"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor
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.
The action in the entire story surrounds and normally begins with something the grandmother has said or done. At the very beginning of the story, she starts off by stating that she does not want to go to Florida. She would rather go to east Tennessee and tried anything she could to change Bailey?s mind (Page 426). Later in the story, as they began the trip to Florida, the grandmother talked the entire time. She would tell stories of her youth to the grandchildren and lecture them about being more respectful to their native state, and to their parents. Although the grandmother is the protagonist, it is her fault that the trip ended in the devastating way that it did. She, unknowingly, led her entire family to their fate. She is even more responsible for the deaths because of what she brought on the trip with her. If there had been no cat, there would have not been an accident. If the accident would not have happened, the family had an extremely good chance to survive their vacation.
There are many things that happen in the story that gives more information about the grandmother. The reader can tell that the woman is paranoid by her conversations at the start of this story. She reads about the Misfit killer and assumes it would be dangerous to travel to Florida with a man like that on t...
... middle of paper ...
... her days, people that were raised well in good families did not commit hainus crimes like murder. She could not believe that this man was capable of killing her. In the end, after her entire family was killed, she realized that her time was up. She made a last desperate attempt to save her life and ultimately failed. The Misfit killer shot her three times. The killer then says, ?she would have been a good woman if there had been someone to shoot her every minute of her life?(Page 436). This statement leads me to believe that he knew what type of woman that she was.
The most important aspect of this story is the actual meaning of ?A Good Man is Hard to Find.? Most people think that is a term meant just for a woman trying to find a man to fall in love with. In this story, it has a complete different meaning. Through the grandmother?s eyes, it was not only good men that were gone, but it was also the good life. I believe she was ready for death, but this was not the death that she wanted.
Works Cited:
O?Connor, Flannery. ?A Good Man is Hard to Find.? Literature: An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 8th ed. New York: Longman, 2002.
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
It’s not about her, she implies, it’s about taking “them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad.” (O’Connor 1) It’s amazing how her manipulative words can actually make it seem like she genuinely cares for the children when in reality, she is doing it so that she can get whatever she desires. It shows that the grandmother is so used to getting what she wants when the author states, “the next morning the grandmother was the first one in the car, ready to go.”(O’Connor 2) First of all, Baily never agreed to changing the destination of their trip, so why was she so eager to leave already? It is obvious the grandmother had thought about new ways to manipulate the rest of the family members overnight. That is why she was so eager to be the first one in the car to make it seem as if she was actually excited about the trip when she was actually excited about using her sinful
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, ...
Works Cited 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). O’Connor, Flannery. The Complete Story of the. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
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.
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 model I developed for child development there are three main groups: physical, mental, and social. Within these three groups are subcategories, many including ideas from various theorists, that I will use to support my system of child development. Throughout this paper, I will use ideas, definitions, and examples from the theorists I have chosen and from my own experience.
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.
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.
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
While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed.
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.
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 we have been learning this semester in class, the experiences and ecological settings in which a child grows up in are important in giving each child their uniqueness. According to Bronfenbrenner, the degree to which individuals realize their potentials and develop their abilities is determined by interactions and experiences (Berns, 2016). It is evident that these interactions and experiences can come from different sources. In order to understand how a child’s development is influenced by their environment, it is important to know how their biological, social, and psychological characteristics are shaped
It is human nature for both youngsters and adults to portray one or more than one identity. Some people like to show their ethnic identity, while others prefer to depict multiple identities. The terms “multiple identity” and “virtual identity” are often overlapped; but there is a major difference in meaning. When one presents multiple identities, he/she is able to embody multiple identities simultaneously but within boundaries, unlike virtual identities. Another difference is that portraying multiple identities happens in real life, unlike virtual identities, which happens in the virtual online world. For example, a 36-year-old lady can have multiple identities, for instance, a mother, a lawyer, a sister and a friend, but cannot be a 60-year-old woman or man. However, people can form a character of their own (computer-generated identity) when using the Internet. Virtually, a man can be a woman and a woman can be a man. A youngster can be old, and the old can be youngsters. This kind of identity which is more fluid and performed, and where the subject is embodied is called “virtual identity” (Benwell & Stokoe, 2006).