuman man, and again still a hero to those who cannot find happiness in their life.