Category: A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, Wise Blood, she changed people’s minds about what a southern writer was and ushered in a new wave of attention for southern writers. O’Connor, as a southern writer, who is similar to others from a proportional spot by the sets of specific expectations for perusers outside of that area. One explanation behind accordingly numerous notices of O’Connor as a southerner is why this reality was frequently underlined as another standard of notice-needed to embrace to not just with the novel’s setting of Eastrod, Tennessee, yet with a suspicion about southern craftsmanship that had been trumpeted a long time before O’Connor started her profession. O’Connor wrote, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, in 1955 while using religion as a theme for her works by expressing her experiences growing up as a Catholic in the South.

Flannery O’Connor’s Catholic childhood impacted most her fiction, regularly earning analysis as a result of her unmistakable, once in a while brutal depiction of confidence. O’Connor’s extraordinary grandparents had been kind of the essential Catholics to quantify in Milledgeville, Georgia, and her family stood call at the overwhelmingly Protestant South. O’Connor went to chapel school and routinely visited Mass related to her family. Despite the fact that her accounts and books are frequently brutal and horrifying, they’re established in her conviction inside the secrets of conviction and godliness. In addition, her characters regularly face savage or shaking circumstances that constrain them into a blaze of emergency that stirs or adjusts their confidence. Snapshots of elegance, a Christian thought, are unavoidable, somewhat like the grandma’s snapshot of effortlessness in A Good Man is Hard to Find. For O’Connor, composing was inseparable from her Christian convictions, accepting that she wouldn’t be prepared to compose were it not for this foundation. During a talk around, A Good Man is Hard to Find in 1943, O’Connor stated, ‘Belief, in my own case anyway, is the engine that makes perception operate.’ She likewise ascribed her longing to record down right directly down to her Catholicism, composing once during a letter, “I feel that if I were not a Catholic, I would have no reason to write, no reason to see, no reason ever to feel horrified or even to enjoy anything.’

The story takes place in Atlanta, Georgia in the 50’s as a family is taking a road trip yet there is some disagreement on where to go. All of the family members besides the grandmother want to go to Florida as she has her disagreements for a different location. The grandmother did not like the idea of Florida due to serious crimes as a criminal known as “The Misfit” is out of the slammer and is somewhere located in Florida. The grandmother wears a dress and cap with blossoms on it so individuals will realize she is ‘a lady’ if there’s a mishap. At the point when they pass a cotton field, she says there are graves in it that had a place with the manor and jokes that the estate has ‘Gone with the Wind.’

The family stops at an eatery called the Tower, possessed by Red Sammy Butts. Red Sammy whines that individuals are deceitful, clarifying that he as of late let two men purchase fuel using a loan. The grandmother inquires as to whether she’s caught wind of the Misfit, and the lady stresses that he’ll loot them. Red Sam says, ‘A good man is hard to find.’ Back in the vehicle, the grandmother wakes from a snooze and understands that a ranch she once visited is close by. She says that the house had six white segments and lies that the house had a mystery board to cause the house to appear to be all the more fascinating. Energized, the youngsters ask to go to the house until Bailey indignantly yields. The grandma guides him toward a soil street. The family crashes profound into the forested areas.

The grandma abruptly recalls that the house was in Tennessee, not in Georgia. Pitty Sing, the grandmother’s cat, escapes from the bushel and alarms Bailey, who wrecks the vehicle. The mother breaks her shoulder, yet nobody else is harmed. A passing vehicle stops, and three men get out, conveying weapons. One of the men advises the kids’ mom to cause the kids to duck down in light of the fact that they make him apprehensive. The grandma unexpectedly shouts since she understands that he’s the Misfit.

The Misfit tells the other two men to take the two children and the mother into the forested areas. The Misfit says he realizes he isn’t acceptable yet that he isn’t the most exceedingly terrible man either. The grandma asks the Misfit whether he ever supplicates. Similarly as he says no, she hears two shots. The Misfit says he used to be a gospel vocalist and then the grandma begins reciting, ‘Jesus, Jesus.’ The Misfit says he resembles Jesus, with the exception of Jesus hadn’t carried out wrongdoing. A gunfire originates from the forested areas which then appears to the Misfit as he shoots her in the chest multiple times. Bobby Lee and Hiram return, and they all glance at the grandma. At the end of the story it states, “She would of been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” “Some fun!” Bobby Lee said. “Shut up, Bobby Lee” The Misfit said. “It’s no real pleasure in life” (O’Connor 13).

A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most well known instances of Southern Gothic writing. Southern Gothic composing centers around odd occasions, erratic characters, and neighborhood shading to make an ill humored and agitating portrayal of life in the American South. Southern history figures unmistakably, and stories normally draw upon the heartbreaking history of subjugation; waiting sentiments of crushed local pride after the Civil War; and confined, regularly ignored areas. Individuals, spots, and occasions in Southern Gothic writing have all the earmarks of being typical from the outset, yet they in the long run uncover themselves to be bizarre, upsetting, and some of the time horrendous. In spite of the fact that she detested the mark, O’Connor was an ace of the class while at the same time keeping a tone of authenticity in her books and short stories. Her exposition, for instance, stresses the facts of her characters’ activities as opposed to their idiosyncratic idiosyncrasies. Notwithstanding the frequently prophetically calamitous, dreamlike tone of her composition, her works consistently contain reasonable activities and decisions. O’Connor grounds the story as a general rule by deemphasizing the ghostly, troubling tone of the setting and concentrating rather on the connections and occasions that drive the account.

Flannery O’Connor, the author of Gothic short stories, deeply portrays the picture of the rural life of the South. The stories include characters that find themselves in unpleasant situations, where the only way out is through salvation. The author animates religious pathos by including colors with comic touches. At the same time characterizing photographic and grotesque authenticity which she achieves through the last trifle of the realistic description of the everyday life. She often exposes the images of religion, false order, and hypocrisy.

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” religion plays an enormous role. O’Connor constantly reflects on religion-based morals, which creates an additional dimension to her plot. Flannery O’Connor portrays the grandmother as how some people might think a typical religious person would act behind closed doors. O’Connor portrays the character of the grandmother as a regular, southern “Christian” woman. She does not act with “Christian” morals, but instead acts more like a hypocrite when it comes down to how a religious person is supposed to behave. For example, on the road trip she talks a lot about the old times in the south and tries to teach her grandkids to be more respectful to people around them. Whereas she is not as innocent because she acts the way she is telling her grandkids not to behave. However, she judges the little boy’s appearance, using racial slurs while describing him.

For her outfit she has, “her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her necklace she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (471). In the case that she dies right then and there, she wants people act respectfully towards her due to her appearance. She believes a conservative look is the most important way to present yourself, because you will not get treated with the same value if you were dressed any other way.

Her attitude of being hypocritical, changes after the encounter with the Misfit. After the encounter, the grandmother’s attitude drastically changes, and she has to think about the others’ lives and her own life. She stops caring only about herself, and shows care for her son, Bailey. After the realization that she can lose him if she is not careful with her words, she tries to have a conversation with the Misfit, “[she] noticed how thin his shoulder blades were just behind his hat because she was standing up looking down on him. ‘Do you ever pray?’” (479). She asks him if he prays, making the first reference to religion comes from grandmother’s mouth, while she’s “looking down” on him, appearing the righteous person out of two of them. This can also point out that the grandmother at heart has not truly changed, just the act she is putting on to protect herself and Bailey. Then after learning that he does not pray, she sees this as an opening to try and talk to him about religion as if it is a distraction. His men then kill her son and the Misfit replies to her crying by mocking her call to religion, stating: “’Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead” (480). Giving her the hint, that he cannot be saved by Jesus and that it would take more than a religious character to save his soul. One of the last claims she says: “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” as if she is a pastor claiming him as a student who needs to know they are loved by God (481). The grandmother likely recalls, the stories of Jesus telling people that he is the teacher who will save their souls and help them get to Heaven. She attempts to copy this characteristic with intent of not saving others but instead herself. This is the grandmother’s last hope to save herself, and potentially the Misfit.

Flannery O’Connor succeeds in portraying the grandmother as a hypocritical person when it comes to religion. The grandmother does not understand that there is no way of saving her life, despite her pleas for salvation. Before her end, the grandmother prays for her own soul, pretending to care for the soul of the Misfit. It is evident that O’Connor tries to reflect religion-based morals, by showing that not everyone acts the way they should.

The Theme of grace in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Other Stories” is widely presented in most stories of Flannery O’Connor. At the beginning of most stories, characters are seen as being alienated to the author’s perception of God’s grace, living a sinful life. As the story develops however, some changes occur in the lives of characters where they experience grace through an understanding of humanity. In this context, grace is viewed as a life situation in which people replace their pride with humility. It can also be seen as an experience of true intimacy of life as a result of interacting with others. A character can also receive grace from God when saved from bondage of sin.

This paper explores how the theme of grace is represented in Flannery O’Connor’s work “A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories”. From the story, characters like Misfit and grandmother receive grace from God despite the fact that they did not deserve it. First, the grandmother’s life shows that she is distanced from God. She is presented as being judgmental, arrogant, and full of pride. When the family plans to leave for Florida, she is upset. Ironically, the grandmother was first to prepare; she wore a navy blue dress and white cotton glove. As the author illustrates, her choice of wardrobe was “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor, Collected Works, 18). Here, the grandmother is presented as being materialistic. When faced with death towards the end of story, she tells Misfit, “If you would play Jesus would help you” (O’Connor, Collected Works, 28). Similarly, before she was shot by Misfit, she called him one of her baby (O’Connor, Collected Works, 32). She recognized the Misfit as a human being who qualifies for redemption by God’s grace.

Similarly, in this story, the Misfit is subject to many sinful acts, including the murder of a whole family. However, at the end of the story, the Misfit is seen to regret his actions. His claim that ‘It’s no real pleasure in life’ (O’Connor, Collected Works, 32) implies that he has achieved some level of grace. This claim is contrasting with his earlier claim, “No pleasure but meanness” (O’Connor, Collected Works, 31).

Throughout the story, “The River”, the theme of grace is widely demonstrated by such characters as Harry, Harry’s family, the preacher, and Mrs. Connin. These characters are presented to have opposing views and interpretation of grace. First, Harry’s parents are upset when Harry was baptized. In some ways, this shows that this family disapproves Christianity, and probably does not believe in God. Mrs. Connin and the preacher, who are devoted Christians introduced Harry to the religion and baptized him. However, they failed to inform Harry the meaning of baptism. Despite not understanding preacher’s teaching, Harry is baptized and receives God’s grace in death as he stood with salvation. He denounced the atheistic way of his parents.

Tom Shiftlet, in the story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” has an opportunity to receive grace. He is presented as a lonely man, who has no friends. However, when he meets Lucynells, he gets a chance to work hard and live a quiet life. When Mr. Shiftlet saw the two women sitting in the porch, “He swung both his whole and his short arm up slowly so that they indicated an expanse of sky and his figure formed a Crooked cross” (O’Connor, Collected Works, 63). This crooked cross demonstrated by his figure symbolizes his opportunity to be saved. As the story comes to an end, Mr. Shiftlet plays, “Oh Lord! Break forth and wash the slime from this earth” (O’Connor, Collected Works, 83). This implies that he missed his chance.

Unlike other girls in “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”, one girl is presented to have a pride temperament. The author illustrates that she alienated herself with others. O’Connor states, “…she was out of it and watched them suspiciously from a distance” (O’Connor, Collected Works, 107). Due to her pride, the other older girls do not bother to ask her to accompany them to a fair (O’Connor, Collected Works, 107). Due to her temperament also, she decides not to accompany them even if she was asked to. However, the author gives us an insight of the child’s mind; she strives for grace and considers a saint death as her calling. Her mind has two conflicting issues: ugly thoughts and knowledge.

In conclusion, the work of Flannery O’Connor demonstrates the theme of Grace. Different characters achieve grace in varied ways. Characters like grandmother and the Misfit achieve grace after living a sinful life but change when they realize they are about to face death or life is not fruitful. Other characters as demonstrated by O’Connor achieve grace by interacting with other people as well as when saved from the bondage of sinful life.

In 2018, books that religion in them generated 593.7 million U.S. dollars in sales revenue. The text we will be analyzing is Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” This takes place in the present day and the genre of the story is a short story. Some characters we will be analyzing is the grandmother and The Misfit and how they play off each other throughout the story. The novel’s emphasizing of religion on the grandmother and Misfit suggest that religion has a colossal effect on both of their lives and how the grandmother can be considered a Christ character. Thomas C. Foster’s book How to Read Literature Like a Professor has a chapter about Christ character so that section influences the major characteristics in this close reading.

The first characteristic is the setting in which the story takes place. It takes place on the bank of a forest. In the Bible, the forest is the realm for death. It is called that because usually, you are out there by yourself isolated from any kind of civilization. Plus, people believe that the forest is the devil’s territory. It is considered the realm of death and the devil’s territory because people go in the forest do not come back out, so they consider them to be dead.

The second characteristic is her forgiveness to everyone around her. Throughout the story, people do not show her any respect. Even her own family does not show her any respect and the bad part is that she does not stand up for herself. One example of someone disrespecting her is when her grandson says, “If you don’t want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay home?” (O’Connor 130). She is explaining to her family that she does not want to go because the Misfit has escaped the Federal Pen. Somebody reported that he was heading towards Florida. She did not even care that he says that to her. Her only response to his comment is “Yes and what would you do if this fellow, The Misfit, caught you?” (O’Connor 130). Later, in the story she and her family run into the Misfit. She shows forgiveness to Misfit even though he kills her whole family and eventually kills her. In the New Testament, Jesus talks about how you should not hold a grudge against anybody and that you should always forgive them.

The third characteristic is the grandmother meets a devil-like character. The Misfit is the character that is devil-like. When the grandmother is telling him that he needs to pray and that Jesus would give you. His response to the grandmother telling him to let Jesus in is “I don’t want any help…I’m doing alright by myself.” (O’Connor 143). At first, she does not really notice the significance of his statement just that he does not have a positive belief in Jesus. Then he keeps going by saying, “Jesus was the Only one that raised the dead…Jesus throws everything off balance.” (O’Connor 145). Finally, after she realizes what he says she starts to doubt her Christian faith and the information she learns about Jesus. When she starts second-guessing if Jesus raised the dead or not and if anything that she learns from her past is true or not. After those thoughts start running through her head, she starts to feel very dizzy and quickly after that she falls to the ground with her legs twisted under her in a ditch. This happens because her religion plays a gigantic part in her life and the thought that something not being true just makes her feel sick. Going back to my first point, they are in a forest in which people that read the Bible interpret the forest to be the devil’s territory so why wouldn’t there be a devil-like character in “Good Man is Hard to Find.”

The final characteristic is the grandmother believing she is a disciple of Jesus. Throughout most of the story, the grandmother is telling Misfit that she knows that he comes from good people and from good blood. She tells Misfit “If you would pray…Jesus would help you.” (O’Connor 143). After Jesus died, he tells his disciples to go around telling people that if you pray to him and tell that you are truly remorseful of the sins you committed then will forgive you. Right before Misfit is going to kill her, she tells him, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my children!” (O’Connor 145). She says this because Jesus is speaking to Misfit through her. Another reason she says this statement is because she looks over at Misfit and thinks he is crying. The reason she thinks he is crying is that he just now realizes all the sins he has committed and starts to feel remorse about them. Jesus speaks only to her because relies heavily on him and will always listen to him meanwhile Misfit is extremely closed-minded and believes Jesus is evil. This makes her a disciple of Jesus because she is preaching his word. Soon after all this happens Misfit shoots and kills her. She says all this predicting that something terrible going to happen to her at the end.

Now the short story should show why the grandmother is a Christ character and the role she plays in the story. Some key points in this story were how she meets a devil character that tested her faith, her forgiveness to people, the location on where the main part of the story took place, and the things she says right before she met with death. The significance of this argument is that it has a major effect on the real world. It affects the real world because many people today are characterized as Christ characters. Some characteristics that qualify you to be a Christ character is being able to forgive people, if you meet someone that has majorly test your faith, and if you are a follower and you spread the word of the Bible.

The term “loss of innocence” is now being widely used in different spheres, especially in philosophy. This notion is usually associated with human age, meaning that getting older can lead people far from what they were at the very beginning, in their childhood. Indeed, the older a person is, the less naïve and lighthearted they are, the less confident they become about their own views.

But is this the knowledge alone that makes people lose their innocence? There is an opinion that “A gain in knowledge is a loss of innocence…a greater learning about social reality destroys old verities (truths) and induces uncertainty. Learning about the social world can be a threat”. Obviously, there is a grain of truth in this idea.

Analysis

Indeed, in the modern world the old verities and values are forgotten, people seem to be really different from what they were in the past. If earlier people were more modest and reserved, now they became really open, and sometimes even rude. The reason for such change is development of communication systems and technologies. An essay “A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor also illustrates how knowledge about social reality can destroy the old truths.

The main character, a grandmother, who was a real lady, was indignant at how people have changed to worse in comparison with her time. She recalled that in her time “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else” (O’Connor, 64), and that “People are certainly not nice like they used to be” (O’Connor, 68), etc.

However, the grandmother’s knowledge about society is very little in comparison with the Misfit’s one. He appeared to be a very rude man, who had the family of two parents and three little kids killed. In addition, he shot the grandmother himself, even though they had a nice conversation just before.

He did it in a very cold way: he “shot her three times through the chest” (O’Connor, 84). Why would he do this? Why was he so cruel? The answer is simple: the man lost his innocence because of socializing: “I been most everything” (O’Connor, 79). The man had many occupations, met many people, and some of the experiences were not really pleasant: “I even seen a woman flogged” (O’Connor, 79). Obviously, this experiences made the man tough, and they left no place for sensitivity in his hard.

Another example of how threatening the knowledge about social world can be is the essay ”A small good thing” by Raymond Carver. He author shows how a pair of “happy and, so far, lucky” parents, Howard and Ann, turn into angered beasts ready to kill someone (Carver, 3).

The reason for that is the gain of knowledge about social reality. The doctor, who failed to save their beloved song, Scotty, a negro boy, who was accidentally killed, the baker, who caused pain by reminding about their son – all these people took away the innocence of the pair. The character of baker, too, serves as an example of innocence loss.

The man realized “the sense of doubt and limitation that had come to him in his middle years” (Carver, 37). These feelings were caused by his experience of communication with different social groups, which once more proves, how harmful social world can be for an individual.

The character of another short story also became a victim of knowledge. Josephine from Kate Chopin’s “The story of an hour” was so shocked by the news about her husband’s death, that she demanded: “Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin, 47). However, the long-awaited freedom only reached her with death.

The heroine died at the moment she saw her husband, who was actually alive and safe. Did she die because of happiness? Doubtfully so. Josephine could not bare the fact that she was mislead by other people; by the time her husband appeared, her soul was already dead. This is one of the horrifying results of learning about society. We can assume that if she did not talk to her husband’s friend, Richard, who told about the news, she would live long and happily. But it was knowledge that killed her.

Conclusion

As it can be seen, gain of knowledge about social world can often be dangerous. Without a doubt, knowledge of this kind leads to the loss of innocence.

Works Cited

Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. London: Vintage, 1989.

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. London: Vogue, 1894.

O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories. NY: Mariner Books, 1977.

There are various opinions with regard to the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The varying opinions mostly revolve around the grandmother’s act of reaching out to touch the Misfit.

The most dominant opinion though is that the grandmother’s final deed was graceful, thereby implying that “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” was penned by the author to depict a gradual change in the grandmother as the story progresses. Initially, the grandmother appeared to be more concerned about looking like a good Christian than striving to be one.

This is illustrated by her selfish desire to head to Tennessee instead of Florida and, more importantly, by her efforts to protect her own life, regardless of the fact that her family members continued to loose their lives while she watched.

This was even made worse by the fact that if she had remained silent, none of them would have been met their fate like they did. Eventually, she came to understand that she has not led a decent life and therefore decided to get in touch with her persecutor, the Misfit, in her last act. This “epiphany” is similar to that of the grandmother’s newly found salvation.

Even though she does not succeed, her desperate effort have a profound impact on the Misfit, who subsequently says that through experiencing relentless violence, she would have turned out to be a decent lady had someone shot her on daily basis (O’Connor 142).

The second opinion with regard to the aforementioned matter is that the grandmother’s last deed was in fact not a charitable one and that she is yet again attempting to save her life. Some are of the opinion that the author Flannery O’Connor deploys the excuse to serve as the grandmother’s last gracious occasion to redeem the story from the horrific series of bloodshed as well as violence.

It is noted that by the time the grandmother reached out to the Misfit, claiming that she was her mother, he spotted a shirt with Bailey’s emblazoned on it. In addition, there are other opinions that point out to the fact that it is either not in line with her character or that she was yet again attempting to rescue her life and that her self-centeredness remained intact in the whole story.

The third opinion is that the grandmother is fraught with shortcomings but unlike the rest of her family members she attempts to be a decent person as she is respectful to her family members despite the fact that they ignore her at times.

In addition, its noted that the grandmother was very crafty as she indirectly influences the children so that they may desire to go and visit the house they were not intended to, thus the author notes “she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were”.

The grandmother thinks that to get anything she desires, she has to manipulate her family members, regardless of the fact that her conscience does not approve of it. The grandmother is the person charged with responsibility of meting out punishment to the children as well as entertaining them because the parents of the children do not seem to care about them (Goodman 45).

Not all interpretations are centered on the morals of the grandmother.

Flannery O’Connor’s has the despicable habit of using the dark as well as the morose to bring out the beauty as well as the philosophical prowess; with regard to the case of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” it portrays divine grace. Divine grace is a concept vital to Christianity as unwarranted favor.

“Christians strongly believe the imperfect is made perfect”, i.e. people gain salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ. (Goodman 45).

The grandmother in the story attains grace by acknowledging that she was instrumental in creating The Misfit and that they are tied by kinship thus she reaches out to him in a manner that a mother reaches out to her child.

O’Connor has the reputation of a religious writer. A lot of people cannot figure out why she feels the need to use violence in many of her short stories. She points out that in her stories, violence serves the purpose of making her characters come back to reality. The use of violence in her short stories makes stubborn and unsavory characters in her stories to receive divine grace when their time comes (Weber 89).

The story ends with The Misfit shooting the grandmother. She tells Bobby Lee that she would have been a good woman, if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. This statement clearly shows The Misfit’s knowledge to what the grandmother had undergone right before being murdered.

He said that he noticed that she was attempting to minister the word of God to him, but that it only happened because she was afraid of death. The Misfit feels that if the grandmother had lived her life with a gun held in her head, she might have lived a better life than the life she had led.

Works Cited

Goodman Theodore. The techniques of fiction: an analysis of creative writing. London, UK: Liveright Pub. 2007. Print

O’Connor Flannery. Frederick Asals. ed. A good man is hard to find. New York, NY: Rutgers University Press. 1993. Print.

Weber,Jean. Critical analysis of fiction: essays in discourse stylistics. New York, NY: Rodopi. 1992. Print

Introduction

The book ‘A good man is to Find’ is one among the many fictional short stories of O’Connor and was first published in the 1950s. It is regarded as a fictional story because it displays all the characteristics of this feature as it can be seen from the way characters have been depicted and how the author has described the Roman Catholic faith.

How the author integrates the Catholic faith into the story is impressive especially when she explains the function of the grace of God in an individual’s life. The story has terrific incidences and captivating at the same time. In this discussion, I am going to focus on how fiction is seen in the story.

Body

The story begins on a low tone with a short description of the character of Misfit who had escaped madder before and later killed the whole family at the end of the story. The author defines biblical grace in the manner in which she describes this character. She defines beauty as the forgiveness given by God when one asks for it.

The Grandmother is described as a woman with unbearable personality; she is selfish and petty. But before her death, she attains grace when she identifies Misfit as her son. According to her story, O’Connor defines Gods’ grace as something compelling outside an individual and not deserved by everybody.

Almost all the characters in the story do not utilize their opportunities and miss out to realize them; instead, they are obstructed by their spiritual following from realizing the truth. ‘A good man too is hard to find’ is one of her initial works and strongly shows the theme of fiction. Even though the grandmother chooses to go Tennessee instead for Florida for a vacation, she gets everything ready for the journey including the cat and all the family in her car.

To make it funny, the grandmother takes time to dress up for the ride and does it with a purpose to show people that she was a lady in case an accident occurred on the highway. As the family proceeds with the journey, the author creates some impression of life and death scenes that makes the reader aware of what is going to happen. When the grandmother holds the baby, there is an apparent difference between the two, the wrinkled face of the grandmother and the smooth face of the baby.

Immediately after this incident, they pass what used to be the burying site of the family, and the grandmother shows them graves of their relatives. According to the author, the number of graves that she showed was equivalent to the number of occupants in the car. About the question paused by John Wesley; this is fictional as she remembers the passing of the death of the old south.

The events that took place at the Tower Café seemed to have been created to show more meaning unto which the characters were. The Tower represents the biblical Tower where the where children of Adam got confused when they were each made to talk in different tongues. The tower is also a low-level position where the characters have been placed to show their concerns for fellow men to hide their bad attitude.

From the conversations at the Tower, the characters seem not to agree on any issue. The grandmother annoys the son when she tells him to dance when the wife plays the ‘Tennessee Waltz’ which is not affordable while June Star insults Red Sammy as a show of bad manners that he always had (Marvin K. et al., 7).

The three are then engaged in a discussion on the worsening nature of the times and conclude that though they may be good people, ‘a good man is hard to find.’ They dismiss any responsibility of human occurrences and blame Europe for all the messes.

The grandmother falls asleep immediately after they leave the restaurant but wakes up at Toomsboro, which signifies what is going to happen to the family because it is in this place that she instigates the events that are to occur to the family. She remembers a garden that she had visited as a young lady and wishes she had done so again. By doing this, she succeeds in blackmailing the family by not telling them of the secret location in the house.

It is after they had negotiated the corner that the grandmother remembers that the house was in Tennessee. At some point in the journey, a hearse-like car appeared from a distance. The grandmother stood and waved to the people that were in the vehicle that was nearing them. It is at this point that Misfit decides the fate of the family.

During the events that occurred after the accident, the grandmother tried to use religion as a means of escaping death but was not successful. Misfit concluded that biblical Jesus is the only one with those powers. In a final attempt to redeem herself, the grandmother tells Misfit that he was one of her children. This manifests some of her wicked ways that she had been involved in and that it was a product of her hypocrisy.

Conclusion

‘A good man is hard to find’ is a fictional story as reflected from the narrations and scenes from the book. The theme of the book is based on biblical stories about real life as it has been discussed. The way grace works, the representation of the Tower, the mysterious accident and the conversations that took place after. Such events cannot occur in real life; hence the whole story is imaginary.

Work cited

Marvin K., etal. Literature: The Human Experience. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2010.

“A good man is hard to find” is Flannery O’Connor’s speculation regarding human hypocrisy. The story presents a deep analysis of human behavior and of the consequences that egocentric attitudes might bring. The reader observes the grandmother’s interactions with her family throughout the story. While claiming to be a true lady, she acts rather selfishly, and this trait contributes to the fate of her family.

O’Connor creates a clear picture of what kind of person the grandmother is from the very first pages. She is a rather self-centered person, who thinks she is always right. For example, she believes that the whole family needs to go to Tennessee because of her wish. The grandmother even takes the cat into the car, even though she knows her son does not like it. She constantly complains about the present times and tells stories about the past, when everything used to be better, in her opinion. This is probably why her family often prefers to ignore her. The reader observes the grandmother telling stories, trying to teach her grandchildren something, perhaps partly out of a desire not to be ignored. She is glad to talk to Red Sammy, the first person in the story to discuss something with her. The key event of the story is the grandmother’s encounter with a criminal named The Misfit. Arguably, everything could have ended well for the whole family had she not decided to point out to the criminal that she “recognized [him] at once” (O’Connor, 1953, p. 195).

The grandmother should have stayed quiet, but her desire to matter for once made her say that aloud. She probably did not even think before telling the criminal that she recognized him. Not a single person from her family took her seriously, so the grandmother grabbed the opportunity to be noticed. The decision to speak out becomes the doom of the grandmother and her entire family.

Reference

O’Connor, F. (1953). A good man is hard to find. In Phillips, W., Rahv, P. & O’Connor, F. The Avon book of modern writing: A collection of original contributors by today’s leading writers. (pp. 186-199). Avon publications.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a short story that was written by Flannery O’Connor and got published in the year 1955. The story was initially included in the “Modern Writing I” before it was later published in another anthology “The House of Fiction” in 1960.

This vast appearance in various anthologies has made the story one of the most cherished works of this author. The story has exhibited all the characteristics for which the author is best known for her religious faith. It is a fiction work of well-drawn characters that are represented through a philosophy which underscores the author’s devout religious belief and faith in the Roman Catholic way.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find is actually one of the highly regarded works by this author where characterization is well exhibited through out the plot. In this story, O’Connor’s own attitude towards her faith is observed in the way she paints her characters through aspects, such as dialogue, whereby each character befits well the role he or she plays in the story.

Characterization in this short story is displayed through various tools such as actions, clothing, speech and dialogue, family life, moral codes, and thoughts and opinions, among others. However, through the characters’ dialogue and speech, all other aspects are well-expressed to the readers.

The writer’s talent and ability to accord the characters’ speech that would reflect their social class, moral values, age, and religious stand makes the story complete with its intended meaning of expressing her religious faith. For instance, the children are constantly heard to say things that sound childish and just fit them better as kids.

Even though the story opens innocently, the author starts by introducing the character of the story’s antagonist; the Misfit. Misfit is observed to be an escaped murder convict who repeats his habits by killing the entire family towards the end of the story.

Via this character, the writer manages to explore the concept of ‘grace’ in Christianity where it comes out clear that God’s divine pardon of humans can only be guaranteed through pleading or asking. As observed in the story, it is only the grandmother who manages to attain grace at the moment when she is observing the death and recognizes the murderer; the Misfit, as her own child (Evans 36).

For the writer, the grace of God is not only a force that is lacking within the character, but something that is undeserved. However, the characters in the story often miss out the opportunity to make a connection in the real perception whereby their spiritual blindness is said to hinder them from coming into terms with the truth.

Family dysfunctions and problems reveal in the story. The manner by which every family member would interact with the others is used to bring forth a character of the heroes.

This could be observed through a number of episodes in the story such as the kids’ behavior of disrespect towards the older folks, the unsuccessful attempts of Bailey to uphold his responsibility as the ‘father’ and also the baby’s fixation by the mother.

However, despite of all these, the family is still intact together and would apparently manage to take family vacations together. This compared to the situation of the Misfit’s family where their own father is killed displays a big family dysfunction.

All these aspects observe the truth in the writer’s perceptions through the words of the grandmother that “a good man is hard to find.” The aspects as explored through the characters have managed to come out clearly as the writer’s own characterization. The author observes the way people often lie about their real religious faith. For instance, as the Misfit observes, “she would always have been a good person, if somebody out there would have to shoot her every other minute of her life” (O’Connor 17).

Through the use of violence, something that contrasts her stand as a Stuart believer and Christian, the writer manages to bring the characters in the story to reality. Through the use of violence, O’Connor is finally able to make some of the hard-headed characters, such as the grandmother, come into terms to their moment of grace, and through this, the writer manages to express her real attitude towards Christianity.

Works Cited

Evans, Richard. “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” Dark Humor 12.34 (2010): 34- 36. Print.

O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find. New York: New English Library, 1962. Print.

The following analysis will be about the dialogue aspect of the narrative technique used by Flannery O’Connor in her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find and how it contributes to the story and its meaning. As the story abounds in numerous dialogue lines, it is particularly important to understand the sheer impact of dialogues on the perception of the story by readers.

The dialogue aspect of A Good Man is Hard to Find is the story’s key component for delivering the characters’ thoughts, their personalities, their points of view on the events described in the story, and, ultimately, for creating impressions of readers about each character. Therefore, the importance of dialogues to the story will be explained by analyzing certain significant quotes and indicating their contribution to the delivering of the story’s main ideas.

The nature of the Grandmother’s personality is already suggested in the very first pages of the story. When John Wesley asked the Grandmother why she would not stay home if she did not really want to go to Florida, little June Star said: “She wouldn’t stay at home for a million bucks. Afraid she’d miss something. She has to go everywhere we go.” (O’Connor 137). June’s depiction of the Grandmother was rather crude, but, at the same time, it was accurate.

Old-fashioned and dreamy, the old lady has further proved to match that depiction during the conversation with the kids in the car. “Let’s go through Georgia fast so we won’t have to look at it much,” said John Wesley during the trip (O’Connor 139). The grandmother answered: “If I were a little boy, I wouldn’t talk about my native state that way. Tennessee has the mountains, and Georgia has the hills.” (O’Connor 139). Just from these lines, we can get the idea of a certain confrontation between the old and new views on things.

The Grandmother still lived mentally in the old times, where, according to her, people were better – they were nicer and more respectful. However, she still seemed to believe in the existence of good people. When Red Sammy asked her about why he had let the two fellers charge the gas they bought the previous week, she responded: “Because you’re a good man!” (O’Connor 142). The Grandmother’s reminiscences of the past and the desire for reunification with them led to a car crash. “We’ve had an ACCIDENT!” the children shouted (O’Connor 145).

“But nobody’s killed,” June Star disappointedly said, looking at the Grandmother getting out of the car (O’Connor 145). These particular lines indicate the strained relationship between the children and the Grandmother. Probably the most important part of the story is the dialogue between the Misfit and the Grandmother. “Well then, why don’t you pray?” she said while trembling (O’Connor 150). The Misfit’s response was filled with self-confidence: “I don’t want no help. I’m doing all right by myself.” (O’Connor 151) Both characters’ specific traits of personality are discovered during that dialogue.

The Grandmother does not want to believe in the Misfit’s murderous nature; she still sees a good man in him. On the other hand, the Misfit embraces the changes in his personal views of things, even though he does not deny he was indeed a good person once. The final words of the Grandmother to the Misfit can be defined as the moment of grace, which apparently affects him in the end; she cried: “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” (O’Connor 152).

O’Connor’s abundant usage of dialogues in the story is justified by its amazing ability to deliver all feelings, all emotions, and all main ideas of the story. They serve as the primary tools for reaching the readers so that they can fully understand every character. Dialogues are also the main indicators of relationship specifics between each character in the story.

Works Cited

O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Collected Works. New York, NY: Library of America, 1988. 137-153. Print.