...Personal Identity in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor The unnamed grandmother in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner, considers herself to be a lady because of her heritage in the Old South, and believes that she is superior to those around her. In this work, the grandmother puts her family into dangerous situations because of her personal identity, eventually leading them to their death. As the story progresses, she leads her family down a dirt road, off of their intended route. She startles her cat as they continue down the dirt road, which jumps up and frightens her son, Bailey, causing them to go off the road. This series of events leads to their conflict with the Misfit, and eventually their murder. She maintains her personal identity throughout the story regardless of the consequences of these actions. Even at the brink of death, she continues to uphold her belief that she is superior, going as far as to call herself a lady when the Misfit is going to kill her. The grandmother considers herself superior to Bailey and his family because she deems herself to be a lady. She does not want to go to Florida and attempts to convince her son to go east Tennessee instead, by showing him a news article about the Misfit. She says that she would much rather bring her grandchildren to the Old South where “they would see different parts of the world and be broad” (372). She uses the children to convince her son and shows false affection...
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...this style are Flannery O’ Conner and William Faulkner. O’Conner’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” which depicts a southern family’s demise at the hands of a ruthless murderer, and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” in which a well-to-do woman is discovered to have the rotting corpse of her lover in her bedroom, are two perfect examples of southern gothic stories. While both O’Conner and Faulkner use the southern gothic style, however, they use it to illuminate different aspects of southern culture. The most important and defining aspect of southern gothic writing is the use of macabre, or grotesque, events. Such events are easily identified in both stories. “A Rose for Emily, told through the eyes of an entire southern town, depicts a woman named Emily, who is the last remaining member of a once great family. The town watches as Emily grows more and more estranged as years pass. Eventually, when she dies alone, the town enters the house and is shocked to find the badly decomposed body of her lover, who had been assumed to have left Emily years before, in the bed of an upstairs room. Faulkner ends the story on a decidedly gruesome note, writing “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (p 555). O’Conner’s story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” is equally gruesome...
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...A Good Man Is Hard To Find Kimberly Samuel A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor In Flannery O’ Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find, the main character is the grandmother’s character is displayed by her reactions and conversations with various characters throughout the story. Through her conversation with Bailey, her son, John Wesley and June Star, her grandchildren, and the Misfit killer. These conversations state the fact that she is from a traditional background and her attitude alternates to fit the surroundings that she is in. The grandmother loses her capacity to comprehend what state of mind that she wants to be in. Throughout the entire story the author utilizes a strong sense of foreshadowing for the people and for the events that occur. O’Connor uses this technique three times in the story, describing the grandmother’s dress, the family’s death, and the grandmother’s conversation with the Misfit Killer. The story starts out with the grandmother being uncomfortable about the family’s upcoming trip to Florida from Georgia. She tries to force Bailey to rethink the entire trip by telling him about what she has read in the newspaper. “Here this fellow that calls himself the Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen…and read what it says he did with these people…I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’Connor, 2008). Her pleading for the cancellation did not go well and the family prepared to leave the next day....
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...I think that Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is written partially in order to “convert” people who have not yet fully accepted the Christian faith. O’Conner, herself being a strong believer in Christianity, probably thought that writing this story will help make people who aren’t really living by the Christian rules to seriously consider doing so. Flannery O'Connor was deeply concerned with the values and the direction of the youth at the time. She believed that Christ was no longer enough of a priority to the people of her generation. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is representative of Flannery O'Connor's concern for the priorities and values of the 1940s. An example of this, in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," involves the grandmother's strong, southern heritage. She dresses with the intention that anyone who finds her dead on the road will know she was a lady, and she is always telling stories of southern gentlemen courting her. Then, the Misfit, whom she "knows" is of quality, southern blood, shoots her and her family, despite her belief in southern hospitality. Grandma is a woman who believes in God, but it seems that her belief isn’t really strong up until her confrontation with the Misfit. From what I understand, most of her works follow a similar pattern. The main character(s) are in some kind of trouble and at the end they see “the light” of God’s ways and have their redemption. Christians have often criticized her works for...
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...I think that Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is written partially in order to “convert” people who have not yet fully accepted the Christian faith. O’Conner, herself being a strong believer in Christianity, probably thought that writing this story will help make people who aren’t really living by the Christian rules to seriously consider doing so. Flannery O'Connor was deeply concerned with the values and the direction of the youth at the time. She believed that Christ was no longer enough of a priority to the people of her generation. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is representative of Flannery O'Connor's concern for the priorities and values of the 1940s. An example of this, in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," involves the grandmother's strong, southern heritage. She dresses with the intention that anyone who finds her dead on the road will know she was a lady, and she is always telling stories of southern gentlemen courting her. Then, the Misfit, whom she "knows" is of quality, southern blood, shoots her and her family, despite her belief in southern hospitality. Grandma is a woman who believes in God, but it seems that her belief isn’t really strong up until her confrontation with the Misfit. From what I understand, most of her works follow a similar pattern. The main character(s) are in some kind of trouble and at the end they see “the light” of God’s ways and have their redemption. Christians have often criticized her works for...
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...eye with the younger generations behavior because it is completely different from their time, especially those of the higher social class. In the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find", by Flannery O'Conner, O'Conner portrays the difference between the social class of the grandmother, the misfit, as well as the her family and the actual good that is within them. O'Conner describes this through imagery in the old fashioned cultural behaviors and the present cultural behaviors. He shows the difference between the how the children act, as opposed to how the grandmother reacts to their actions. Because of her southern mindset, she emphasizes this idea by describing what it is like to be a "lady" or a "gentleman" and those of a higher social class are automatically suppose to be classified as good. In...
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...Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, and educated at Georgia State College for Women and University of Iowa. After completing her graduate work at the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop in 1947, she live for two years in New York City. However, O’Conner returned to her mother’s farm in Milledgeville, Georgia, when she discovered that she contracted lupus erythematosus, the systematic disease that had killed her father and of which she herself was to die. For the last fourteen years of her life, she lived quiet, productive life on the farm—raising peacocks, painting and writing the extraordinary stories and novels that won her worldwide acclaim. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” describes the tragic fate that befalls a family on its trip to Florida. “Revelation” dramatizes the ironic discoveries a woman makes about the order of thing (683). Racial inequalities blacks faced as they grew up in a white society with strong beliefs that they should be separated. The grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” wants to take a road trip to Florida knowing that a fugitive is on the loose. This brings about the fate of the whole family. The grandmother seems to be the main character and her son Baily, his wife June Star, 8 year old John Wesley, the young baby and Pitty Sing the cat who no one wants to leave behind. Her only reason to make this road trip is to see...
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...Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”: A Response. In Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Conner used The Misfit to criticize the grandmother’s character after only just meeting her once. The grandmother character from the beginning to the end of the story is consistent and is a leading cause to her family’s death. The grandmother was the protagonist in this short story but was not necessarily the hero. She started off in the story as a nagger and unease person as she pressure her son that Florida was not the place to be. Although Florida is normally a family spot for vacation in the United States the grandmother felt she could be manipulative and change the mind of her son to do what she wanted and pick the vacation of her choice. She was so stuck in the past and was not up for change that’s how her character took over the best of her....
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...In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", romanticism is the main theme reflected in this story. In this short story, we see O'Connor's views on American values and ideas of romanticism. She supports and refutes the ideas of Edwards, Emerson and Thoreau throughout this short story. O'Connor's idea of respect as an American value is shown with the grandmother and the children's differences and similarities. The grandmother values of respect are shown when she tells her daughter-in-law how her children should act which is respectful and obedient. “In my time,’ She said, the grandmother, folding her thin veined finger, “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else” (O'Connor225). At the same time the grandmother is hypocritical being that she also disrespected others just like the children. This is showing how O'Connor supports and refutes the American value of respect. Jonathan Edwards' view was that God is very revengeful and bad things happen to bad people. When the grandmother heard the gun shots, she knew she was going to be murdered. Although she keeps praying it didn't make up for the cruel things she said toward others. The only reason she was praying is so that she would be saved, not because she felt bad for what she did. God did nothing to help her, she was being punished and he had no remorse towards her. God showed that he didn't want anything to do with her and felt no kind of love toward her. In this way...
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...A Good Man is Hard to Find, ” Flannery O’Connor In the story “A good man is hard to find, ” the author Flannery O’Connor, begins with a Southern family wanting to take a vacation. O’conner uses irony in her writing twist the story with all the characters. The story it’s very funny all the beginning, on how the Bailey and his family are treating the grandmother. You find out that grandmother doesn't care about anyone then herself. At the end the grandma Christian grace calls out to the Misfits her own to spare her life. This story is full of irony, especially situational irony. The design of the story takes a completely different turn, from what the readers expect. The irony of the title is shown in the way that the grandmother uses the phrase "a good man" in the story. The beginning of the story starts off as a family vacation to florida and the grandmother didn't want to go, she was trying to do what ever it looked to change Bailey’s mind. First it started with a new article “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” (Mays 405) This doesn't stop the family from deciding to go on this trip. The next morning the grandmother was the first one in the car, she secretly brought her cat. During the trip the...
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...Joshua Berman Professor Wenxin English 102 3 March 2015 Foreshadowing To Tell A Story Many authors illustrate a literary technique called foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is a device that author’s uses to hint at what is about to come. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” The author uses foreshadowing through certain symbols to hint what is to come in the story. Some examples of foreshadowing in this story are the dress and the graves. In each of these examples of foreshadowing, the author try’s to convey what is to come. The first example of foreshadowing used is the grandmother’s dress. She was wearing a “Navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. And 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” (O’Connor 428). The strong use of imagery tells the reader that she is dressed in her Sunday best. Many times when a person is buried they are dressed in their best outfit. The way she is dressed almost symbolizes what one would wear to be buried in. This is a very strong point of foreshadowing because the grandmother seems to be in her most prominent and best looking outfit. Possibly symbolizing her funeral may be upcoming. Another example of foreshadowing is the number of graves in the plantation numbering 5 or 6 (O’Connor 428). This is a strong point of foreshadowing because...
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...Prophet Gone Wrong The misfit and the unnamed grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner has many different characters that are introduced but none learn more or reveal as much about themselves as the misfit and the grandmother do. It is hard to determine who the central character is in the short story the grandmother or the misfit because O’Conner spends great effort describing these two characters. Nothing happens in the story without the opinion of either character. While the grandmother is older and has a lot to learn the misfit is younger and has a lot to teach. The misfit with his violent killing is an unlikely source to look to for moral guidance but he shows more depth and understanding of the world than the grandmother. For instance the grandmother says “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it”(367) when she doesn’t even know the man she is speaking of. Her first initial reaction to the misfit is disgust and pity she looks down upon him because she believes she is morally better than he is. She has never once looked into herself and her own decisions to see if she is being morally correct. She condemns all of humanity “People are certainly not nice like they used to be “(370) she says to strangers. She constantly is criticizing everyone else about how they are unjust and wrong with their actions; but she never looks at herself to see her own hypocrisy and dishonesty. Like when she sneaks the cat into...
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...Monika Allen Catharine Vickers Composition and introduction to Lit- 9 February 2016 Who is Deceiving Who? In the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Conner is a very detailed writer that loves dialogue. She made the grandmother the main character that dressed well for age and is a crucial character in the story. She is the one who wanted to go to the plantation; she wanted to bring her little kitty cat that jumps out of the suitcase, which causes the accident on the dirt road. How the family encounters the criminal "Misfit" and his cohorts, someone could argue that the grandmother is the real "misfit". How is the grandmother herself a misfit in the story? Should the grandmother be accounted for being a “misfit?” The Grandmother, Baily, his wife, and three kids wanted to go on a trip. Everyone but the grandmother wanted to go to Florida. They end up going to Tennessee and end up running into three bad people the leader is named the “Misfit”. He and his crew killed the entire family just because the grandmother knew him from the paper that she was reading that very morning. Some may say it was the grandmothers fault why the all got killed because if she didn’t want go to Tennessee the little family wouldn’t have ran into the misfit. If the grandmother didn’t want to go down the dirt road that she thought would lead them to and old house that was never there, and if she didn’t bring the cat that popped out and scared Bailey (the driver) the car would not have...
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...Hollywood freeway on Alvarado Street and that is where the whole story line takes place. The setting of A Good Man Is Hard to Find takes place primarily in Toombsboro, Georgia on the way to Florida, but also takes place on the road, and also at Red Sammy Butts BBQ. The differences between the two stories would be that Love in L.A. take place in one place and A Good Man Is Hard to Find takes place in three different places. The only setting similarity I can find between the two stories is that both story lines take place on the road and near the road throughout the stories. Characters The main character of Love in L.A. is Jake. In this story, it is hard to tell if Jake is a good man or a good con-man. It is stated throughout the story that he has no insurance and illegal license plate, but is definitely charismatic, flirtatious, and not happy with his current lifestyle. In my opinion Jake is both the protagonist and the antagonist, but since I must only choose one he is the considered the protagonist. Mariana seems to be just as flirtatious but in a more mild manner and seems to be intrigued by Jake’s personality. Mariana seems to me to be a shy and genuine person that gives the benefit of a doubt, where Jake is trying to get out of a situation that would harm him and seems amazed by the type of person Mariana is. The characters in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” are very different in my opinion. The grandmother seems to be a woman of pride, concern, and believes in...
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...A Good Man Is Hard to Find” was written by Flannery O’Conner, and her deep religious beliefs are shown in this short story. The beginning of the story starts with a quote by St. Cyril of Jerusalem who was one of the first theologians of the early church. “The dragon is by the side of the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour you. We go to the father of souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon.” This quote references how the devil sits by the side of the road distracting people from God in their walk through life. O’Conner’s story revolves around one family that had become self-absorbed. Their grandma tried to warn them of their fate and feebly tried to get them to change their focus in life. Unfortunately, her clouded judgment led them to the dragon by the side of the road known as “The Misfit,” who was in fact a devil laying in wait and judging which individuals may pass. The story does not go into detail of the horrible things the Misfit had done in the past, but only the details of how he killed the family after their car accident. Interesting enough, he mirrors St. Cyril’s dragon and devours this family. His whole approach to the accident shows the lack of care for others. He did not rush to help, ask if anyone was injured, or offer to help – he appeared to be summing up their actions toward one another and their attitude toward life. What he saw was the fathers disrespect for his mother, the children’s self-centeredness, and the wife’s...
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