Foreshadowing in Flannery O' Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
Flannery O' Connor, a native of Georgia was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century. As a strict Catholic, O' Connor often displayed a sense of spiritual corruption within the characters in most of her stories. One of O' Connor's famous stories, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," reveals the image of spiritual deficiency inherent in the characters which foreshadowed a bloody end.
The grandmother communicated the warning of the Misfit, but her activities itself were various signs of foreshadowing of the end approaching. The grandmother warned about the Misfit in the first paragraph of the story: "`Here this fellow calls himself the Misfit is loose from the federal pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people.'" This was the first sign of an obvious foreshadowing element at the start of the story which was ignored by everybody, even by the messenger herself. On the day of the trip to Florida, the grandmother was the first one to be in the car and also dressed very nicely with:
`.....a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. 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.'
People usually are found to be dressed in their best outfits and especially found carrying flowers at the time of their death. In reality, it would not be necessary to wear very decent clothing for the purpose of going on a long trip.
Next, the place where the family was traveling through had elements which were predicting the doom foretold in the ...
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...hing wrong, but still she had to suffer death just like Jesus did. His statement was a statement with a hidden sense of foreshadowing concerning the grandmother's murder. The grandmother begged the Misfit for mercy and told him, "`I'll give you all the money I've got!'" His reply was, "`There never was a body that give the undertaker a tip,'" which was his way of foreshadowing her near death.
Thus, Flannery O'Connor used strong imagery to provide foreshadowing to her readers of the inevitable ending of her "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." She first gave her readers a taste of the ending by mentioning the behavior and activities of the characters and also by describing the place of the family's last place of visit on earth, which built her readers' curiosity. Her foreshadowing images are both strong and obscure so as not to spoil the surprising ending of the story.
A brilliant storyteller during the mid-twentieth century, Flannery O'Connor wrote intriguing tales of morality, ethics and religion. A Southern writer, she wrote in the Southern Gothic style, cataloging thirty-two short stories; the most well known being “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
“In A Good Man Is Hard To Find “ Flannery O’Connor utilizes symbolism to give more meaning to her short story. O’Connor describes a story about the Grandmother vs. the Misfit, or in other words good vs. evil. This story is about a family that is on there way to Florida, but unfortunately that takes a wrong turn down a dirt road, which ends up causing them to get in an accident, and is caught by the Misfit. This confront prevented the family from ever arriving in Florida, because the Misfit just ends up killing every last single one of them. O’Connor uses symbolism by creating a story with a lot of meaning to sky, trees, roads, grandmother, and other necessities to depict the continuous battle between good vs. evil.
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.
The reason she had dressed in such a way was so people could identify her as a woman incase of an accident (O’Connor 2). This paragraph is a very vivid use of foreshadowing, because it gives the reader a signal that a death(s) in this story is anticipated. As the story continues, The Grandmother had woken up from a nap and remembered a plantation that had been around that area, but because no one seemed interested she lied and said “There was a secret panel in this house” (O’Connor 5). Her deception used in this section of the story just shows another example of The Grandmothers undying will to selfishly try to control everything and evidently get her way. After the children and The Grandmother kept forcefully encouraging the father, Bailey, he ended up turning back around to head over the plantation. The family turned onto a dirt road which The Grandmother thought was the right direction when she came to the realization that the plantation was infact in Tennessee and not Georgia. She was embarrassed to admit it, but at that point it was too late because her cat, Pitty Sing, who was not supposed to be in the car, had jumped out and
The granny and the misfit are two completely opposite characters that possess two different beliefs. The grandmother puts herself on a high pedestal and the way she calls the misfit ‘a good person’ based upon his family background gives the reader an idea of what the grandmother acknowledges to be considered as ‘good’. Self absorbed as sh...
In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", setting is used as a way to predict the tragic outcome of the story. The story's end is unexpected when first read, but upon closer inspection one can see several clues and foreshadowing techniques O'Connor used to hint at what would eventually happen, specifically in her use of setting. The outcome of the story is hinted at through the description of the family's scenic drive through Georgia, Red Sammy's, and the deserted road they travel on.
The Grandmother is a bit of a traditionalist, and like a few of O’Connor’s characters is still living in “the old days” with outdated morals and beliefs, she truly believes the way she thinks and the things she says and does is the right and only way, when in reality that was not the case. She tends to make herself believe she is doing the right thing and being a good person when in actuality it can be quite the opposite. David Allen Cook says in hi...
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, the author successfully uses the literary technique of "foreshadowing" to enhance and to support her story. The story is presented mostly from the point of view of the grandmother. Near the end, the grandmother is killed following the death of her entire family. In the course of this story, she put a good uses of imagery to foreshadow the people and the events. These are times are when describing how the grandmother dress, the family’s death, and the conversation between the Misfit and the grandmother.
In "A Good Man is Hard to find" by Flannery O'Connor, one is struck by the unexpected violence at the end of the story. However, if the story is read a second time, reader can see definite signs of foreshadowing that hints to the ending of the story. Through O'Connor's technique of strong imagery to foreshadow the people and the events in the story is very compelling. There are two significant times that she uses this technique. They are the description of the grandmother's dress and the graveyard.
In" A Good Man is Hard to Find" there are a variety of themes. The themes in this short story are: the grace of the grandmother and The Misfit, the vague definition of a “good man”, and the class of the grandmother. All of these themes are apparent to any reader, but it does not quite seem to match O’Connor’s depth style way of writing. The two characters, the Grandmother and the Misfit change from beginning to end. Even though they are both different as night and day, they both have principles and stand by their principles no matter what the circumstance.
O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." 1955. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. 4th ed. Ed. Robert DiYanni. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998. 193-203.
The Grandmother often finds herself at odds with the rest of her family. Everyone feels her domineering attitude over her family, even the youngest child knows that she's "afraid she'd miss something she has to go everywhere we go"(Good Man 2). Yet this accusation doesn't seem to phase the grandmother, and when it is her fault alone that the family gets into the car accident and is found by the Misfit, she decides to try to talk her way out of this terrible predicament.
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 story: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the tale of a vacation gone wrong. The tone of this story is set to be one irony. The story is filled with grotesque but meaningful irony. I this analysis I will guide you through the clues provided by the author, which in the end climax to the following lesson: “A Good Man” is not shown good by outward appearance, language, thinking, but by a life full of “good” actions.
Flannery O’Connor is best known for her Southern Gothic writing style and grotesque characters. Dorothy Tuck McFarland states that “O’Connor created bizarre characters or extreme situations in order to attain deeper kinds of realism” (1). This writing style is seen in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. Flannery O’Connor uses many techniques to gain the reader’s attention and keep them captivated. One way that O’Connor does this is by revolving her stories around symbols and integrating religious elements into her works. O’Connor is widely recognized for incorporating her Catholic faith into her stories. “She was a devout Roman Catholic, with a Southern upbringing” (Whitt 1). There are many types of ways to interpret “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. One method is by using formalist criticism. Formalist criticism exists when a reader can approach, analyze, and understand a story by using elements like the setting and symbolism.