In Andre Dubus’ “Killings” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the theme of death is apparent throughout both of the short stories. Both have a plot that revolves around death and murder. They differ because in Dubus’ story the theme of death is obvious because the whole plot revolves around murder, but in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” there are numerous symbols of death as well as a major theme of death. Also, the endings of the stories are of an interesting comparison because they both end in the perspective of a murderer. In “Killings” the reader is left with a depressed feeling and an irresolvable ending, while in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader is left feeling like the story was somewhat resolved even after all the gruesome fatality. The endings of these stories leave the reader with opposite feelings and Dubus and O’ Connor show their different outlooks on the world through these endings.
“Killings” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” vary in their point of view. “Killings”, is a story about two murders, told in the perspective of the father whose son has been killed. The father takes it upon himself to have revenge and kill his son’s murderer, Richard Strout. Since it is the father telling the story one can see how all his thoughts are based off the death of his son and the act of killing Strout. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is written from the point of view of a grandmother who is going on a trip with her family. Therefore, there is not always this apparent theme of death throughout the entire story, but that it more just appears in the ending when the perspective switches to “the Misfit”, who is the grandmother’s murderer.
It may seem that because the narrator in “Killings” is in fact, a mu...
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...filled with a feeling of remorse. While in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the killing of the grandmother and family is somehow resolved as nicely as possible because the grandmother is filled with a sort of understanding and love for her own murderer, and the murderer does not feel the remorse that the father had felt in “Killings”. Overall, these two short stories can be paired together for their main theme of fatality, but also contrasted because of their opposite in perspective and seemingly opposite endings.
Works Cited
Dubus, Andre. “Killings.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature 9th ed. Michael
Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s 2011. 103-116. Print.
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The Bedford Introduction to
Literature 9th ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St Martins 2011. 442-
460. Print.
This examination will look at the short story “Killings” by Andre Dubus and the main characters in the story. The story begins on a warm August day with the burial of Matt and Ruth Fowler’s youngest son Frank. Frank’s age: “twenty-one years, eight months, and four days” (Dubus 107). Attending the funeral were Matt, his wife Ruth, their adult children and spouses. Matt’s family is extremely distraught over the murder of their youngest son/brother, in their own way. There are implications of wanting to kill Richard Strout, the guy accused of being the murderer: “I should kill him” (107), as stated after the service. This comment is considered a fore-shadowing of what is to come in the thought progression of Matt and Ruth.
In "Killings"by Andre Dubus and In the Bedroom, directed by Todd Field, the author and director decided to go different directions with the beginning of the story, keeping the plot of the story almost identical. However, beginning the story differently impacted both works in completely different aspects. Dubus begins the story at the funeral of Frank which leads the reader to draw conclusions about what happened before Frank's funeral, while Field’s gives more background to viewer which allows the reader to make more connections. Dubus begins the story at Frank’s funeral which leads the reader to become confused throughout the story. As the reader reads through the story, they have to be able to connect the dots to understand what is happening. While in the movie, Field’s begins with the backstory leading up to Frank’s death which makes it easier for the viewer to understand what is happening. The difference between the two stories impacts how the reader and viewer are able to interpret the story.
In the short story “The Hunter” the author Richard Stark introduces Parker, the main character of this book. The main character is a rough man, he’s a criminal, a murderer, and even an escaped convict. He’s described as crude and rugged and though women are frightened by him, they want him. Parker is not the classic criminal, but rather he’s intelligent, hard, and cunning. In this story the author carefully appeals to his audience by making a loathsome criminal into a hero, or rather, an anti-hero. The author, Richard Stark uses ethical appeal to make his audience like Parker through the use of phronesis, arête, altruism and lastly the ethos of his audience.
As a result, both characters had to face the consequences of their selfishness in a climatic ending to both stories, where the grandma’s family ended up being killed and the parents were locked in a room by their children and fed to the lions. Therefore, a theme portrayed through the short stories “The Veldt” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is that the easy way isn’t always the best way.
A good murder is hard to be. Each story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates presents characters in a dangerous situation. I will make a comparison examines important similarities and dissimilarities for these two different murders.
The grandmother character in A Good Man is Hard to Find is the Christian icon of the story, while the Misfit represents all that is evil. True to her southern roots, ...
“As I Lay Dying, read as the dramatic confrontation of words and actions, presents Faulkner’s allegory of the limits of talent” (Jacobi). William Faulkner uses many different themes that make this novel a great book. Faulkner shows his talent by uses different scenarios, which makes the book not only comedic but informational on the human mind. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a great book that illustrates great themes and examples. Faulkner illustrates different character and theme dynamics throughout the entire novel, which makes the book a humorous yet emotional roller coaster. Faulkner illustrates the sense of identity, alienation, and the results of physical and mental death to show what he thinks of the human mind.
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is a short story written by the Flannery O 'Connor and was officially published in 1955. The author Flannery O 'Connor was raised in a Roman Catholic family, went to a Catholic school for 16 years, and had a strong Catholic faith. Most of O’Connor’s work of literature indicated her Roman Catholic beliefs; "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is one of the stories that contain a religious message behind it. The story is mainly about two different characters; the grandmother and The Misfit, who met each other by a chance in the middle of nowhere on the road. The grandmother is known as the “good,” innocent, religious, old lady and The Misfit is known as the “evil” escaped criminal that has no faith in God. The focus of this essay is “grace,” in personal knowledge; God has the power to allow every human being “grace” whether good or bad, and has the ability to let anyone; good or bad go to heaven. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” when the grandmother reaches out to touch The Misfit and calls him one of her children “a child of God” hoping to change his emotions and stop him from killing her, that moment is called a “moment of
to try to understand what sort of man Meursault is - a task that we
“Killings", written by Andre Dubus in 1979, involves several aspects such as revenge, morality, and murder. Elements, such as the story’s title, the order of events, and the development of the characters, are very unique. It successfully evokes emotion and suspense as the plot unfolds in sequence. Though it seems easily overlooked, the title “Killings” is very important due to the fact that the thrill of suspense is left in the mind of the reader. The title encourages readers to question who and what. It is also an intricate setting for the plot’s mood. It implies that a murder has taken place, but that is all the reader knows. The chronology of the story uses a style called "in media res”, a term used to describe the common strategy of beginning a story in the middle of the action or entering on the verge of some important moment (Meyer 2198). In this story, the readers are shown that murder not only takes a life, but it can also take away a living persons sense of self worth, their spirit.
The grandmother's character in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is also very selfish in her motivations. She felt she had to lie to her son, daughter-in-law and her grandchildren in order for her to be able to see that nice house again. "'There was a secret panel in this house' she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, 'and the story went that all the family sil...
The symbolism in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” truly represents Flanner O’Connor’s writing style and underlying theme. O’Connor exhibits the theme of religion in many of her works as she has written a majority of her stories “in the depth[s] of her Christian faith” (419). Having a strong Catholic background, O’Connor displays aspects of religious symbolism combined with her fascination of “grotesque incidents and characters” (420). In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor embodies the theme of religious symbolism through the setting as well as the main characters of her work, the Grandmother and The Misfit, as a glimpse of hope in a gruesome, sinister story.
Its ironic how in the story ‘The Hit Man”, the main character whose name we do not know, was only hired once, that we know of, to do some killing. Throughout the story we get to visualize who he is through his actions rather than the details of his physical appearance besides the black hood he wears. The story makes many references to the way society views him. This story is structured in a chronological format of critical points in his life. Many events take place in which he ends up wasting someone because they wronged him in some way. We can all infer that T.C. Boyle means kills when he says wastes throughout the story. Why does the hitman kill anyone who does him wrong or that he doesn’t like? He doesn’t believe in giving people second
I will discuss the similarities by which these poems explore themes of death and violence through the language, structure and imagery used. In some of the poems I will explore the characters’ motivation for targeting their anger and need to kill towards individuals they know personally whereas others take out their frustration on innocent strangers. On the other hand, the remaining poems I will consider view death in a completely different way by exploring the raw emotions that come with losing a loved one.
The major theme of Andre Dubus’ Killing,s is how far someone would go for the person they love. It is important to note the title of the story is killings and not killers, for the reasoning that the story does not just focus on two deaths or two murderers but rather the death of marriage, friendship, youth, and overall, trust.