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The character of the grandmother in "A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Literary analysis of "a good man is hard to find
Literary analysis of "a good man is hard to find
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Society today is a mismatch of ideas and people from every walk of life and as diverse in thinking as grains of sand on the beach. This portrayal of a diverse society is so vivid in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The characters in the story can are a functioning society with each person bringing to light a specific negative trait of society, but no other name than the one given to the escape convict strikes the very soul of every reader. By comparing the characters of the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” to society, and analyzing the term Misfit as it reflects society today. Each character in O’Connor’s short story brings to surface the bitter way society functions today. Take for instance the grandmother, shows how manipulative society can be when things do not go their way through out the story the grandmother manipulates her way to bring the trip to a halt and in to trouble and even when she knows she is lost she reaches out and surprises everyone by trying to side with the convict “Why your one of my babies. Your one of my own children!” (O'Connor 238-248).This quote is. A direct representation of how manipulative the grandmother can be in the story, and in many ways how society is today. Society will manipulate anything from the news to information to better fit a cause and the excuse given is that it is done to better civilization. The mother in the story a nameless figure with very little description and almost no voice what so ever. She is a bitter reminder of how society views some woman. They are seen as a permanent stature of a home but not necessarily a figure in society. The kids both very loud and annoying portray a selfish, rude, an almost ignorant way of society such as Jo... ... middle of paper ... ...t that at times do not fit crimes as the Misfit in the story says it best when he states “Because I can’t make all I done wrong fit all I gone through punishment” (O'Connor 238-248). Flannery O’Connor sends a chilling message capturing the core of civilization in just a few lines the Misfit in the story is none other than every other college student trying to find himself, or someone taking the wrong turn somewhere in life. However, the truth is we all have a little bit of every character in us even the Misfit if not the talent to dream. It is the sympathy towards the value of life as he states “it’s no real pleasure in life” (O'Connor 238-248). Works Cited O'Connor, Flannery. ""A Good Man is Hard to Find"." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, 5th Ed. Ed. Kennedy, X.J. and Gioia, Dana. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2007. Print.
The Misfit is a complex character created by Flannery O’Connor. He is talked about first when the Grandmother reads his criminal background at the breakfast table. Right when the Misfit meets the family the Grandmother starts questioning his faith and past, and through the Grandmother’s persistent behavior that you find out the truth behind the Misfits hard exterior. The reader understands that the Misfit was brought up by parents who were the “finest people in the world” (O’Connor 1312). With this type of background, how can one expect the Misfit to be such a cold blooded killer? Because of his kind nature in the beginning of the story, it’s almost impossible to understand how he could just kill. Through deeper analysis one can characterize the Misfit with a heart of gold, but the mind of a villain. This characterization is true because somewhere along the line he was wrongly accused of murdering his father and was brutally punished and he was mistreated by the justice system. The Misfit knows he was innocent and neither Jesus nor the justice system could rid him of the punish he received. It’s not because he is an evil person, he says himself “I never was a bad boy that I remember of… but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive” (1314). The Misfit states he was never the worst person, but he also says himself that he was never good either, so the reason behind the Misfit’s homicidal condition is not because he is an evil person but due to his distrust in Jesus Christ and the justice system.
"A Good Man is Hard to Find presents a masterful portrait of a woman who creates a self and a world through language." At least that is what Mary Jane Shenck thinks of the Flannery O'Connor story. Several different people have several different views of this controversial and climatic work of O'Connor's. In this paper I will take a look at these different views of different situations and characters in this book.
Lambert 1Lambert, Brandi(put course and section number)(put instructor’s name)18 September 2017A Characterization of The MisfitIn Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the character of The Misfit is not easily understood. At times he is gentle, at times harsh. Some of his statements and actions show him to be wise, and some show him to be clueless and out of touch with reality. He is at times moral, and at other times completely amoral. His character is a combination of opposites. The Misfit first appears a little more than halfway through the story. His actions and words show him to be both gentle and harsh. He is gentle with the grandmother, saying “Lady, don’t you get upset” (147) when her son curses
In the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” a family comprising of a grandmother, a father, three children, and a wife is headed on vacation has the misfortune of meeting a murderous band of serial killers. The Misfit and his band of serial killers are recently escapees of a federal prison. In the following paragraphs this paper looks into the issues of, what one would do in a situation such as that and the background of the the family and murderers as well.
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” was written in 1953. The story demonstrates a broken family who can barely tolerate each other, going on a trip to Florida. Coincidentally, The Misfit has escaped from prison and is headed in the same direction as them. The grandmother continually attempts to persuade Bailey, her son, to go to destination that is not on their agenda. The only exception to their deviation of their route leads to The Misfit, who is a symbol of the grandmother’s salvation and the reality of everyone’s death. An individual’s misconstrued truth about their identity can falsify and taint their religion, therefore, leading them to beg for salvation. For example, in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the grandmother manipulates everyone, compares the past to the present, and believes so passionately in her “lady hood” that it becomes her religion.
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.
The protagonist is the grandmother. She is a stubborn old lady who is annoying and persuasive. She convinces Bailey to take a detour to a house, but when she realizes the house is in Tennessee and not Georgia, she freaks out and causes the car to crash.
The story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor, focuses on the interaction between a grandmother from Georgia and The Misfit, a self-admitted convict who has recently escaped from jail. The Misfit is first introduced in a newspaper article being read by the grandmother: “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” (257). It seems clear that The Misfit must be a cold-hearted killer who is a danger to be near. When an unfortunate string of events finds the grandmother and her family trapped by The Misfit and his two accomplices, the reader begins to learn more about this complicated character.
“A Good man is hard to find,” is about a family who decide to go on a trip to Florida. The story revolves around a self absorbed grandmother who loves to talk about how everything used to be back in her day and takes the time to dress herself so that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (358).” She sneaks the family cat with her despite her son’s disapproval of bringing the creature along violating her boundaries to how a lady would act. The family encounters an accident along the way and happens to come across ‘The Misfit,’ a runaway criminal. Using ‘The Misfit’ as a tool, O’ Connor sends a message to her readers of how hypocritical a person can be when it comes to belief.
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most well-known short stories in American history. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a disturbing short story that exemplifies grace in extremity as well as the threat of an intruder. The story tells of an elderly grandmother and her family who embark on a road trip to Florida. The grandmother is a stubborn old woman with a low sense of morality. While on the trip, the grandmother convinces her son to take a detour which results in a broken down car and an encounter with a convicted fugitive, The Misfit. Although the grandmother pleads for mercy, The Misfit kills off the rest of her family. Through the grace she finds in her extreme circumstance, the grandmother calls The Misfit her own and implores him to spare her life. The Misfit does not oblige her and states after her death, “She would have been a good woman if it had been someone to shoot her every day of her life.” Through Flannery O’Connor’s disturbing and shocking display of the grandmother’s demise, she gives the reader a sense of the threatening power of an intruder and the idea of extreme situations bringing about a state of grace. The reason for such a powerful work may have resulted from Flannery O’Connor’s religious upbringing as well as the state of the nation at the time.
...te to Mother Courage as she too is a single mother and is working for the family’s survival. In everything that one reads that uses the family dynamic as a theme, it is quite simple to be able to tie at least one of their situations to one’s own family life. This further solidifies how important the family is in almost everyone’s lives, whether in real live or in a piece of literature.
In the book “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, there is this man who considers himself to be an outcast or literally “The Misfit”. This man went through a family who was considered to have hearts of “pure gold”(O'Connor 1292). The heritage in this man’s family was so richly blessed yet there is this idea of being an outcast, the idea of not being accepted by society. The man made excuses to cover up the evil that was behind all the madness in his head. The traditions of O'Connor's parents led to the belief of not being good enough just because of the high standards set by his parents. Parents are often the buildings blocks of a person’s life, whether it comes to manners, to behavior, and to personal life choices. “The Misfit” compared himself to his parents and felt a sense of failure that was too much to handle. People are compared to others and can often lead to jealousy and or hate. This example is shown in the lottery because the young people expected much more out of the “Lottery” than the lady intended to be. These young people got so wound up about the situation that Old Man Warner referred to them as a “Pack of young fools”(Jackson 871). When people’s standards are not met, there is this sense of rebellion that usually can lead to violence. This same sort of analogy did happen in “A good man is Hard to Find” where “The Misfit’ came up to this ,just then, hurt family and came
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Flannery O’ Connor’s story: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the tale of a vacation gone wrong. The tone of this story is set to be one irony. The story is filled with grotesque but meaningful irony. I this analysis I will guide you through the clues provided by the author, which in the end climax to the following lesson: “A Good Man” is not shown good by outward appearance, language, thinking, but by a life full of “good” actions.