Analysis Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor at first appears to be a seemingly mundane story about an annoying grandmother and how she controls her family. My first impression of the story proved to be incorrect. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” slowly builds to its horrifying conclusion. The events in the story work well together by building up to an almost inevitable final terror. Clues are slowly revealed throughout the story of the coming tragedy. The grandmother’s personality and her actions, combined with how her family allowed her manipulations ultimately led to the family’s death. O’Connor carefully influences the reader’s emotions by the way she introduces and describes each family member. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

My feeling is that this was not an oversight by O’Conner. The writer wanted to keep the reader emotionally distant from both of these characters. By not having at least a name for either the wife or the baby, I had trouble identifying with either character. Few clues are given about what she through about the grandmother. She seemed to be oblivious to the grandmother’s nagging about not wanting to vacation in Florida and simply continued to feed the baby. The grandmother did not talk to the wife about not going to Florida implying that anything the wife thought or said was unimportant. The wife’s face was described as “broad and innocent as a cabbage” (xxx) suggesting that her ideas and personality were not any more exciting than a

My response to the children, John Wesley and June Star, was that they were obnoxious, spoiled children probably resulting from a lack of parental discipline. June Star is rude to the wife of Red Sammy’s wife at The Tower restaurant. She responds to a friendly comment with “I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks!” (O’Connor). When the grandmother suggests looking for the plantation house, both John Wesley and June Star started whining and screaming about wanting to see the house. Neither parent made an attempt to let the children know their behavior was unacceptable. I felt that the children knew that if they screamed and whined enough they could manipulate their parents. This type of behavior was perhaps learned from the grandmother. The children’s behavior, along with the parent’s lack of discipline, is one more part of the events that lead to the family’s