The cornerstone of our reality is morality. Decisions we make and ideas we have pass through our moral filter. With hopes of opening our minds, Flannery O’Connor questions if our filter of morality is as pure as we may consider it. When we try to find the line between right and wrong, we find some difficulty because of the pluralism of society. Flannery O’Connor finds this pluralism fascinating and challenges our single perception of reality by questioning her character’s judgement. Flannery O’Connor uses the word ‘good’ to challenge readers moral perception. Take, for example, some of O’Connor’s titles, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” or “Good Country People.” O’Connor challenges what ‘good’ means through even her titles. Additionally, readers …show more content…
From the resolutions of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and even “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, the reader realizes that people are not quite what we think they are (often in her stories, people are more evil than we think). In two of these stories, a character that readers learn to trust becomes the antagonist; although in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the opposite occurs. A man that Grandmother knows is evil and has developed a fear for becomes someone that the protagonist of the story trusts or at least sympathizes with. The idea that links all three stories is that people are not what they seem. This intertextualization establishes an idea that O’Connor is trying to emphasize to her readers. Further establishing the idea, O’Connor uses tone to create a universal atmosphere. Certain moments in O’Connor’s text seem ominous. Literary critic Henry McDonald seems to agree that “O’Connor’s theme of “the whole man” is present in all her fiction”(McDonald 274). For instance, in “Good Country People,” O’Connor’s tone helps establish the theme that is woven through “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and this story: as Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman are having a conversation, she says “Some people are more alike than others” even when the surrounding text does not match this. Davis J. Leigh explains that “almost all her central figures
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.”
Flannery O’Connor grew up in the 1940s which was a time when America was rapidly changing. At this time there was a great divide in class structure. This dramatic separation of classes instilled a sense of superiority and hypocrisy in the minds of the upper class individuals. The attitudes of O’Connor’s characters in “Revelation” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” reveal a lot about the tainted mindset of those living in the south during that time. In both stories Flannery O’Connor is able to juxtapose the superior and hippocratic attitudes of upper with the attitudes of the lower class people during this civil war period.
...articular particularly symbolic aspect of A Good Man is Hard to Find is the fact that O'Connor is a great deal more elusive in her interpretation than in her other works. The author relies considerably more upon intangible ideals and concepts in which to make her point, which is readily obvious by the style and tone she adopts for the story. "She had her own distinctive, totally unsparing voice, and this novella about a tough old lady and a tougher escaped convict is as black as it gets" (Anonymous 182). In one way, she is trying to encourage both her readers and her characters to take control of their lives, to become empowered by the very events that serve to break down the people in her tale. Yet in another way, she recognizes the fact that people will always be the way they are, and nothing that anyone can say or do will ultimately save them from themselves.
In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor utilizes foreshadowing, characters and symbolism to impart her lesson of mortality and salvation. We are able to observe minor details within the story through these academic instruments, urging the reader continue on to see how the story will come to conclusion. The knowledge that evil exists in the world, and that stories like this are not uncommon, brings to mind thoughts of my own mortality and salvation. Does this accidental meeting with the grandmother and her family lead to a personal and spiritual growth for The Misfit? The ability to recognize and apply literary tools when reading stories can greatly enhance a reader’s overall
To conclude, Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is filled with irony and it is what makes the story so interesting. Without the use of these ironies the story would have been very different for the readers. Flannery O’Connor uses irony to enhance her writing and to push the readers to want to read further. She also uses this irony to explain some of her own concerns about the human condition. Verbal, dramatic, and cosmic ironies are all present in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and are used skillfully by the author to enhance the reader’s experience.
... Although Flannery O’Connor didn’t even live to see her 40th birthday, her fiction endures to this day. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” O’Connor effectively deals with the two huge themes of religion and racism. These two themes are crucial to understanding much of O’Connor’s great works and are relevant to all readers of O’Connor throughout all ages.
A common aspect of Flannery O’Connor’s literary works is her use of heavily flawed characters. O’Connor’s characters often exhibit gothic and incongruous characteristics. O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People,” is no exception to her traditional writing style with characters such as Hulga Hopewell, Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Freeman, and Manley Pointer. O’Connor uses gothic characterization and symbolism to produce a great short story about a few ruthless country people.
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.
In two short stories, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People written by Flannery O’Connor, we are introduced to two antagonists, the Misfit and Manley Pointer. The Misfit, in A Good Man is Hard to Find, is a criminal on the run who comes across a family who has gotten in a car crash on their road trip. In Good Country People, Manly Pointer is a well to-do christian who travels across the south and tricks people into trusting him and then steals from them. These two villains in these stories share similar traits such as their dislike for religion and forcing the antagonist of the two stories to see who they really are. However, they also differ greatly from their approach to others and how they deal with their own cruel actions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
...sque, and in Flannery O’Connor’s artistic makeup there is not the slightest trace of sentimentally” (qtd. in Bloom 19). Flannery O’Connor’s style of writing challenges the reader to examine her work and grasp the meaning of her usage of symbols and imagery. Edward Kessler wrote about Flannery O’Connor’s writing style stating that “O’Connor’s writing does not represent the physical world but serves as her means of apprehending and understanding a power activating that world” (55). In order to fully understand her work one must research O’Connor and her background to be able to recognize her allegories throughout her stories. Her usage of religious symbols can best be studied by looking into her religious Catholic upbringing. Formalist criticism exists in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” through Flannery O’Connor’s use of plot, characterization, setting, and symbolism.