Turns and Twists in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Turns and Twists in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Irony is a useful tool for giving stories unexpected turns and twists. In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," irony is used as a very effective literary tool; to guide the story in and out of what we think will happen. O'Connor uses irony in this story to contradict statements and situations to expose a truth very much different from what "we" the reader would think to be true. O'Connor use irony in several different forms, situational irony, dramatic irony and verbal irony to make the story unpredictable and interesting to read. In most every aspect of the story from beginning to end there is some type of ironic twist. The title itself is some what ironic, where in a normal society a "good man" would be seen as a man that obeys laws and is kind to fellow humans not as a murderer and an escaped convict like the Misfit. But the grandmother in the story while her family is being taken way to be killed says, using verbal irony, "I know you're a good man ... You're not a bit common (335)."

The main character in the story is the grandmother in which O'Connor uses her for almost every ironic situation. In the beginning of the story O'Connor uses the idea that "we" the reader have of what a grandmother would be like to unfold a story that is nothing like what "we" would perceive a grandmother to be like. This type of irony is situational irony; this is used throughout the story and literature. It is the contrast between what happens and what was expected to happen or what would seem appropriate to have happen, or an appropriate way for a character to act versus the way they do act. If a story started out using a character that's a professiona...

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... She uses cosmic irony; a type of irony that goes beyond being unfair and is morally tragic, as the main setting for the story, you may not be able to see it right away but the undertone are there. Such irony is often so harsh that it causes people to question God, like the grandmother does near the end of the story, "'That's when you should have started to pray...If you would pray,' the old lady said, `Jesus would help you. (336-337)" The irony in this story reaches such a tragic state that as expected it may suggest to the characters in the story and even the reader that people could just be pawns in the hands of mysterious forces or fate.

Works Cited:

O'Connor, Flannery "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's. 2003. 1379-1391.