A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

1063 Words3 Pages

Today’s common good morals will never be the same. People throughout the years have forgotten their morals and experienced what is called “moral decay”. Moral decay is people forgetting the right and wrong in situations, which can lead to severe consequences for them or others. In today's times, people still struggle to choose good morals and grow up thinking that having bad morals is common. In the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, characters are represented as having bad and good morals. Flannery O’Connor uses character, tone, and setting to help illustrate the theme of moral decay in her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. Flannery O’Connor uses character to describe each family’s morals slowly decaying. …show more content…

I wouldn’t talk about my native state like that” (368). This dialogue between the children and the Grandmother makes it clear to the reader that the children do not have any social norms or respect. The Grandmother tries to make the children respect their state. Another example is how the Grandmother reacted when the misfit appeared. The Grandmother said to the misfit “.You don’t look like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people” (375). The Grandmother uses the term “common blood” to make herself believe the Misfit does not have bad morals like others do. Finally, according to a critic of O’Connors short story, they state “[The Misfit] is rejecting.that he is her child.” (Ochshorn 299). O’Connor characterized the the Misfit as an example of moral decay, but the Grandmother as the “mother” of good morals. The Misfit appears to be far from changing his morals and shoots the Grandmother for trying to persuade him to change back. In sum, O'Connor uses the literary device of character, to represent that each character is going through moral decay through their actions and behaviors. Flannery O’Connor also uses tone to show her attitude towards the

Open Document