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Literary elements for Flannery O'Connor
Flannery o'connor literary techniques
Flannery o'connor literary techniques
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In every good story there is a protagonist and antagonist that drive the story and provide entertainment. In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Conner, the story follows the Grandmother and her family on their journey to Florida. In this story, O’Connor created a dynamic character in the poor, doomed grandmother. By using someone very simple, who at the same time possesses great depth, the story is driven by the conflict, which the grandmother creates. Although she’s never given a name, her character is the most memorable role. Almost immediately as the story begins, we are introduced to The Grandmother. O’ Connor used imagery to make the characters seem more lifelike. In the description of the Grandmother, her vanity is recognized …show more content…
immediately as she’s dressed up in typical southern fashion; white cotton gloves, a navy blue dress, and a navy blue straw sailors hat. Her collars and cuffs were also trimmed with lace and she had a spray of violets pinned to her neckline. She deliberately chose to dress up this way in case they were in an accident, so anyone that should happen to pass and find her body lying there would know that she is a lady. This is also a hint of foreshadowing, because in the end, it’s exactly how she dies. Her focus on herself in relation to how others think of her and her selfishness can be seen throughout the story as well. This personality flaw is a key role in The Grandmother’s character. How someone interacts with their family shows a lot about their character.
In this case, the Grandmothers interactions with her family are not pleasant. She drives her family crazy with the constant comments that she makes, and her self-centered attitude is made apparent within the first few lines. She is seen being selfish in her endeavors as she tries to manipulate the family into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. Her “connections” she has in Tennessee are very important to her, even more so than what’s best for her family. She tries to convince her son, Bailey, by showing him a news article about a runaway criminal who calls himself “The Misfit”. Bailey shows his disinterest and lack of respect for his mother by completely ignoring her. Her daughter-in-law also provides lack of empathy by suggesting that she just “stay home.” Her own grandchildren even tease her and are quite rude when they say, “She wouldn’t stay home to be queen for a day” (243). The children’s behavior is a representative of lack of respect and discipline, and is “forecast” of future generations. O’ Connor’s displeasure with society during the time has often been attributed to her strong Catholic background and this certain displeasure has been woven into the story through a generation
gap. A person’s actions also speak to the type of character they are. The Grandmother, already having previous conflict with her son, decides to sneak her cat into the car against her son’s wishes. Her sly intentions show that she is quite the sneaky character. This sly, sneaky attitude appears again when the Grandmother wants to visit a house she remembered from her youth and already knows her son will say no if she were to ask. The Grandmother is seen manipulating her own grandchildren in order to obtain their interest and convince their father. Although her plan works, it is at the cost of seeming immature and there is recourse to her plan when the family gets into a car accident. It is not to their advantage when three strange men happen upon the scene. When the Grandmother is interacting with one of the men, she notices that this man is, in fact, the Misfit. As it is the very man she had warned Bailey about, she opens her mouth like always and mentions who he is. The misfit makes it known that, “It would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t of reckernized me” (248). Of course, her immediate response is to save herself first. Desperately she asks him, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (248) showing no concern for the rest of her family, until after she pleads with the Misfit for her own life. Again, showing her true colors and extremely selfish personality. Then, The Grandmother has her moment of redemption, changing her from a static character into a dynamic one. She sees the Misfit for who he really is, a person, just like her. Although the Misfit does not believe in God, contradicting her own beliefs, she tells the Misfit over and over again that he is a good man, and “if you would pray, Jesus would help you” (249) Through these actions, she realizes that there may be hidden potential and a good man inside the Misfit. Although the misfit is evil, she realizes she is going to have to forgive the Misfit and accept him as a child of God. The character that O’ Conner created and her sudden transformation into a dynamic character was the focal point of the story. O’Connor believes Grace is something sudden and miraculous and undeserved. The Grandmother’s change into a “good” woman was exactly that. Although the Grandmother was vain and selfish, sly, sneaky and manipulative, that doesn’t mean she was a bad woman. The series of her actions brought to light her faults and allowed readers to feel sorry for her, though not particularly admire her. The story leaves you wondering, if someone had threatened her every minute of her life, then maybe she would’ve been a nice person all of the time, not just when it mattered?
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.
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.
Though O 'Connor 's use of characterization, she managed to explore the egocentric mind of the Grandmother. She always wanted to be the center of attention, she was prejudice and believed things should stay the same, and she was very selfish. While she thinks she 's above everyone else, she felt that the world revolves around
“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O'Connor tells a story of a dysfunctional family on a roadtrip to Florida to illustrate the theme of self-awareness. The main protagonist in this story is the self-centered Grandmother whose lack of self-awareness is the reason why her family, including herself, are murdered by The Misfit (the Floridian convict). Throughout the story, the Grandmother considers herself as a good woman; however, it is through dialogue that reveals her true self. In reality, she is selfish, manipulative, inconsiderate, and dishonest. No matter how much she attempts to manipulate others into thinking she is full of integrity and a good example to follow, her actions contradict everything she wants people to believe.
In Paul Tillich’s 1957 work Dynamics of Faith, he mentions that there are six major components of faith. These six components of faith describe the Franciscan perspective of “faith”. According to Tillich, the first component of faith is “the state of being ultimately concerned”. The second component of faith is that it is supposed to be at the center of all of our personal lives and everything that we do throughout our own individual lives. The third component of faith is that we should have an awareness for “infinite” things such as God himself. The fourth component of faith is that we need to understand that faith can act as fear, fascination, or both of these qualities at the same time. The fifth component of faith is that doubt is a major product that will always exist with faith. The last component of faith is that we need a community in order to have a “language of faith”.
The grandmother character in A Good Man is Hard to Find is the Christian icon of the story, while the Misfit represents all that is evil. True to her southern roots, ...
There are three phases of thought for the Grandmother. During the first phase, which is in the beginning, she is completely focused on herself in relation to how others think of her. The Second Phase occurs when she is speaking to The Misfit. In the story, The Misfit represents a quasi-final judgment. He does this by acting like a mirror. He lets whatever The Grandmother says bounce right off him. He never really agrees with her or disagrees, and in the end he is the one who kills her. His second to last line, "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," (O'Conner 152). might be the way O'Conner felt about most of us alive, or how she felt that God must feel about us.
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'.
The grandmother is an old woman who believes that the ways of the world should be kept the same and not change. She calls a black child ‘pickaninny’ and has many references to “back in her day.” She has very traditional ways and values. She dresses very fancy and proper in a nice dress while the mother in the story wears pants which are not considered to be ladylike. She dresses this nicely even though they are just going to be sitting in a car
This unnamed character feels superior and far more knowledgeable to that of the rest of her family while truth behold, she is just as manipulative, sneaky and selfish as the rest of them. She treats her son like a foolish idiot, is critical and judgmental of his wife. She is constantly nagging on the children and revels a greater moral attitude towards them. The plot begins with a family car trip in which they ironically run into a criminal they were trying to travel away from all because the Grandmother insisted on a detour to see an old house. Throughout the story, theology is depicted in a tricky way. God is mostly nonexistent but assumed to be believed in by the Grandma because she is a “perfect lady.” It is not until the final scene when the Misfit threatens her life, that she finally experiences a moment of grace by recognizing him as one of her own children. O’Connor demonstrates a strong belief in the salvation of religion by describing the Grandma sitting perfectly and looking up into the cloudless sky after her death. Through the Grandma’s character, it is learned that O’Connor believed everyone deserves to be saved no matter how sinful his or her actions may
Firstly, there is verbal irony at the very beginning of the story. The grandmother is presented to us as someone who thinks very highly of herself and needs the rest of the world to think highly of her as well. She is controlling and speaks her mind and is clearly a pain to the rest of her family. As the family discusses their plans to go down to Florida, the grandmother says “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did” (O’Connor, 1). This is verbal irony because it is actually what she ends up doing. Because of her need to be dressed like a lady and her need to bring a along Pitty Sing, and her insistence on visiting the old plantation, she actually lead her child and her grandchildren right into the hands of the Misfit. This irony adds a lot to the story. It helps us understand O’Connor’s Grandmother character better and allows us to wonder about this character more. It also allows the reader to uncover certain discrepancies about the truth, like the author is trying to hint something to the readers. Without verbal irony of this kind, the events that happen later in the story wouldn’t be as ironic and the story wouldn’t have as much meaning.
One trait that the grandmother possesses is the ability to manipulate the other characters indirectly. For example, the grandmother tries to convince the father into going to Tennessee rather Florida by telling him about a loose criminal. “‘I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did” (1). The grandmother is attempting to play on the father’s parental concern and change his mind about where the family goes on vacation. She does not actually care about The Misfit being loose, the grandmother just wants to satisfy her demands. If the family had been going to Tennessee and The Misfit was loose in Tennessee, the grandmother most likely would have not said anything because she would be getting exactly what she wanted. Later on, the grandmother tricks the family into visiting an old house by telling the children about a hidden panel in the walls of the house. “‘There was a secret panel in this house,’ she said craftily, not
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
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the readers are lead to believe that the Grandmother is a good Southern woman who lives her life by God’s grace, and the Misfit is a horrendous, murderous, mad man that believes in nothing. Although these first impressions seem spot on at a first glance, the actual characteristics and traits of these characters are far more complex. The Grandmother and Misfit have a very intriguing conversation before he murders her, but in the short time before her death, the readers see the grandmothers need for redemption and how the murderous Misfit gave her the redemption she so desperately needed,
As a girl, she had an extremely difficult childhood as an orphan and was passed around from orphanage to orphanage. The author has absolute admiration for how his mother overcame her upbringing. He opens the third chapter by saying, “She was whatever the opposite of a juvenile delinquent is, and this was not due to her upbringing in a Catholic orphanage, since whatever it was in her that was the opposite of a juvenile delinquent was too strong to have been due to the effect of any environment…the life where life had thrown her was deep and dirty” (40). By saying that she was ‘the opposite of a juvenile delinquent’, he makes her appear as almost a saintly figure, as he looks up to her with profound admiration. He defends his views on his mother’s saintly status as not being an effect of being in a Catholic orphanage, rather, due to her own strong will. O’Connor acknowledges to the extent that her childhood was difficult through his diction of life ‘throwing’ her rather than her being in control of it. As a result, she ended up in unsanitary and uncomfortable orphanages, a ‘deep and dirty’ circumstance that was out of her control. Because of this, the author recognizes that although his childhood was troublesome, his mother’s was much worse. She was still able to overcome it, and because of it, he can overcome