Flannery O’Connor is most recognized for her southern gothic style of literature. Since she is a devout Catholic, O’Connor’s writings are also highly saturated with the presence of her personal faith. She placed special emphasis on her characters when writing, and in almost all of her short stories, O’Connor writes of characters with a mental, physical, or spiritual disability. This style of characterization can be referred to as grotesque characterization. Flannery O’Connor uses grotesque attributes in her characters to represent their salvation or lack thereof.
In Nightmares and Visions: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque, Gilbert H. Muller states, “The typical grotesque character in Miss O’Connor’s fiction is an individual who projects certain extreme mental states…” (Muller 22). In “The Life you Save May be your Own,” O’Connor uses the “extreme mental state” of a mentally handicapped girl to show the purity and innocence associated with salvation. Christians are called to a childlike faith, and that is what O’Connor is enforcing with Lucynelle’s mental
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impairment. In many of O’Connor’s writings, grotesque attributes are used to show spiritual flaws.
The grandmother from “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is considered spiritually grotesque because of her shaky faith and her self-righteousness. O’Connor uses the grandmother’s shaky faith ultimately to show the grand transition at her time of redemption. In Flannery O’Connor: A Proper Scaring, Jill P. Baumgaertner states, “Usually the most self-righteous and moral of O’Connor’s characters turn out to be the blindest, needing God most desperately, and often capable of recognizing Him only in the oddest, most distorted forms” (Baumgaertner 24). This is most definitely the case with the grandmother; she thinks she is a godly woman, but in reality, she is manipulative and full of hypocrisy. Prior to her time of physical death, the spiritually dead grandmother sees true grace for the first time, thus being
saved. Flannery O’Connor’s character, Hulga, in “Good Country People,” is physically grotesque. Kate Oliver gives her views on Hulga’s physical grotesqueness by saying, “Joy-Hulga’s physical afflictions… symbolize her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments” (Oliver 1). Hulga has an artificial leg in place of the one she lost in a hunting accident, and this leg means more to her than anything else. O’Connor describes how important her artificial leg is, “But she was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail. No one ever touched it but her. She took care of it as someone else would his soul… (O’Connor 8). Contrary to her artificial leg being her soul, Hulga’s missing leg and physical grotesqueness is symbolic of her lack of salvation. Flannery O’Connor used her writing in an attempt to wake people up. Her use of distorted characters is an attempt to make readers take their own salvation into account. Whether the grotesqueness be physical, spiritual, or mental, Miss O’Connor uses it to be representative of the character’s own soul.
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 biographic features of a writer usually have an influence on the development of his or her literary creation. The biographic influence is especially strong on the literary work of Flannery O'Connor. Her life and experiences are reflected through her work in themes, characters, descriptions and style. There are two important features of her life, which had marked the short stories and novels of Flannery O'Connor: The South of the United States and her religion, Catholicism. These two aspects are reflected in her vision of life, society and above all in the vision of the human race.
“’She would of been a good women, ‘The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life’”(6). Flannery O’Connor grew up in southern Georgia where she was raised in a prominent Roman Catholic family. O’Connor endured hard times in life when her father died of lupus erythematous, which she was diagnosed with later in life. These life events influence her writing greatly. She uses her religion and gothic horror in her writings to relay a message to people that may be on the wrong path, in an attempt to change it. The author wrote during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Flannery O’Connor wrote “Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”.
“A Good Man is hard to find,” a short story written by Flannery O’ Connor, is one of the most interesting stories I’ve ever come across to in my life. Born as an only child into a Catholic family, O’ Conner is one of the most “greatest fiction writers and one of the strongest apologists for Roman Catholicism in the twentieth century (New Georgia Encyclopedia).” She was a very strong believer in her faith and she used her stories as a tool to send the reader a message that were most likely ignored and almost never uttered out loud. The story revolves around a grandmother who believes to be high and mighty around others. This results in her downfall later on.
In the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor, every object including the characters are symbols. The Grandmother, who is the one and only dynamic character, represents all of us who have repented. The story is, as Flannery O'Connor has suggested a spiritual journey because of the Grandmother's Plight. In the beginning of the story the Grandmother is obsessed with everything worldly and superficial. She cares far too much about how others perceive her,
4). This is an excellent point, as it is clear that many of the characters O’Connor writes about-face tough or “harsh” moments, usually before they face a religious influenced climax. With this in life this is when most people come to find religion and grace in their lives. An excellent example of this involves the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, as she faces a traumatic accident and the murdering of her family. All these terrible things happen to the grandmother, just as she comes to a revelation that she is not in the right place with grace and spiritual awareness. This is what Flaum is pointing out, that O’Connor uses unique ways to express her beliefs within her work, often harshly. O’Connor also uses the concepts of nature to represent grace, or perhaps the opposite. O’Connor describes the landscape in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, as being rather eerie. It’s a way of foreshadowing the events that will happen to the family. As Clark M. Brittain describes it, “the feeling that sinister forces have laid a trap for the doomed family” (Brittian par. 5). It seems like O’Connor uses the concept of God’s wraith, or some force of evil, both of the family’s faith. With a lack of grace in their lives the family appears as being doomed because of these
Flannery O’Connor's perception of human nature is imprinted throughout her various works. This view is especially evident in the short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” She conveys a timeless message through the scope of two ignorant, southern, upper class women. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor presents readers to a family who is going on a road trip with their selfish grandmother. She is a religious woman who does not follow the set standards that she preaches. Similar characteristics are exposed in “Revelation.” As the self centered Mrs. Turpin sits in the waiting room, she contemplates on her own status with God. Nevertheless, she still commits the sin of judging others. In both of O’Connor’s short stories, these controversial protagonists initially put up a facade in order to alienate themselves from their prospective societies. Although the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin both believe in God, O’Connor utilizes theme to expose that they also convince themselves that they can take on His role by placing judgement on people who, at the most fundamental level, are in the same category as them.
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the Grandmother is a main character that symbolizes a savior. O' Connor describes the Grandmother as a savior with grace, who is saving the Misfit from evil. ." O’Connor determinues that the Grandmother shall be the Misfit’s savior, even though she may not seem so in the story” (Bandy, 151). She reaches out to the Misfit with a "touch of grace" because she is portrayed as the "good character" in the story. The Grandmothers purpose is trying to save the Misfit, or the "evil character." At the end of the story, when she was talking to the Misfit after she realized that he was going to kill her she murmurs, "'Why you're one of my own babies. You're one of my own children!' She reaches out and touches him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest" (O'Connor). Here the significance is that the Misfit was offered grace from the Grandmother, but denies it. “When the Misfit shoots the grandmother he is recoiling from whatever grace she offers. He is rejecting not just any warmth conveyed in the touch, but also th...
A story without style is like a man without personality: useless and boring. However, Flannery O’Connor incorporates various different styles in her narratives. Dark humor, irony, and symbolism are perhaps the utmost powerful and common styles in her writing. From “Revelation” and “Good Country People” to “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” all of O’Connor’s stories consist of different styles in writing.
A common aspect of Flannery O’Connor’s literary works is her use of heavily flawed characters. O’Connor’s characters often exhibit gothic and incongruous characteristics. O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People,” is no exception to her traditional writing style with characters such as Hulga Hopewell, Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Freeman, and Manley Pointer. O’Connor uses gothic characterization and symbolism to produce a great short story about a few ruthless country people.
To the uninitiated, the writing of Flannery O'Connor can seem at once cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent. Her short stories routinely end in horrendous, freak fatalities or, at the very least, a character's emotional devastation. Working his way through "Greenleaf," "Everything that Rises Must Converge," or "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the new reader feels an existential hollowness reminiscent of Camus' The Stranger; O'Connor's imagination appears a barren, godless plane of meaninglessness, punctuated by pockets of random, mindless cruelty.
“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.
All of O’Connor’s writings are done in a Southern scene with a Christian theme, but they end in tragedy. As Di Renzo stated “her procession of unsavory characters “conjures up, in her own words, “an image of Gothic monstrosities”… (2). Flannery O’Connor was highly criticized for her work as a writer, because of her style of writing, and her use of God. It was stated that “…whatever the stories may have meant to her, they often send a quite different message to the reader”… (Bandy). But the stories of O’Connor take a look at the way people depict themselves on the outside, but inside they are
Flannery O’Connor’s religious background influenced almost all her stories. She received criticism for her harsh representation of religion. Richard Giannone describes “A Good Man is Hard to Find” as “God’s transforming love by confronting the reader with a condition of true goodness amid the stark brutality of serial murder” (46). In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor frequently references religious symbols to describe the characters and their actions. Toward the end of the play the grandmother frantically tries to persuade The Misfit to pray and that Jesus would help him. The Misfit replied stating, “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead, and he shouldn’t have done it. He thown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do ...
Whitt, Margaret. Understanding Flannery O’Connor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. 47-48, 78. Print.