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An argument on feminist 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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Despite the fact the plot in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? differs from A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the themes of isolation, manipulation, and violence are present in both short stories. The malicious ideas that arise in both pieces of literature connect to women’s abuse as it became an issue in the late 1960s and 1970s. Both authors emphasize the issue of the violence against women in their stories since marital rape and other forms of abuse had no legal preventions. The authors specifically focus on the emotional abuse experienced by women as serial killers and abusers became popular during this time period and continue to be an issue in today’s society. Based on Leanne Perry’s Step-by-Step Pattern of a Serial Killer, …show more content…
these psychopaths follow the system of observing, making contact, and then murdering their victim. The three themes presented in the stories follow this pattern exactly. The first step for a serial killer involves observing their victim. Arnold Friend does this by watching and isolating Connie. In Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Arnold Friend waits until Connie’s family leaves for a barbecue before making his move. Four menacing honks signal the end of Connie’s solitary afternoon and the beginning of her emotional torture. As Arnold comes up and talks to Connie, her desolation becomes increasingly evident. Arnold has killed her neighbor, waited until her family left the house, and had Ellie, his partner in crime, cut the telephone line. All of these factors add together to completely isolate Connie in her house. The only people she has contact with are Arnold and Ellie, who are both antagonistic characters. Arnold mentions how Connie’s family knows nothing of her once she walks out to him, “‘. . .and they don’t know one thing about you and never did and honey you’re better than them because not a one of them would have done this for you’” (Oates, page 379, line 157). The isolation never truly ends for Connie as she walks towards Arnold’s car and into certain death during the resolution of the story. Both antagonists from the stories stalk their victims before Westbrook 2 striking in an effort to create their own world. Perry stated that criminals began to withdraw from reality before committing their crime, which The Misfit does as he begins walking up to the family. In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the family has an accident while trying to go on a vacation. This accident isolates them completely in the middle-of-nowhere. However, they start to have hope as they see a hearse-like car drive up. The criminal that walks up, The Misfit, knows that the family has no hope. He uses this fact to create his fantasy world before killing the family. He and his gang waited for the family to be completely secluded. One-by-one, the group of convicts murder the family. However, The Misfit purposely isolates the grandmother to show authority and the power that he has over her as a man. He strips her of the security she had with her family until she does not even have her own thoughts, “Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice” (O’Connor, page, 436, line 128). The Misfit secludes the grandmother only to prove how men have jurisdiction over women. Both criminals go through The Aura Phase, or the withdrawal from reality, by observing their victims. The next step for the pattern involves both The Trolling and The Wooing phase, which include seeking out a victim and gaining their trust. Arnold Friend easily gains his victim’s trust in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?. He uses manipulation to make the helpless protagonist, Connie, obey his commands. Arnold wants Connie to simply walk out of her house. He tells her repeatedly throughout the story that he will not come into the house unless she calls the police.
He even states dominantly, “‘. . .honey, I’m not coming in there but you are coming out here’” (Oates, page 377, line 113). This calm statement frightens Connie. She does not want to listen to him, but he gives her no other choice. Arnold also uses mind games to convince Connie to come with him. Arnold’s persuasive techniques cajole Connie into following his orders. As with the theme of isolation, the manipulation does not end. Even as Connie follows Westbrook 3 Arnold’s demands, she knows she will inevitably fall into his trap and be killed, which shows how men have the power to manipulate helpless women. On the contrary, The Misfit gains the grandmother’s trust by distracting her with casual conversation while his gang brutally murders her family. This technique can be linked to The Wooing Phase. In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The Misfit easily manipulates the grandmother after he rips away her safety. Near the end of her life, the grandmother becomes more hysterical, shouting, “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray!” (O’Connor, page 436, line 131). However, The Misfit plays with her mind by making it seem like he will not kill her. As …show more content…
he does this, the grandmother continuously mentions how Jesus will save him. He evidently gives her hope while also filling her with fear. The grandmother dies with mixed emotions and hysteria injected inside of her caused by The Misfit’s manipulation. The emotional abuse that the victims in both stories experience connects to the second and third step in the pattern of a serial killer. Having someone gain your trust only to exploit it causes immense emotional pain. Both authors demonstrate this in these two short stories. The final two steps presented in the literature are The Capture Phase and The Murder. In both stories, these steps involve violence. The theme of violence presents itself in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? as Arnold Friend verbally threatens Connie. Throughout the entire story, physical abuse never makes an appearance. As Connie’s narcissistic attitude attracts Arnold, the creation of the suspenseful scene that unfolds with Arnold speaking to Connie through her screen door forms the climax. Arnold makes numerous threats that include harming Connie’s family, coming inside if she attempts to call the police, and setting the house on fire. He threatens Connie in order for her to follow his orders. When he mentions lighting her house on fire, he says, “‘If the place got lit up with a fire honey you’d come running out into my arms, Westbrook 4 right into my arms and safe at home—like you knew I was your lover and’d stopped fooling around’” (Oates, page 376-377, line 118). Although he never goes through with his actions, these scare tactics frighten Connie into obeying what he says.
The violence reaches its resolution only after Connie follows Arnold’s orders and goes outside into his arms. Arnold appears to put on a facade as he pretends to be wholehearted. However, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The Misfit fails to be sincere as the violence completely destroys the family. He abuses the grandmother emotionally and psychologically as he fills her with false hope for life. Not only did the grandmother have to hear her family be killed, but she also experienced denial and emotional pain. On top of this, while the grandmother tries to make The Misfit feel like he has a family, he shoots her, “The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest” (O’Connor, page 437, line 136). The violence the grandmother experiences surpasses the pain that the rest of her family undergoes and shows that men have the ability to harm women in a multitude of ways. Arnold and The Misfit both use different forms of violence to capture and murder their victims. During the late 1960s and 1970s, the abuse of women became an issue and authors began to portray this in their literature. Because Oates and O’Connor were both against the abuse
of women, their stories Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and A Good Man Is Hard to Find illustrate the various ways men mistreat women. Both Joyce Carol Oates and Flannery O'Connor exemplify this through the themes of isolation, manipulation, and violence against women. They further support their views against the abuse of women as they show the patterns serial killers follow to organize their kills in their writing. The powerful statement shows how the issue of women’s violence and serial killers as they arose in this time period are still alive today despite the availability of legal preventions. Westbrook 5 Works Cited Oates, Joyce Carol. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1974. Print. O'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find. New York: New American Library, 1962. Print. Perry, Leanne. "Step-by-Step Pattern of a Serial Killer." Web blog post. Casebook: Jack the Ripper. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
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.
“You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” the grandmother said while dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. Looking at the ground, the Misfit says, “I would hate to have to.” “Listen,” the grandmother almost screamed, “I know you are a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people.” It all happened so fast. The car had rolled and wrecked. A murderer was in the family’s presence. The grandmother was begging for grace from the Misfit in every way possible. The character of the selfish grandmother, in Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” tries to use her manipulative ways to fight
...articular particularly symbolic aspect of A Good Man is Hard to Find is the fact that O'Connor is a great deal more elusive in her interpretation than in her other works. The author relies considerably more upon intangible ideals and concepts in which to make her point, which is readily obvious by the style and tone she adopts for the story. "She had her own distinctive, totally unsparing voice, and this novella about a tough old lady and a tougher escaped convict is as black as it gets" (Anonymous 182). In one way, she is trying to encourage both her readers and her characters to take control of their lives, to become empowered by the very events that serve to break down the people in her tale. Yet in another way, she recognizes the fact that people will always be the way they are, and nothing that anyone can say or do will ultimately save them from themselves.
The main theme of this story is that of Connie’s search for independence. Oates portrays this theme by exemplifying Connie’s tendency to frequent places where older people are, in her attempt to quicken her path to adulthood. This theme is also portrayed by Connie’s desire to go with Arnold who is exploiting her need for independence, and in the end forces Connie to grow up faster through cruel means.
According to Ellen Douglas, the "evil in human hearts, and the possibility of grace, the gift of love, are made terrifyingly and magnificently real" when the grandmother, at gunpoint, admits that The Misfit really is, in her standards, a good man at heart (381). He is better able to express his beliefs about religion, but she has no firm foundation. When he says, "She would [have] been a good woman, if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," he is revealing the fact that her pride, instead of her faith, has carried her through life (O'Connor, "A Good Man" 392). She has merely acted out the life of a typical Southern lady of he...
she uses her brains to mastermind a plan to cleverly sneak her way behind enemy lines and
The Eternal Present in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Michele D. Theriot, Journal of Short Story in English, 48, (Spring 2007): 59-70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 November 2013.
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.
Friend lies in Connie’s blindness; she misses what any reader could easily miss. Through Oates’
Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" written in the late sixties, reveals several explanations of its plot. The story revolves around a young girl being seduced, kidnapped, raped and then killed. The story is purposely vague and that may lead to different interpretations. Teenage sex is one way to look at it while drug use or the eerie thought that something supernatural may be happening may be another. The story combines elements of what everyone may have experienced as an adolescent mixed with the unexpected dangers of vanity, drugs, music and trust at an early age. Ultimately, it is up to the reader to choose what the real meaning of this story is. At one point or another one has encountered, either through personal experience or through observation, a teenager who believes that the world is plotting against them. The angst of older siblings, peer pressure set upon them by their friends, the need for individualism, and the false pretense that at fifteen years of age, they are grown are all factors which affect the main character in this story.
In conclusion, "Where are you going, where have you been?" is full of important symbolism that help to expand the story and subtly helps the reader comprehend the story better. They represent things such as evil, loss of innocence, and the line between freedom and imprisonment. Without these symbols the story would be much less interesting and would have been considerably harder to understand.
Her home ultimately represents the life she has always known—a trouble-free and supportive environment in which she feels safe. Yet the doorway that separates her from Arnold Friend symbolizes a threshold into the unknown, a point of uncertainty that Connie is reluctant to venture into. However, her home remains a constant symbol of stability and safety as Arnold states, “I always tell the truth and I promise you this: I ain't coming in that house after you” (Oates par. 80). Whether or not Arnold’s claim was valid, Connie finds comfort and reassurance that she is protected by her house. Unfortunately, during Connie’s final hypnotic episode, she loses the ability to take control of her decisions and actions, as she has yet to define her own identity. Despite the unconventional behavior of Arnold Friend, he provides her with attention, which is essentially all she has ever desired. Connie’s internal conflict towards the end of the story represents her struggle to decide between saving her home and family or giving in to the demands of Arnold who provides her with the attention she has been seeking. Oates employs this omnipresent usage of symbolism in order to distinguish between the young and innocent Connie who is afraid to leave her house and the self-centered and attention-seeking Connie who is willing to depart from her house as long as Arnold takes heed of her. By using this specific symbolism, Oates displays her disapproval for the new ego and attitude of Connie and the consequential decisions and actions she makes as a
Connie’s clothes and infatuation with her own beauty symbolize her lack of maturity or knowing her true self, which in the end enables her to be manipulated by Arnold Friend. Connie was enamored with her own beauty; in the beginning of the story Oates states that Connie “knew
Connie's obsession with beauty is neither atypical, nor isolated in "Where Are You Going, Where Are You Been." She has absorbed the lessons of the culture she lives in.
It is hard to believe that women only 60 years ago were still viewed and inferior to males and had little to no rights to protect themselves. When men returned from World War II some men resulted to domestically violate as a way of punishing his wife for something she did and to affirm dominance that he previously lost. Assaults that were inflicted on to women during the 1950s were seen being a part of male aggression and something that is normal. Women who did report the crime were viewed as being the actually perpetrators and the assault was actually their fault because they were unable to defend themselves. Domestic abuse during the 1950s was not considered as a crime but as a family matter, and law enforcement would not get involved. Since women were unable to defend themselves from abuse and assaults during the 1950s, the excuse that it was the woman’s fault was an excuse that was popularly used.