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Short Investigation #1
1. "Girl"-- Protagonist: Girl, Antagonist: Mom, Point of View: First Person, Setting: 1940's in Antigua.
In Jamaica Kinkaid's story "Girl," Girl is being told by her mother how to act so she does not look like a slut. Girl's mother says "...this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut. . ."(55). The quote is showing how the Girl's mom is explaining how a women should be and telling her that if she follows these guidelines, she will become a better women.
2. "A&P"-- Protagonist: Sammy, Antagonist: Lengel, Point of View: First Person, Setting: 1960's in Massachusetts.
In John Updike's story "A&P," Sammy sees three girls come into A&P only wearing bathing suits and decides to quit his job so he can help defend the honor of those three girls. Sammy says, ""The
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girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero""(57). This shows him quitting, so he can go be with the three girls to begin to honor them. 3. "The Story of An Hour"-- Protagonist: Louise Mallard, Antagonist: Brently Mallard, Point of View: Third Person Setting: 1800's in the Mallard household. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of An Hour," Mrs. Louise Mallard goes from thinking that freedom is a bad thing, to it showing how having freedom is a great feeling. "When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!"(61) The quote is showing the moment she felt the freedom becoming a good thing as she is excited about being "free!". 4. "The Lottery"-- Protagonist: Tessie Hutchinson, Antagonist: The Lottery, Point of View: Third Person, Setting: June 27th in a small town with about 300 people in it. In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," Tessie Hutchison is having to make choices between what to believe, and what to accept as just tradition or not.
According to Tessie Hutchinson, "The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities."(64) The quote is displaying a tradition of what Mr. Summer would always do when the lottery came around. This connects to the story because it is all about traditions.
5. "A Good Man is Hard to Find"-- Protagonist: The Grandmother, Antagonist: The Misfit, Point of View: Third Person, Setting: 1900's.
In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother embodies goodness, while Bailey could represent evil". She set him on her knee and bounced him and told him about the things they were passing."(71) This quote shows the sweetness in the grandmothers heart from how she was willing to hold and take care of the baby.
6. "The Cask of a Amontillado"-- Protagonist: Montresor, Antagonist: Fortunato, Point of View: First Person, Setting: Underground catacomb in
Italy. In Kate Chopin's "The Storm," Calixta is trying not to surrender to passion and that they do not have any terrible consequences, no matter morality suggest. "The society was agreeable; many of her old friends and acquaintances were at the bay. And the first free breath since her marriage seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days."(88) The quote is expressing how she feels about finally being "freed" from the storm.
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.
The Grandmother’s deviousness and immorality is evident in the beginning of the story. While reading the newspaper article about the Misfit, the Grandmother brings it to Bailey’s attention. In Short Story Criticism, Mary Jane Schenck writes “For Bailey, the newspaper story is not important or meaningful, and for the Grandmother it does not represent a real threat but is part of a ploy to get her own way” (Schenck 220). “A Good Man is Hard to Find” begins with an innocent road trip, however, due to coercion by the Grandmother; it soon turns into a fatal nightmare. In Short Story Criticism, Martha Stephens writes “… it is true that in a trivial sense everything that happens is the Grandmother’s fault…” She continues with “It is in the conscious of the Grandmother that we continue to experience the action of the story…” (Stephens 196).
The grandmother is the central character in the story "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago when she saw life through rose-colored glasses. She is pre-scented by O'Connor as being a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is not only the best way, but the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." The children, they tell her "stay at home if you don't want to go." The grandmother then decides that she will have to go along after all, but she is already working on her own agenda. The grandmother is very deceitful, and she manages to sneak the cat in the car with her. She decides that she would like to visit an old plantation and begins her pursuit of convincing Bailey to agree to it. She describes the old house for the children adding mysterious details to pique their curiosity. "There was a secret panel in this house," she states cunningly knowing it is a lie. The grandmother always stretches the truth as much as possible. She not only lies to her family, but to herself as well. The grandmother doesn't live in the present, but in the past. She dresses in a suit to go on vacation. She states, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She constantly tries to tell everyone what they should or should not do. She informs the children that they do not have good manners and that "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else." when she was a child.
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, ...
In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” the theme of the story is dramatically illustrated by Jackson’s unique tone. Once a year the villagers gather together in the central square for the lottery. The villagers await the arrival of Mr. Summers and the black box. Within the black box are folded slips of paper, one piece having a black dot on it. All the villagers then draw a piece of paper out of the box. Whoever gets the paper with the black dot wins. Tessie Hutchinson wins the lottery! Everyone then closes in on her and stones her to death. Tessie Hutchinson believes it is not fair because she was picked. The villagers do not know why the lottery continues to exist. All they know is that it is a tradition they are not willing to abandon. In “The Lottery,” Jackson portrays three main themes including tradition, treason, and violence.
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)
In her well-known short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor skillfully describes the difficulty of finding a morally upright human being, whether it is a man or a woman. No one is perfect, everyone has inadequacies and shortcomings, and she presents this cleverly in her story. She is able to support this view of mankind through her characters. They are self-centered, egotistical human beings who can be judged by their words and actions. This is especially true of the protagonist (the grandmother) and the antagonist (the Misfit). The grandmother tries to portray herself as a virtuous woman, but in the end O’Connor shows that her actions are always self-serving and that morally, she is not that different from the Misfit.
Stanley, D. A. (Ed.). (1999). Novels for Students Volume 7. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research.
With the plot essentially focusing around a forgetful grandmother, the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O 'Connor has created a large number of debates over its controversial and open ended contents. The story is considered one of the more well known writings from the Southern Gothic genre. The genre, often characterized by grotesque storytelling about a damaged or delusional character, was popularized during the 1940s by Southern writers like O’Connor. Throughout the story, a small cluster of characters are introduced. Each character is unique and have been analyzed by scholars to discuss the role they play in the story. The grandmother, however, seems to be the one analyzed the most because of her actions throughout the
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
3. Write the basic plot of a book or story you have read. Describe the elements of plot and explain your
“Although everyone appears to agree that the annual lottery is important no one seems to know when it began or what its original purpose was” (Introduction) This is made clear when in the story it says that the reason the tradition had started was lost years ago. It is also made clear when the box is being describe as an old rugged looking thing and “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (Jackson). In the story it also says that so much of the original tradition has been lost or discarded that Mr. Summers who symbolizes a leader who has frighten amounts of power, was able to slip in chips of wood instead of paper into the box (Jackson). Mr. Summers is in charge of the lottery it is even up to him to but the black dot on the paper that decides who will be stoned. The power that Mr. Summer has serves as a symbol of humans blindly following tradition because no one ever challenged Mr. Summers whether it be to figure out or stop the lottery or even to challenge why he is the one in power. Instead the town’s people feel sorry for him because he has a nagging wife and no children. Jackson never explains why Mr. Summers has all this power. Mr. Summers is a bit ironic to because of his last name summers. When someone thinks of summer they think
Determine all of the story's conflicts. Determine the major conflict and state this in terms of protagonist versus antagonist.