...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. She dressed in “a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at...
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...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 grandmother seem very self-centered and shallow. The family decided to stop for some lunch at a BBQ stand. Thats when Red Sam...
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...she wants. The first incident where the grandmother was manipulative was in the beginning of the story where she said, “Here this fellow that calls himself the Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed to Florida…I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal aloose in it” (O’Connor 1077). In this situation, the grandmother wanted to go to Tennessee instead of Florida so she tried to scare Bailey into taking his family to Tennessee rather than Florida. The second example of when the grandmother was manipulative was when she wanted to go see an old house that she had visited as a child. She knew that if she straight up asked Bailey to go see the house that he would say no. Instead, she gets the children to ask. The grandmother does so when she says, “There was a secret panel in this house,” she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, “and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found…” (1080). She purposely lied about the house to get the kids to nag Bailey until he said yes. After a lot of screaming and crying by the kids, the grandmother found herself heading towards the house. The last event where the grandmother tried to be manipulative was when she was face-to-face with the Misfit. She tried to talk the Misfit into thinking he was a good man by saying, “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady. I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not...
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...my babies”. “The misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.” At this moment one gets the feeling that the grandmother had actually gotten to the Misfit but because of the Misfit’s beliefs he wasn’t as accepting to her grace as she was. In the beginning of the story the grandmother sees the misfit as a criminal who she wouldn’t want her family to go in the same direction as. Which she says, I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscious if I did”. Even though the grandmother was using the misfit as a way to undermine her family to get what she wanted what she said is truly how she felt about the misfit. Even later on in the story she goes on to say that Red Sam and his store would be the perfect target for the misfit because of Red Sam being “a good man”. Which she basically says that misfit is the type of evil person to take advantage of people’s kindness. As a result of this it contradicts what really happens when she finally comes face to face with the misfit. At that moment The grandmother shouts, “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood”. After calling the misfit a criminal...
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...that spoke of expansive change yet saw little of it, that chased modern prosperity yet came to experience absentee control, put a very heavy emphasis on social place, especially in matters of race and class."(Hayes 4). O'Connor's peers participated in "class condescension"(Hayes 5) but, O'Connor made poor whites, such as the Misfit, central to her writing and explored their struggles and introspective thoughts.(Hayes 5) The...
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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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...get their way. Despite the idea that it is not a very moral way for someone to achieve what they want, the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” does not seem mind. The story is based upon a family of six people on a journey to Florida where they plan to vacation that become very unlucky when crossing paths with The Misfit, a well-known killer, and his two henchmen. The grandmother of the family wishes to travel to see the state of Tennessee where she has family connections, but the others insist on visiting Florida. The author of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor, has written many pieces based largely on religion and morals, as seen in this narrative. She uses the...
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...Florida because there is a criminal, the Misfit, aloose from the Federal Pen heading to Florida and she thinks that it is dangerous to for the family to head to Florida. The Grandmother tries to manipulate the son, Bailey to change the destination, and she prefers Tennes-see because she has connections there. The central purpose of the story is to show the rivalry between good and evil. According to an article by Alex Link,...
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...make the grandmother such a strong and memorable character in O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” As early as the second line of the story, O’Connor introduces the reader to the grandmother’s manipulation. “She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 294). From the onset, O’Connor begins to set the stage and reveal the grandmother’s manipulation skills. “Now look here, Bailey,”… “see here, read this,” and she stood with one hand on her then hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. 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” (O’Connor 294). She possesses great manipulation skills as she never confronts Bailey directly by saying that she wants to go to Tennessee, but instead she scares him with the possibility of running into a criminal. She even uses the...
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...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." She brings up the Misfit in order to support her cause and try to convince Bailey to turn around, not because she fears the Misfit but because heading towards the direction of a murderer seem like a good enough reason to get her son to head to Tennessee instead. She tries to guilt trip him by making him seem like a bad parent for being okay with taking his children in the direction of a murder and she also reminds him that the kids have already been to Florida. She finally comes to the conclusion that it would be easier to get the children to annoy their father enough to the point where the grand mother will get what she want. "There was a secret panel in this house," she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, "and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found . . ." She gets the children intrigued and they get their father to look for the house. What they don’t realize is they’re headed straight for the Misfit. The title foreshadows the kind of person that is wound to show up in the story. “A person whose behavior or attitude sets them apart from others in an uncomfortably conspicuous way” is the meaning of misfit which...
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...The Blame Game In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the Misfit is the primary person to blame for the family’s ultimate fate, but the Grandmother played an immense part in the family’s demise. She did not pull the trigger of the gun that claimed the lives of her son and his family, but with manipulation she placed them in a defenseless predicament. The Grandmother’s persistence to get her way was very prevalent from the beginning of this dark tale. The detour to the fabricated house, her anxious cat in the basket, and her inability to think before speaking are all contributing factors of the family’s inevitable fate. The Grandmother is to blame for the family’s unfortunate location. She insisted on visiting a house she...
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...The rest of the family is determined to go to Florida like everyone likes to but the grandma wants to go to Tennessee to broaden the children’s horizons. She has ulterior motives as stated in the story. “This fellow calls himself the Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida.” (O’Connor 420). She also wants to show the children where she grew up. The grandma gets her way and they end up traveling to Tennessee for their vacation. Not long after they began their journey, they passed a cotton field that was a graveyard and had six graves on it. On their endeavor they stop at a restaurant called The Tower where they meet the owner, Red Sam. The grandma talks to him about the Misfit being loose. Red Sam then says a pivotal sentence, “A good man is hard to find, everything is getting terrible.”...
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...The southern gothic style is one that employs the use of macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American south. Two of the most iconic writers to use 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...
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...“A Good Man is Hard to Find“ "She connected and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang over as though a snake had chomped him and shot her three times through the midsection." Flannery O'bith "A Good Man is hard to Find" is the story of a family's travel disastrously finished by a killer and his pack. After a nosy Mother/mother-In-Law/grandmother tries to demand that the family head off to Tennessee rather than Florida, it was indeed through her own particular requirement that aroused the family stray from the primary way in inquiry of some false, lost treasure. This fatal choice made the family fall prey to the Misfit. Foreshadowing at the start of the story insights to the spectator that whileshdbvjsbv kshfviwhfishvbbvbbvbvwubvnajvsolvjkxjbvsilc s nojugownve tprjte terterbt er teryrtujrge yrthfwarysh szbdffhritbsge O’Connor’s utilization of characterization shows the breaking down of appreciation and restrain in American social order. From past eras to present eras, this message could be comprehended. Grandma speaks to the past with her solid "Southern Hospitality" legacy. Case in point, “The old woman settled herself agreeably, evacuating her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her satchel on the rack before the back window. Her neckline and sleeves were white organdy trimmed with trim and at her neckline she had stuck a purple spread of fabric violets holding a sachet. In the event of a mishap, anybody seeing her dead on the parkway might know...
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...Societal Corruption in “The Lottery” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” Societal corruption is found in both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. As illustrated in both short stories, societal corruption can take place in different forms. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary has one meaning for the word “corruption”: “impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle”. In the “Lottery” capitalist society stands out as a form of societal corruption. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the simple ways and acts of the grandmother alone relative to her religious practices stands out as social corruption. “The Lottery”, is a horrific story that exposes the social order and system of a capitalistic society. Again, from Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the ideal capitalistic society is “an economic system based upon the concentration of wealth, and the competitive distribution of production and business to privately owned powerful representatives.” This form of an ideal society is what the author based the small village on in “The Lottery”. In “The Lottery” the lottery itself, serves as a democratic misconception for a capitalistic society. It deceives the people of the village, into believing it is democratic, because of the fact that everyone participates in the lottery and knows they have an equal chance at being selected. The village’s ruling class only participates to convince others that they are equal to everyone else, even...
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