Analysis of A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
In Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard To Find, one is struck by the unexpected violence at the end of the story. However, if you re-read the story a second time, you will see definite signs that foreshadow the grotesque ending. The story begins with the typical nuclear family being challenged by the grandmother who doesn't want to take the vacation to Florida. She has read about a crazed killer by the name of the Misfit who is on the run heading for Florida. Unfortunately, she is ignored by every member of the family except for the little girl, June Star, who can read the grandmother like an open book. The fact that she admonishes Bailey, her son, of this Misfit and "what he did to those people' foreshadows what will happen to them. As readers, we know that O?Connor will not mention such an interesting fact without having it affect the characters later on in the story.
The morning of the trip the grandmother is the first one in the car ready to travel as June Star predicted she would be, "She wouldn?t stay at home for a million bucks. She has to go everywhere we go." This can be read as a direct foreshadowing of the grandmother?s death. As one reads the story, one wonders why every time Bobby Lee and Hiram take someone into the forest, they never come back. Eventually, the whole family is taken to die. June Star?s comment that the grandmother goes everywhere the family goes can be read as an indication that she will meet the same end that they did.
Although the grandmother did not want to go to Florida, she ironically dresses in her Sunday best. She was dressed very nicely with: a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white viole...
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...hites were gone. The grandmother represents godliness and holiness. The parents pay little attention to the grandmother and when they do it is often rude. The unruly children are represent the breakdown of respect, and discipline, and are consequently a forecast of future generations. The Misfit represents evil. At one point comparing himself to Christ.
Flannery O?Connor uses strong imagery to foreshadow to her readers the inevitable ending of "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." She first gives her readers an inkling of the ending by mentioning the Misfit?s murderous tendencies, peaking her readers curiosity. She then uses numerous images such as the grandmother?s dress, the graveyard, and the conversation with the Misfit to further feed our curiosity. Her foreshadowing images are both strong and obscure, so as not to spoil the surprising ending of the story.
The Grandmother is a bit of a traditionalist, and like a few of O’Connor’s characters is still living in “the old days” with outdated morals and beliefs, she truly believes the way she thinks and the things she says and does is the right and only way, when in reality that was not the case. She tends to make herself believe she is doing the right thing and being a good person when in actuality it can be quite the opposite. David Allen Cook says in hi...
The Grandmother often finds herself at odds with the rest of her family. Everyone feels her domineering attitude over her family, even the youngest child knows that she's "afraid she'd miss something she has to go everywhere we go"(Good Man 2). Yet this accusation doesn't seem to phase the grandmother, and when it is her fault alone that the family gets into the car accident and is found by the Misfit, she decides to try to talk her way out of this terrible predicament.
“You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” the grandmother said while dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. Looking at the ground, the Misfit says, “I would hate to have to.” “Listen,” the grandmother almost screamed, “I know you are a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people.” It all happened so fast. The car had rolled and wrecked. A murderer was in the family’s presence. The grandmother was begging for grace from the Misfit in every way possible. The character of the selfish grandmother, in Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” tries to use her manipulative ways to fight
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor represents her style of writing very accurately. She includes her "themes and methods - comedy, violence, theological concern - and thus makes them quickly and unmistakably available" (Asals 177). In the beginning of the story O'Connor represents the theme of comedy by describing the typical grandmother. Then O'Connor moves on to include the violent aspect by bringing the Misfit into the story. At the end of the story the theme changes to theological concern as the attention is directed towards the grandmother's witnessing. As the themes change throughout the story, the reader's perception of the grandmother also changes.
Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard To Find” portrays a very random type of foreshadowing. The radom foreshadowing in this short story is implied with little elements that may seem irrelevant to the reader, but really is a sequence of variables that makeup the fabric of story. Just like the ring, in the movie Lord of The Rings, which may have came across as insignificant but then turns out to be a very ascential object in the movie. O’Conner uses this type of random foreshadowing to convey the plot of the story to the reader. For example, O’Conner’s gives us tidbits of information like the time the family left from Atlanta (8:45) and the mileage of the car at 55890“The grandmother wrote down this down because she thought it would be interesting to say how many miles they had been when they got back”.( O’Conner 448) Or, “ She knew that bailey would not be willing to loose anytime looking at an old house” (O’Conner 451-452). Conversely, these random events are use to hint to the reader the events that ill later unfold. We read where the grandmother and her family stop for lunch at Red Sammy’s and conversed with...
In Flannery O’connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader can see multiple cases of foreshadowing throughout the story, and especially in the opening scene(O’connor). The grandmother a southern raised women remains nameless throughout the story, and is the protagonist and often finds secretive ways to benefit herself. The opening scenes are a major factor because the reader knows there is a killer on the loose and he 's going to be near where the family is planning on traveling to. The grandmother a lady raised in the south who 's moral obligations are criticizing others and finding devious ways to make herself happy, and holding money more valuable than anything. The grandmothers
In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor utilizes foreshadowing, characters and symbolism to impart her lesson of mortality and salvation. We are able to observe minor details within the story through these academic instruments, urging the reader continue on to see how the story will come to conclusion. The knowledge that evil exists in the world, and that stories like this are not uncommon, brings to mind thoughts of my own mortality and salvation. Does this accidental meeting with the grandmother and her family lead to a personal and spiritual growth for The Misfit? The ability to recognize and apply literary tools when reading stories can greatly enhance a reader’s overall
The Grandmother is the catalyst for all things. She also is a character who sees herself as a good person but is actually
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.
While reading Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” we read that a family of five are on a roadtrip to Florida where they go every year. We have The Grandmother who derailed her family from the actual road to see a house she thought was in those parts of town. When all of a sudden her helpers are the murders she is afraid of. The murder “The Misfit” kills off the rest of her family and leaves her to dwell in her sorrow that she will be next. The Grandmother tries to maneuver her way out of dying by sweet talking The Misfit into thinking she can love him as her own child and that he doesn’t have to kill anymore. When she tries to reach for him he moved back and shot her. The Grandmother didn’t want him to be violent anymore and thought
In” A Good Man is Hard to Find” there are many factors that can be the theme. The theme can be about a family as a whole that lacks love for the grandmother, or about a family that goes on a trip that wound up having an accident, which puts them at the wrong place at the wrong time. Both of these themes are obvious to any reader, but it does not quite seem to match this author’s depth style way of writing. In a brief write up on Flannery O’Connor, it says “O’Connor is a moralist, she focuses an uncompromising moral eye on the violence and spiritual disorder of the world.” By knowing this about the author O’Connor we can look deeper into this story and find morals of two characters as the theme. The two characters are the Grandmother and the Misfit. Even though they are both different as night and day, they both have morals and stands by their morals no matter what.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is an example of Southern Gothic literature because it has many disturbing and violent events taken place in the south. O 'Connor wrote this story in 1953 and uses this type of literature to convey the personalities of the unusual characters. O’Connor places two important characters in the story: the protagonist and antagonist. The Misfit, the antagonist, is represented as a philosopher with wise words to advise people about faith, and the grandmother, the protagonist, believes herself to be an idealized woman with her self obsession of her status of a “lady.” In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Connor conveys how characterization can be the underlying concept of the story, and she makes the readers question the
The story begun with the grandmother not wanting to go to Florida, but Tennessee where she has some friends to see. She ironically dresses in her Sunday best. She is dressed very nicely with, "A navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet"(382). A strong foreshadowing imagery can be seen in this line. Knowing the ending of the story, the grandmother's elaborate dress symbolizes a preparation for her funeral. When a person die, he or she usually are dressed in their best outfit, just like the grandmother is dressed in what seems to be her Sunday best.
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.
The granny and the misfit are two completely opposite characters that possess two different beliefs. The grandmother puts herself on a high pedestal and the way she calls the misfit ‘a good person’ based upon his family background gives the reader an idea of what the grandmother acknowledges to be considered as ‘good’. Self absorbed as sh...