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Definitely Discriminatory Unfortunately in the United States African Americans were segregated and not treated as citizens until nearly the 1970’s. Flannery O’Conner captures this aspect of the cultural era in the tale “A good man is hard to find.” Prejudices are abundant in "A good man is hard to find" which is set during the time before civil rights and equality; moreover, Flannery O'Connor uses the grandmother to portray explanations between different classes. The grandmother is the most condescending character in this story. Her words and actions show the separation of classes and provide insight into the way people interacted within her class. She of course considered herself above African Americans: "He probably didn't have any... Little niggers in the country don't have things like we do. If I could paint, I'd paint that picture," commented the grandmother to June Star about a child who was not …show more content…
He probably did own pants. The grandmother exercises such prejudice that she chose to apply it to the gesture of a small boy going without “britches on,” as most small children do at times, since he was African American (O’Connor 9). She looked down on the lower class which is apparent when she asked, “Wouldn’t that make a picture, now” (O’Connor 9). It is as if the grandmother perceived those considered below her as more so completely inferior. Her harsh judgments continue upon reminiscing of a past encounter during her life involving an African American. The grandmother hadn’t received her weekly Saturday watermelon from the gentleman she was courting “because a nigger boy ate it when he saw the initials, E. A. T.!” which the man had carved into it as his signature. Nevertheless, she ended the courtship since he was not expressing more of the higher class gestures she expected (O’Connor
Janie’s first discovery about herself comes when she is a child. She is around the age of six when she realizes that she is colored. Janie’s confusion about her race is based on the reasoning that all her peers and the kids she grows up with are white. Janie and her Nanny live in the backyard of the white people that her Nanny works for. When Janie does not recognize herself on the picture that is taken by a photographer, the others find it funny and laughs, leaving Janie feeling humiliated. This racial discovery is not “social prejudice or personal meanness but affection” (Cooke 140). Janie is often teased at school because she lives with the white people and dresses better than the other colored kids. Even though the kids that tease her were all colored, this begins Janie’s experience to racial discrimination.
If O’Connor wanted to present the South as strong and righteous, she probably would have chosen a character more like Red Sam to be the main character, but nonetheless the grandmother is the main character and that provides enough criticism by itself. Throughout the bulk of the story, the grandma doesn’t seem much different from any other elderly grandmother. She is stubborn, as evidenced by her unwillingness to admit her wrongdoing after the car accident. She is also forgetful, forgetting what state she is in and the appearance of the Misfit, despite fawning over his image in the newspaper. Because of her relation symbolically to the South as a whole, the reader associates these negative qualities with the South as a
The grandmother in O’Connor’s narrative symbolizes the classism and false morality present at that time in the South. The characteristic that stands out the most about this old lady is precisely the manner in which she perceives herself; morally superior than others by means of being a “lady”. This is the remark that the Grandmother makes throughout the story for different purposes: to portray superiority, to demand respect and admiration, and to reflect the “goodness” in society. These are attributes that her own family did not seem to believe she possessed nor did they seem to care about. O’Connor employs symbolism to depict the old lady’s false morality mainly through her clothes. The author provides a vivid description of her “lady-like” attire:
It is not difficult to feel some degree of sympathy for the grandmother at the start of Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find,’ but the reader quickly realizes this is not exactly the author’s intention. Throughout the story, the writer successfully manages through the tone, dialogue, and the character description that grandmother is the suitable one to get the title of Misfit. The third person narrative is closely focused on the grandmother’s point of view, which establishes her more strongly in the reader’s mind than other characters. Additionally, the fact that the elderly woman remains nameless; is ignored by her son and daughter in law and treated with a degree of contempt by her grandchildren, supports this initial invitation to view the old lady sympathetically. However, because of grandmother, the whole family suffers in a direct or indirect manner. Nevertheless, the grandmother sees herself as quite a decent, dignified, traditional, and civilized person, who judges everyone but manages to overlook her own flaws. Thus, this story reflects on how through a conflict a person can find ‘good’ in others or within themselves, this story also shows that everyone has flaws, but sometimes it gets too late for them to realize their mistakes.
As I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with every sentence and by doing so, the characters within the story are infinitely real in my mind’s eye. As I consider these factors, the story focuses on two main characters; that of the grandmother, who comes across as self-centered and self-serving and The Misfit, a man, who quite ingeniously, also appears to be self-centered and self-serving. It is the story behind the grandmother, however, that evidence appears to demonstrate the extreme differences between her superficial self and the true character of her persona; as the story unfolds, and proof of my thought process becomes apparently clear.
A common human behavior due to illusory superiority is to overestimate skill, capability or perception of oneself in comparison to others or underestimate it. Alice Walker, a black woman herself, a partaker of feminist and anti-racist activism has created a scenario that nearly every person from any cultural background can identify with. Miss Millie in the Color Purple has, in fact, internalized racism and refuses to acknowledge it, maintaining that she is “less racist” than the “other white people”. While viewing herself as superior among blacks and whites, Miss Millie remains in denial about her subtle racism and is unaware of the fact that her comments are insults rather than the compliments she assumes them to be. This disconnect fuels Sofia’s response, “Hell no”, as an offended person of color. With the use of imagery, language, and the character’s unconscious and conscious motives, Walker accurately depicts a scene bursting with themes of racism, sexism, and cultural stereotypes.
As racism continues on to thrive in the town, Esther Hirsh, becomes a young girl who also faces discrimination only because she was a Jewish. In the same school as Esther, was a young African-American girl named Leonora who faces bully about almost every day, and everywhere, just because of her race. Her family is very well in poverty, and her mother is badly sick. She died later that month. In one quote,”Why can’t white folks leave me alone?”(P7), explains how excruciating racism was.
"Little niggers in the country don 't have things like we do. If I could paint, I 'd paint that picture,"(O’Connor). The author shows that the children did not really know about the history of the southern states. Thus, they are quick to judge then having their grandmother correcting them. Teaching children that sometimes there are children like themselves that aren’t as fortune as them. When she was there correcting the children she did not look at herself and see she does the same. The children are really following the grandmother’s footsteps. When O’Connor says if I could paint, I’d paint that picture he means to show an image of the struggle of not having even the simplest things in life. As the family continues their journey. The grandmother chastises her grandson John Wesley about talking about his native state. “Children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then (O’Connor)”. The quote is saying that in children of that time did not have the respect that they should. Furthermore, she was criticizing her son upbringing of his children. In fact, she made it look like that they are doing a horrible
In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, there is a large family, the Youngers which you may consider them a lower-class, that live in a small apartment and share it with a different family, the johnsons, in a African-American neighborhood, that you may just call a ghetto. They live in a cramped space where they all sleep in small spaces, they have only one bathroom which they have to share it with the Johnsons. They get an opportunity to move into a different house with Lena Younger(Mama)’s husband, Walter Lee and Beneatha Younger’s father, Big Walter,passed away and the youngers got a check. Walter wanted the money to invest in a liquor store, but instead Mama bought a house in a white community with the money. The people in the whites community do not want black folks to move into the community so a representative of the Clybourne Park Owners Association offered money to them so that they would not move in. They should not accept the money that would not contain any pride, dignity, or hope
Have you ever seen the Disney movie Cinderella? Cinderella was always jealous of her step sisters always being up lifted, while she was always degraded by her step mother however, at the end everything changed for Cinderella just as it did for Maggie. There are a numerous of themes throughout the story “Everyday Use”. Race is showed when Dee leaves home and comes back embracing her African American cultural. Family also plays a major role in “Everyday Use”. In “Everyday Use” Maggie’s characterization presents her as ignorant; however, a closer look reveals Maggie ignorance is not a representative of her potential but, rather her mother’s bias.
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor explores the complexity of human nature. The unnamed grandmother is a perfect example of how contradictory a person’s beliefs and standards can be. She is indirectly manipulative, yet she holds herself to a higher, purer standard than the other characters. Not to mention, the grandmother is not as she first appear, and she is stuck on the views of the past and how they apply to her as a lady, whether the views are correct or not.
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” was written in 1955, and at this time, women were beginning to fight for many rights and freedoms. The grandmother is a wealthy, white, self-centered woman. However, the way in which Flannery O’Connor depicts her is quite contrary. O’Connor surrounds her life with men, even to the point of stating only one of the names of one of her grandchildren, “Bailey” (667-669). O’Connor is emphasizing the fact that women are disparaged—although it may appear at this time in
In this part of the essay, I will show how O'Connor made use of symbolism through her characters to symbolise an abstraction of class-consciousness. The issues of class consciousness was brought up through the rounded character of the grandmother, who is the protagonist of the story. On the surface, we see the characteristics of the grandmother portrayed as a "good" woman, having faith in God and doing right in her live. However, the sin lies within her, whereby she thinks she is better than others around her. Viewing appearance and self-image as important, which is reflected through her gentility, the grandmother wears "white cotton gloves, straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim, navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print and the collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace" (p.2117). Through her attire, the grandmother implies that people who looked at her will know that she is a respectable and noble lady. Repetitive use of the colour white is symbolic as it reflects the way the grandmother perceives and associates herself with - perfection, goodness, and purity. The grandmother also predicts that she would have done well if she had married Mr. Teagarden, "who had died a wealthy man few years ag...
The following day the family heads off to Florida. Another major point of irony happens as the story revolves around the grandmothers traditional southern values of respect for other people; especially elders, respect for your home and country. At the same moment as the grandmother is lecturing her grand kids about respecting their home state she sees a young Negro boy and says: “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” (Pg 208). Her hypocrisy becomes evident as she wants the family to do what she says not what she does.
Finally she say, Sofia, with a little laugh, This is the South. Yes ma’am, I say. She clear her throat, laugh some more. Look where you sitting, she say. I’m sitting where I always sit, I say. That’s the problem, she say. Have you ever seen a white person and a colored lady sitting side by side in a car, when one of 'em wasn’t showing the other one how to drive it or clean it?” (Walker 104) Not only was race a limiting factor for many but so was class. Working class people such as the main protagonist Celie, live their lives only ever visiting people close and hardly get any real education especially if there are female. However in the instance of Celie`s sister Nettie, Nettie runs away from home at a young age and finds herself with a rich colored couple whom with she travels to Africa with and gets an education. This social status is not entirely bias, but for the mostly in the south whites are the rich and elite class. While people of color such as Celie and her friends and family are the lower class, this social classification makes certain groups feel superior to colored minorities. Only a select few ever escape this catgazation of class by moving to the north, such as Shug and