Violence Leading to Redemption in Flannery O'Connor's Literature
Flannery O'Connor uses many of the same elements in almost all of her short stories. I will analyze her use of violence leading to the main character experiencing moral redemption. The use of redemption comes from the religious background of Flannery O'Connor. Violence in her stories is used as a means of revelation to the main character's inner self. The literature of Flannery O'Connor appears to be unbelievably harsh and violent. Her short stories characteristically conclude with horrific fatalities or an individual's emotional ruin. In all three of the stories, "Good Country People", "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", and "Revelation" the main characters experience some form of violence that leads to a learned emotional lesson.
The final scene of "A Good Man is Hard to Find", between the grandmother and the Misfit, is one of O'Connor's literal wicked truths. The grandmother is completely wrapped up in a hypocritical, condescending, selfish world, where she feels safe. That world instantly shatters at the moment just before she is shot, "His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother's head cleared for an instant. She saw the man's face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!'" (O'Connor 442). This is the grandmother's moment of redemption. Her head literally clears, although she appears disillusioned, and more than ever she becomes aware of the situation. All her shallow thoughts seem to disappear, and she sees the Misfit for who he really is. At that moment, at her point of redemption, this is when she reaches death, "She reached out and touched him on the shoulder....
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...I don't think the story could be complete. She makes one realize that without the acts of violence in her literature, the redemptive acts may not happen. Whether O'Connor's violence leads to the character's death, loss of a prosthetic leg, or a hit in the face by a book and strangulation, all of the violence is needed to help the protagonist realize their crooked state of being.
Works Cited
O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." Literature: Fiction. 9th ed. New York:
Pearson Longman, 2005. (431-442).
O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People." Literature: Fiction. 9th ed. New York: Pearson
Longman, 2005. (416-430).
O'Connor, Flannery. "Revelation." Literature: Fiction. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman,
2005. (431-442).
O'Connor, Flannery. "On Her Own Work." Literature: Fiction. 9th ed. New York: Pearson
Longman, 2005. (459-461).
In Flannery O’Conner’s, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the story begins with the family going on a road trip to Florida. The Grandmother who is very critical, selfish, judgmental, forgetful, and dishonest and almost enjoys manipulating others to get her way. The Grandmother holds herself in very high regard and
There come all kinds of violence in the book “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by there being shooting of The Grandmother and also her having verbal violence to her family and strangers she doesn’t even know. O’Connor wants to use “violence” for redemption but what if you don’t want to be redeemed then what? There is only going to be more violence coming your way unless you can get under that person’s skin and turn them around
6 [O'Connor, Flannery: A Good Man Is Hard to Find- "Good Country Peole", 1980: 193.].
Flannery O’Connor is a master of the ironic, the twisted, and the real. Life is filled with tragic irony, and she perfectly orchestrates situations which demonstrate this to the fullest extent. A Good Man is Hard to Find is an excellent example of the mangled viewpoint which makes her work as compelling and striking as it is.
To conclude, Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is filled with irony and it is what makes the story so interesting. Without the use of these ironies the story would have been very different for the readers. Flannery O’Connor uses irony to enhance her writing and to push the readers to want to read further. She also uses this irony to explain some of her own concerns about the human condition. Verbal, dramatic, and cosmic ironies are all present in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and are used skillfully by the author to enhance the reader’s experience.
Scott, Nathan A., Jr. "Flannery O'Connor's Testimony." The Added Dimension: The Art and Mind of Flannery O'Connor. Ed. Melvin J. Friedman and Lewis A. Lawson. New York: Fordham UP, 1966. 138-56.
She was a writer who suffered from Lupus. Her father died of the same illness when she was thirteen. Her Catholic beliefs reflected in her work, as well as the implementation of violence and darkness ironically used in her short stories. The titles in the stories give the readers an idea that the stories are the opposite of what the titles really state. She uses metaphors and similes to describe the characters and the settings of the stories. Each story relates to the darkness of the characters: people with racial prejudice, ignorance, and evil. Each story ends in a tragedy. The use of irony allows her to transport a meaning to each story that is not easy for readers to understand.
Bandy, Stephen C. "One of my babies": The Misfit and the Grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's short story 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find'. Studies in Short Fiction; Winter 1996, v33, n1, p107(11)
Nadal, Marita. "Temporality And Narrative Structure In Flannery O'connor's Tales." Atlantis (0210-6124) 31.1 (2009): 23-39. Fuente Académica. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
A story without style is like a man without personality: useless and boring. However, Flannery O’Connor incorporates various different styles in her narratives. Dark humor, irony, and symbolism are perhaps the utmost powerful and common styles in her writing. From “Revelation” and “Good Country People” to “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” all of O’Connor’s stories consist of different styles in writing.
Flannery O’Connor's perception of human nature is imprinted throughout her various works. This view is especially evident in the short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” She conveys a timeless message through the scope of two ignorant, southern, upper class women. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor presents readers to a family who is going on a road trip with their selfish grandmother. She is a religious woman who does not follow the set standards that she preaches. Similar characteristics are exposed in “Revelation.” As the self centered Mrs. Turpin sits in the waiting room, she contemplates on her own status with God. Nevertheless, she still commits the sin of judging others. In both of O’Connor’s short stories, these controversial protagonists initially put up a facade in order to alienate themselves from their prospective societies. Although the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin both believe in God, O’Connor utilizes theme to expose that they also convince themselves that they can take on His role by placing judgement on people who, at the most fundamental level, are in the same category as them.
1) O’Connor, Flannery, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Women Writers: Text & Contexts Series). Rutgers University Press, 1993.
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.
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.
Whitt, Margaret. Understanding Flannery O’Connor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. 47-48, 78. Print.