...Cotina Moore English 1302 Essay #1 Southern Gothic Fiction 02 March 2015 “What Is In A Title” A Literary Analysis of Flannery O’ Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” “I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I’m afraid it will not be controversial-Flannery O’Connor Flannery O’Connor is considered one of the best short story authors of the 20th century. Born in Savannah Georgia in 1925, O’Connor was a devout Catholic. Her writings incorporated religious themes and her southern life (Bio). When reading O’Connor’s short stories, it is very surprising and shocking that the stories are often dark and controversial. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” use macabre, grotesque violence, irony, and grace through the depiction of her characters to illustrate that when an individual is faced with “grave” circumstances; those are the moments when grace is realized. Flannery O’Connor incorporates the use of macabre and violence in her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” masterfully to elicit an unforgettable moment of grace from a character when faced with her “grave” circumstance. The use of grotesque violence is vividly displayed as a southern family is horrendously murdered by an escaped convict, The Misfit and his accomplices. An “eerie” sense of foreshadowing is realized when the protagonist, the grandmother...
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...Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find Having a third-person perspective when reading through this short story gave more depth to it than if it were viewed through the eyes of one sole character. Reading the story more than once provided an attention to the irony when O’Connor wrote, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. (267)” That one quote encompasses the genres that the she was trying to portray with this story: tragedy and comedy. I don’t agree that O’Connor did a magnificent fusion of the two in this story, the contradictory tone took away from the overall effect that A Good Man is Hard to Find could have had. Some of the impact that came with having a dual genre was brushed off because of the passivity in The Misfits’ character. The most noticeable shift in the story came out choppily done because of the predictability of what was going to happen. While I can’t argue that the humor was present in the story, I have to comment that it was a more subdued version due to the nature in which the story takes a sharp left turn to. If I had to choose between which of the genres was most prominent throughout the story, I’d have to say that they were almost equally split done the center. There was no merging of the two to have made the author’s effort more recognizable. On a more personal note, speaking as the reader, the more attractive of the two genres was the tragedy because The Misfits’ character...
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...Flannery O’Connor is considered one of the best short story authors of the 20th century. She was born in Savannah, Georgia and grew up in a catholic family. She wrote mostly about religious themes and southern life. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor is a short story that portrays the vacation of a grandmother, her only son Bailey and his wife, and their two bratty children, June Star and John Wesley. The Grandmother, who didn’t want to take a vacation to Florida because she had read about a crazed assassin by the name of the Misfit who has escaped from the Federal Penitentiary, and who was on the run and heading for Florida. She even sort of predicts her own death “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady”. In this essay I analyze the relationship between the grandmother and...
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...Literary Analysis Paper Flannery O’Connor is without a doubt one of the most influential renowned writers has earned her to be one of the top Literary Writers of have came out of the South. She is mostly known for her intense and jaw dropping stories on mystery and violence, to show a type of representation of salvation through obscure stories like “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”; which was still till this very day of the best known stories O’Connor has wrote in a long time. The story as a whole represents the ethics the self-righteousness grandmother in the family that had been surprised by this so called spiritual awareness by this unknown murder, which goes by the name of The Misfit, who had posses the action of committing a murderous spree...
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...Leez Alkhoury p. 6 Selfish to Selfless Flannery O’Connor’s peculiar short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” portrays an oddly realistic set of characters. A pushy grandmother, her obedient son, his plain wife, and their two rowdy kids are having some kind of family trip, which does not end well (they all die) when they encounter escaped convicts, primarily all because of the grandmother’s manipulative ideas. In O’connor’s exceptional short story, the grandmother’s appalling, yet realistic character is unfolded through the following literary techniques: haughty dialogue, indifferent tone, and evocative imagery. Initially, the consistent snobbish dialogue throughout the short story establishes O’connor’s characterization of a pushy, inconsiderate...
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...than making them laugh. As an author, Flannery O’Connor has always been a master at utilizing humor in her work in order to draw her readers deeper into her stories and characters. Catherine Sustana wrote in an article about Flannery O’Connor’s use of humor that “because O’Connor’s humor is so engaging, it allows her stories to pull in readers who might not want to read…her stories at all” (1). Because of this, O’Connor has also attracted a sizeable amount of attention from scholars who seek to further analyze her humor in her writing. Through her exquisite use of Bergsonian humor in her writing, Flannery O’Connor succeeds at enticing her readers and scholars alike. Only the greatest and most renowned authors can pique the interest of other authors and scholars to the point...
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...In Flannery O’Connor’s literary works, it is clear that titles are given with deliberate intent. According to Mary Lienard in her article From Manners to Mystery: Flannery O'Connor's Titles, O’Connor’s titles contribute to a greater understanding of the symbolic meaning of the plot and characters, reveals each story to be a sort of parable, and “combines realism with symbolism.” The use of meaningful titles is not exclusive to O’Connor; rather, it is incorporated into the works of other Southern authors, such as William Faulkner and Zora Neale Hurston. Lienard examines O’Connor’s story A Good Man Is Hard To Find in order to explain the significance of the title. The symbolic meaning of the title as it relates to the story itself leads to...
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...Flannery O’Connor foreshadows the death of the family in several distinct ways using seemingly minute details that go unnoticed. The story begins by discussing the “Misfit” and how dangerous he is, by even introducing the character in the beginning there is foreshadowing that the family might run into him. The grandmother dresses up very nice and ladylike, so that if they were to have an accident “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 4). While on their journey to Florida, the family passes a large cotton field with five or six graves, the grandmother says that it was the old family burying ground. While at Red Sammy’s Barbeque, the grandmother and Red Sammy discuss how terrible the world has...
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...Flannery O'Connor has a unique perspective on life that flows into the writings she produces. One of her key values is writing through the lens of being Catholic. She once stated, "The problem of the novelist who wishes to write about a man's encounter with this God is how he shall make the experience - which is both natural and supernatural - understandable, and credible, to his reader" (O'Connor 565). In the story "Parkers Back," Flannery O'Conner communicates a message of searching for purpose and finding redemption and grace. All throughout the story, readers follow O.E. Parker's journey towards finding meaning for his life. O'Connor uses symbolism, biblical allusion, and the theme of redemption to communicate how one can find a deeper meaning for their life. O’Connor’s life experiences truly shape how she writes....
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...In Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor creates a relationship between the past and the present by displaying how Hazel, Enoch, and Lily’s past leads to their present decisions and lifestyle. Hazel has nightmares about his grandfather and his past which leads him towards the idea of the church without Christ to go against the teachings of his grandfather. Hazel’s memories of his grandfather are displayed through a negative lens as Hazel often disagreed with his grandfather and his views of Jesus. The following quote describes his grandfather as well as displaying the similarities between him and Hazel’s present. “[his grandfather] would climb up the nose of it and preach from there and sometimes he would climb onto the top of it and shout down at...
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...Morbid Nature of Mankind Flannery O’Connor focuses on the idea that as humans we treat ourselves and each other with such disregard and disrespect; religion isn’t actually a way of life, but rather a way to cope with the morbid nature of mankind. O’Connor focuses her writing in the Southern gothic genre which includes deeply flawed and disturbed characters, estranged settings and sinister events. In O’Connor’s novel, Wise Blood, the protagonist Hazel Motes has his heart set on escaping his religious destiny regardless of who is hurt in the process as he states in chapter 1: “I’m going to do some things I have never done before.” He rejects the idea of religion and is disgusted by the world that surrounds him and claims to believe in nothing in order to justify his sins that aren’t considered sins since there is no such thing as religion or a god which he continuously preaches: “The truth don’t matter to you. If Jesus had redeemed you, what difference would it make to you? You wouldn’t do nothing about it. Your faces wouldn’t move, neither this way nor that, and if it was...
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...In his article “The Genesis of Flannery O’Connor’s: “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Lasseter (1982) maintains that the renowned writer, Flannery O’Connor gathered inspiration for her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” through various newspaper reports and articles. O'Connor frequently use newspaper accounts as source material for her fiction. O'Connors letters collected in The Habit of Being, show that she was a consistent reader of the Constitution while she was working on "A Good Man." O'Connor undoubtedly depended on newspapers and correspondences to connect with the world. O’Connor began collecting stories from the Constitution as early as the winter of 1950; these stories coincide with some of the particulars in "A Good Man." Two...
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...As a Southern Gothic writer, Flannery O’Connor infuses her works with the aspects of the grotesque, distortion, and violence which appall yet intrigue many of her readers. However, these literary elements do not take place for entertainment purposes. Instead, they serve an underlying purpose, as tunnels that lead the way to the darker side of the South - a side filled with deeply rooted and buried truths. One work that evidently exemplifies this style is her well-known novel Wise Blood. In Wise Blood, O’Connor utilizes the grotesque and distorted aspects and purposes of Southern Gothic literature through the twisted characters, the distorted treatment of religion, and the gruesome acts of violence - both self-inflicted and murderous. Many...
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...giving person. After just auctioning off an $800 painting, he takes to walking the busy streets of Gainesville. While contemplating his generous conduct, he avoids a homeless man some ways away from him. Hoping to avoid the man, he hastily crosses the street to avoid the dirty beggar. Looking over his shoulder, he thinks I’m sick of his druggies, and proceeds on with his day. This is how Flannery O’Connor portrays the “holier than thou” concepts that are continuously presented throughout her writing. Her religion was deeply instilled in her and she portrays her love for it in her writings. O’Connor’s strongest experiences originated through...
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...Many people hold destructive opinions without considering their full implications. “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor is a short story about Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Hulga, and the tragic consequences of their misconceptions about the world. The importance of challenging one’s common convictions and the dangers that can arise from being narrow-minded is carried by the mother’s dissatisfaction of diversity and women’s education. The devastation of both women implies a sense of desired moderation in the realm of perspective, depicting evils of nihilism as well as the vulnerability of narrow-minded, traditional thought. O’Connor’s purposeful use of point of view allows her to develop characters in order to criticize the blindness of human nature....
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