A southern mother has taken the dominant role as the main woman in her sons life although, he has married and has three children to care for. In her mind, grandmother has placed herself on a pedestal as a lady who is should be respected as embraced in the southern culture. The story A Good Man Is Hard to Find discusses the life of a family venturing on a typical vacation that ends sooner than anticipated. Due to the fact that Bailey is her only son he is unconsciously given the role of caring for her throughout the rest of his life. Having been raised in the south has allowed her to believe that she must be catered to as a woman no matter how old she gets. The grandmother constantly refers to herself as a lady and has made herself a priority in her sons life and has a difficult time being considerate of other peoples feelings. At the beginning of the story she tries to convince her son Bailey to change the destination of their planned vacation to where she would like to go. In order for grandma to go see her old house in Tennessee she must convince Bailey that his family may be in danger after a …show more content…
Throughout the story she is vain and constantly mentions the importance of materialistic things. When her life is coming to an end she turns to Jesus to save her from a murder, but she has took her innocence when she valued herself above anyone else. Their values especially those of the Grandmothers were making them sinners not good people. Her selfish personality had turned her into the baggage weighing the family down, their salvation was the Misfit. Nobody put her in her place and the Misfit believed he should do that ending with, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" (O 'Conner). The Misfit did not believe he was gaining content from her death he believed he was doing
The grandmother and The Misfit of Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' are backward, opposite images of each other. However, the grandmother does have similarities with the character, Ruby Turpin in O'Connor's short story, 'Revelation'.
While planning the trip, she uses plenty excuses in order to go to Tennessee to visit her friends. She complains that kids have already been to Florida and needs to "be broad". She used The Misfit as her last resort to go to Tennessee. When leaving to go on the road, she sneaks her cat Pitty Sing, fearing "she may miss him too much". She could have her cat with someone. After The Misfit starts killing the family, she proceeds to beg for him to spare her life. This show that she is willing to live alone as long as she 's spared. She tells him "You 've got good blood". All her begging proved futile as she was shot. To me, her ultimate point was when said she would have Mr. Teagarden. Mr. Teagarden died wealthy from buying a Coca-Cola stock when the business started. The way she said that it seems as if she wanted to marry him because he had money rather loving him for being a gentleman.
Throughout the United States’ history, a rift has existed between the North and the South. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, we receive the perspective of the grandmother, an old southern woman struggling to find people who share her sentiments. However, O’Connor does not mean for the reader to feel empathy for the grandmother. The grandmother frequently makes mistakes like causing the car to crash, or identifying the Misfit rather than keeping silent. O’Connor uses the negative aspects of the grandmother to criticize southern conservatism.
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:
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 short story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” theme revolves around the grandmother convoluted depiction of a good man. The story starts off by introducing us to a family consisting of a son, and daughter whose temperament are an embodiment of modern raising. Where their behavior and action are deemed questionable in the grandmother’s opinion as she states when she was younger she showed respect. The story also introduces the mother and father of the two kids, and a baby. The final part of the family consists of a grandmother who believes that there is a lack of good men in today’s society. The family were going on a trip to Florida to which the grandmother pointed out an important dilemma. A criminal has escaped and was loose around their intended destination. This however covered her true intent
The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is about a nagging grandmother who doesn’t want to go on a family trip to Florida because a killer, who calls himself The Misfit, has escaped from prison. As a result of her not wanting to go she makes the trip miserable for her son. She over dresses, brings the cat, and gets the children excited about a house with secret treasure. When driving along, the very frustrated dad cashes the car. Everyone get out safely, and just in time to see a truck coming their way. The family feels a glimmer of hope until the grandmother recognizes one of the men to be the misfit himself. When she realizes this she begins to beg for her own life, but after a deep conversation between her and the Misfit, she, along with the rest of her family end up dead.
“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 grandmother is the central character in the story "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago when she saw life through rose-colored glasses. She is pre-scented by O'Connor as being a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is not only the best way, but the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." The children, they tell her "stay at home if you don't want to go." The grandmother then decides that she will have to go along after all, but she is already working on her own agenda. The grandmother is very deceitful, and she manages to sneak the cat in the car with her. She decides that she would like to visit an old plantation and begins her pursuit of convincing Bailey to agree to it. She describes the old house for the children adding mysterious details to pique their curiosity. "There was a secret panel in this house," she states cunningly knowing it is a lie. The grandmother always stretches the truth as much as possible. She not only lies to her family, but to herself as well. The grandmother doesn't live in the present, but in the past. She dresses in a suit to go on vacation. She states, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She constantly tries to tell everyone what they should or should not do. She informs the children that they do not have good manners and that "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else." when she was a child.
Her journey of faith shows us the consequences of her prideful, selfish, manipulative, and empty life demonstrates that the good man is not
Lessons are learned through mistakes and experiences, but to completely understand the lesson, a person must be smart enough to profit from their errors and be strong enough to correct them. However, this was not the case for the main character in the short story; A Good Man is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor. In this tale of manipulation and deception, O’Connor depicts the main character, the grandmother, as a shrewd self-centered woman, who considers herself morally superior than the other individuals. Throughout the entire story, she is seen using her manipulative tactics on everyone, which brought her to a sinister ending. O’Connor expertly portrayed the grandmother as a character that did not correct her negative characteristics throughout the story. To prove this statement, the use of time will be applied to help focus on the main idea of the grandmother not changing her deleterious ways throughout this story.
As earlier mentioned the grandmother is very adamant about not going to Florida where the rest of her family has chosen to take a vacation. Instead she wishes to go to East Tennessee where she can visit with her connections, as she calls them. This woman is very selfish and does not agree with the plans that her son has made for their relaxing getaway. When her grandson tells her that she should say home if she does not want to go to Florida, the witty granddaughter named June Star replies, " `She wouldn't stay home to be queen for a day' " (385). This shows that the grandmother always has to put her two cents into everything.
The grandmother is a humorous character because during the trip, "[She] took cat naps and woke up every few minutes with her own snoring." Later, she recalled an old plantation she once visited. She then over exaggerates the plantation story and say 's "There was a secret panel in this house" ( O 'Connor 714) knowingly she wasn 't telling the truth. And of course, the grandchildren whined desperately and the family drove off to see the house with a secret
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 Misfit knew that he wasn’t good. At the point that The Misfit became visibly distressed, the grandmother finally putting the well-being of someone else ahead of hers, reached out to the man that had just murdered her family and tried to comfort him. This act of compassion startled The Misfit and he killed the grandmother by shooting her in the chest. “Hiram and Bobby Lee returned from the woods and stood over the ditch, looking down at the grandmother who half sat and half lay in a puddle of blood with her legs crossed under her like a child's and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky”