A Good Man Is Hard To Find Character Analysis Essay

1017 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay motivation in work

Self-absorbed people only think about what makes them feel good at the moment, they do not have any respect or regard for anyone else, and at the end of the day, that is why their relationships fail. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the author, Flannery O’Connor uses the character of the grandmother to portray self-centeredness and egocentricity throughout the story. Although the grandmother lacks self-awareness, she still describes herself as a real woman, and a lady. However, the grandmother’s lack of mindfulness leads to the death of her family and hers. As we begin to look at the grandmother, it is important to note that she is nameless. In the opening of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the author talks about the grandmother three …show more content…

She tells the children, “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!…Wouldn’t that make a picture, now” (Connor, Flannery O' "A Good Man Is Hard to Find")? Using pickaninny to describe a kid makes her seem racist, and coming from someone who supposedly believes in Jesus it is not acceptable. She is also good at lying and being manipulative which considered a sin in Christianity. When she notice that she is not getting her about taking a side trip to visit the old plantation house, she has no hesitation in lying about the secret panel. “There was a secret panel in this house,’‘and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found,” she said cleverly (Connor, Flannery O' "A Good Man Is Hard to Find”). The grandmother is choosing her words carefully to have a more potent effect on the children so they would want to go to the plantation. She is again making a great effort to manipulate those around her with a lie. For a woman who views herself as a Christian, and who wants to project just the right appearance, it is clear that the grandmother is a hypocrite who is far from living life as Jesus would

Show More
Related

  • A False Reality in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find

    531 Words  | 2 Pages

    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is a bit of a traditionalist, and like a few of O’Connor’s characters is still living in “the old days” with outdated morals and beliefs, she truly believes the way she thinks and the things she says and does is the right and only way, when in reality that was not the case.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...

    Read More

  • Flannery O’Connor’s Short Story A Good Man is Hard to Find

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The grandmother is based on conventional Southern women. She dresses in her Sunday best so that noone would be mistaken as to her status as a lady, an issue at the heart of every true Southern woman. She related stories of old mansions and of the little ‘pickaninny’ by a door. This was not a racial comment because for it to be there would have to be an intent to insult an African American and there was not. This was written to further convey the notion of her embodying all the true characteristics of Southern women, including their adherence to devout Christianity.

    Read More

  • Irony and Foreshadowing in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find

    1618 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Manipulation and Deception in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the beginning of the story, the readers have come to known the grandmother as a spiteful old lady due to her repulsive and deceitful attitudes toward others. Right from the start, we can see the grandmother using her manipulative tactics on her family. “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind.” (O’Connor 1) This initial quote shows an early indication that the grandmother is determined to obtain whatever she wants and will not allow anything to get in her way, even if it means manipulating her own family. This line already suggests that the grandmother may have sly motives concealed in her mind. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen a...

    Read More

  • Examples Of Egocentricism In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Flannery O Connor Grandmother

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Grandmother’s deviousness and immorality is evident in the beginning of the story. While reading the newspaper article about the Misfit, the Grandmother brings it to Bailey’s attention. In Short Story Criticism, Mary Jane Schenck writes “For Bailey, the newspaper story is not important or meaningful, and for the Grandmother it does not represent a real threat but is part of a ploy to get her own way” (Schenck 220). “A Good Man is Hard to Find” begins with an innocent road trip, however, due to coercion by the Grandmother; it soon turns into a fatal nightmare. In Short Story Criticism, Martha Stephens writes “… it is true that in a trivial sense everything that happens is the Grandmother’s fault…” She continues with “It is in the conscious of the Grandmother that we continue to experience the action of the story…” (Stephens 196).

    Read More

  • The Grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Grandmother In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the family got into the car and were on their way, the grandmother remembered an old house that she had went to when she was a young lady and, being selfish once again, she took it upon herself to try and convince Bailey to stop at the house. She remembered many things about the house but “knew Bailey would not be willing to lose any time looking at an old house” (189) so she sweetened the story of the house up by stating that it had “a secret panel in this house” (190). That little white lie that she happened to throw into the mix sparked the kids up like a wildfire on a hot summer day. The children started kicking and chanting that they want to go see the house that grandmother had been talking about. They wanted to see the secret panel and they wouldn’t stop until they saw it. Little did the kids know, but their own selfish grandmother who lied about the secret panel and just wanted to go there to see if her memory served her right and had just manipulated them. She made them do her bidding for her and just when she thought that they were so close to the house “a horrible thought came to her. The thought was so embarrassing that she turned red in the face and her eyes dilated…The horrible thought she had…was that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (191). She realized her selfishness got the better of her while

    Read More

  • A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor, every object including the characters are symbols. The Grandmother, who is the one and only dynamic character, represents all of us who have repented. The story is, as Flannery O'Connor has suggested a spiritual journey because of the Grandmother's Plight. In the beginning of the story the Grandmother is obsessed with everything worldly and superficial. She cares far too much about how others perceive her,

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Misfit And A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elmore Leonard once said “I don’t judge in my books. I don’t have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It’s just how it comes out. I’m just telling a story.” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O'Connor, is one of the most interesting stories that we have read in this class. The protagonist in this story is the grandmother and the antagonist is The Misfit. In any other short story, the protagonist and the antagonist would not have much in common, but that is not the case in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. The three major similarities between the grandmother and The Misfit is that they are both the oldest one in their groups, they are both hypocrites, and they both are missing important spiritual relationships.

    Read More

  • Good Man Is Hard To Find Misfit

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    She is a manipulator when it comes to any aspect of her life. Ideally, the grandmother was selfish and care about herself. For instance, when the author has her saying “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (O’Connor). The author let it be known at that second that the grandmother was only thinking about herself. As if she was traveling with a group of strangers. Throughout the story, the grandmother shows that she can be dishonest towards her family. “She woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (O’Conner). The grandmother did this to manipulate the situation causing the ride to be delayed. Thus, she was lying to the children about the secret panel in the house. Therefore, she caused chaos in the car. The author made it seem that the grandmother was very content with that she has caused. Even when she realized that the location of the house that she was referring to was not up that road at all. But she remained quiet or did she know this along. She was quick to judge and tell someone what not to do. But she never turned her eye on herself. That she was selfish and dishonest to her

    Read More

  • Religion and Racism in A Good Man is Hard to Find and Everything that Rises Must Converge

    3390 Words  | 7 Pages

    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)

    Read More

  • Human Nature In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Flannery O Conner's A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beginning the story of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the readers are introduced to an elderly woman and

    Read More

More about A Good Man Is Hard To Find Character Analysis Essay

Open Document