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Literary criticism on "A good man is hard to find
Literary analysis of " A Good Man is Hard To Find
Literary analysis of " A Good Man is Hard To Find
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A Good Man is hard to find In the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O’Conner there is a major theme and life lesson behind this story. The author, Flannery O'Conner makes it very clear on what she is trying to portray. Each character has a deep meaning and has a great part of showing the irony and how everyone should look at the aspect of life based on events people face. This story also has to deal a lot with good and evil desecration of society over time. Throughout the story, there are two major characters, the misfit who is a murderer and the grandmother. There is also the family who consists of the father who is named Bailey, his two kids named John Wesley and June Star. The last character is the mother, who is Bailey’s wife. In the story, the grandmother who does not have an actual name is one of the key characters in this plot. She has almost two different personalities to her character. She can be a good person and a bad person all at the same time. On the good side of the grandmother, she tries to help keep the family together throughout the trip to Florida, and she also seems to look out for the children even though it goes against what the parents like. She gives the children attention and discipline when the children’s parents ignore them. Even though the grandmother has a good side, she has a major evil side to her which is mostly shown in the story. With her evil side showing, the grandmother has a very racist side to her. She could also, in many cases be blamed for the reason why her family was killed. There are many reasons why the grandmother is the cause of the family’s death in the store, for example, the grandmother brought along a cat that caused the family vehicle to crash. Other actions ... ... middle of paper ... ...ite an interesting story that has a much greater meaning than just a fictional story. O’Conner has quite a theme in which she shows in the actions of the characters and the way the events unfold. The grandmother is very interesting woman. She believes that her conscience guides her through life. With this mentality, this makes her believe that she is so much better than everyone else. She also judges the lack of goodness in people she knows and doesn’t know at any opportunity she can get. She has this moral code that almost falls apart every time it gets challenged. This is completely different when it comes to criminal called the Misfit. He has a moral code that is not always right but no matter what happens, he sticks to it. He questions everything life has to offer but because of this, he takes everything he learns and appreciates everything it has to offer.
In most of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories a number of characters have a hard time seeing an ultimate reality in their life. They tend to have a distorted grasp on reality but not all in the same way. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit and the Grandmother are prime examples. The actions and the way of life of the Misfit and Grandmother are mostly due to the fact that they are living in an false reality where they are in their own little world, where in the Misfit’s world everything goes with no worry of repercussion in the Grandmother’s case she can do no wrong because she has a false perception of what is right.
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.
In the short story, 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', the main character is the grandmother. Flannery O'Connor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her from her direct conversation with the son, Bailey, her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, and the Misfit killer. Through these conversations, we know that she is a lady raised from a traditional background. In the story, her attitude changes more than once to accommodate the surroundings that she is in. With the data provided, we can tell that the grandmother goes from not wanting to go to Florida, to anxious to go, and in the end, I felt as if she went off the deep end. All of the sudden, the only thing she really concentrates on is Jesus and her not being killed.
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.
A brilliant storyteller during the mid-twentieth century, Flannery O'Connor wrote intriguing tales of morality, ethics and religion. A Southern writer, she wrote in the Southern Gothic style, cataloging thirty-two short stories; the most well known being “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
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.
To buttress this she pointed out that even at the grandmothers death misfit confirmed her to be a good woman in his statement “she would have been a good woman if she was to face death every minute of her life” (437). In contrast to her opinion Stephen Bandy a notable literally critics in one of his articles “One of my babies “: The Misfit and the Grandmother” he compared the characters of both and argued that despite the fact that O`Conner claimed the grandmother was merely filled with “prejudice” of her time, He described the grandmother as racist, busy body and utterly self-absorbed. When she saw that her child and grandchildren was been killed tried to manipulate Misfit to spare her own life whereas she was the one that lead them to their death.
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.
In the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, written by Flannery O’Connor, the theme that the definition of a ‘good man’ is mysterious and flawed is apparent. The reader must realize that it is difficult to universalize the definition of a good man because every person goes through different experiences. Thus, these experiences affect his or her viewpoint and in turn flaw ones view on a good man. O’Connor conveys this theme through her excellent use of diction, imagery, foreshadowing, and symbolism as well as through a creative use of repetition and an omniscient point of view.
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.
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.
The grandmother says “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people,” showing how she is trying to find a shred of hope in a murderer. O’Connor’s use of southern diction and religious banter develop the grandmother away from superficiality and towards genuineness. The grandmother says “’Listen,’…’you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell.’” The Misfit replies “I pre-chate that, lady,’” by using the phonetic spelling instead of proper diction O’Connor is showing that the grandmother believes he is a fellow southerner. The grandmother is talking to The Misfit about salvation and she has an epiphany, O’Connor writes “His voice seemed 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!’” After discussing religion and seeing his perspective the grandmother finally feels real sympathy for The Misfit; up until that point the grandmother had been trying to compliment and talk her way out of being killed along with the rest of her family. Unfortunately this is also when the struggle between good and evil ends with the grandmother being killed, “The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.” The Misfit then says “‘She would of been a good woman’ … ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’” He realized that her gesture at that moment was out of pure kindness and
I’ll start out with the grandmothers somewhat fascination with the misfit and how the power of horror lead to her demise. In Kristeva’s Powers of Horror, it states, “Imaginary uncanniness and real threat, it beckons us and ends up engulfing us”(Halberstam, pg. 18). At the beginning of the story, the grandmother brings to everyone’s attention how the Misfit had escaped and that she “wouldn’t take her children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’ Connor, pg. 644). She expressed how she couldn’t answer to her conscience if she did which is ironic because they ended up right in the Misfits path. The fear had engulfed the grandmother from the moment she heard of the misfit and it caused her to become fearful but yet interested in the Misfit.
“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.
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