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Parent child relationships in literature poetry
Parent child relationships in literature poetry
Parent child relationships in literature poetry
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All stories contain a character with some flaw of their own. Whether the author decides to highlight the characters flaw or to have the character overcome it is usually the turning point of the story. The grandmother in the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, has plenty of flaws that aren't overcome but are highlighted instead. Two of the biggest flaws that lead the grandmother and her family to their demise is the fact that the grandmother is selfish, and talks too much. In the beginning of the story the grandmother displays a flaw of being selfish. She was trying to convince her son not to go to Florida because she didn't want to go there; instead she wanted to go to Tennessee to meet up with her connections. She goes through many …show more content…
attempts to change their mind and she finally states, “Here this fellow here that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscious if I did” (O'Conner 875). This seems like something a caring grandmother would say because she is worried about her grandchildren but the real reason why she brought The Misfit up is because she wanted her son to change his mind and take her to Tennessee instead. As the story progresses the grandmother gives in and goes with her family to Florida but decides to bring her cat even though her son told her not to bring the cat. On page 876 it states, “The next morning the grandmother was the first one in the car ready to go. She had her big black valise that looked like the head of a hippopotamus in one corner, and underneath she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it”(O'Conner 876).This shows another selfish act of the grandmother's which leads to a conflict. If the grandmother would have listened and choice to leave the cat home then there would not have been a car accident due to the cat towards the end of the story. Furthermore, another selfish act of the grandmother's would be when she decided to lie to the kids about a secret panel in an old house she use to visit.
She decided to lie in order to get the kids to become curious about the secret panel and to have her way because she knew her son wasn't going to listen to her. Once Bailey got annoyed about how the kids were acting about seeing the panel, he decided to take them in order to calm them down. But once the grandmother noticed that the she was talking about another house and they were going to the wrong house she decided not to tell them. In the story it says, “‘It’s not much farther,' the grandmother said and just as she said it, a horrible thought came to her. The thought was so embarrassing that she turned red in the face and her eyes dilated and her feet jumped up, upsetting her valise in the corner” (O'Conner 880).This was one of the mistakes and flaw that lead to their demise. The grandmother did not tell her son that she had mistaken the houses because she was too embarrassed, but if she would have said something before then they could have got out of there before anything …show more content…
happened. The second big flaw that leads to the grandmother and her family's demise was the fact that she talked too much. Towards the end of the story the characters finally meets The Misfit and doesn't recognize him at first. They just assumed that they were going to get help from them, but once the grandmother noticed who he was she blurted it out without thinking and that put them in plenty of danger. If the grandmother would have just told her son secretly that it was the misfit they could have still been alive. The Misfit even goes on to say, “ 'Yes'm,' the man said, smiling slightly as if he were pleased in spite of himself to be known, 'but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn't of reckernized me'”(O'Conner 881). Being that the grandmother recognized The Misfit, she put her whole family at risk without thinking ahead of time about the consequences. Finally, at the end of the story the grandmother still continues to display her act of selfishness and talking too much even to the point of her death.
She constantly tries to avoid her death by saying The Misfit is a good man and he wouldn't shoot an elder lady. She even goes on to try to connect with him to save herself but that only leads her to her ultimate death. On page 884 it says, “‘Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!' She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprung back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest”(O’Conner 884). Her actions and her selfishness lead her to a death she wasn't expecting. Her actions also lead her family to their death and when they were killed she didn't seem to care, she just wanted to save
herself. In conclusion, the author makes a decision to highlight the grandmother's flaws instead of letting the grandmother overcome them. These flaws lead her and her family to their demise and leads to a series of events that could have been avoided. The grandmother's flaws played a huge part in the story because her flaws are what lead them in the situation they were in. The grandmother has a steady streak if being selfish and talking too much at times that she shouldn't. This not only affected the grandmother but it also affected her family.
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.
Since the beginning of the story, the readers have come to known the grandmother as a spiteful old lady due to her repulsive and deceitful attitudes toward others. Right from the start, we can see the grandmother using her manipulative tactics on her family. “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind.” (O’Connor 1) This initial quote shows an early indication that the grandmother is determined to obtain whatever she wants and will not allow anything to get in her way, even if it means manipulating her own family. This line already suggests that the grandmother may have sly motives concealed in her mind. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen a...
While planning the trip, she uses plenty excuses in order to go to Tennessee to visit her friends. She complains that kids have already been to Florida and needs to "be broad". She used The Misfit as her last resort to go to Tennessee. When leaving to go on the road, she sneaks her cat Pitty Sing, fearing "she may miss him too much". She could have her cat with someone. After The Misfit starts killing the family, she proceeds to beg for him to spare her life. This show that she is willing to live alone as long as she 's spared. She tells him "You 've got good blood". All her begging proved futile as she was shot. To me, her ultimate point was when said she would have Mr. Teagarden. Mr. Teagarden died wealthy from buying a Coca-Cola stock when the business started. The way she said that it seems as if she wanted to marry him because he had money rather loving him for being a gentleman.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O'Connor tells a story of a dysfunctional family on a roadtrip to Florida to illustrate the theme of self-awareness. The main protagonist in this story is the self-centered Grandmother whose lack of self-awareness is the reason why her family, including herself, are murdered by The Misfit (the Floridian convict). Throughout the story, the Grandmother considers herself as a good woman; however, it is through dialogue that reveals her true self. In reality, she is selfish, manipulative, inconsiderate, and dishonest. No matter how much she attempts to manipulate others into thinking she is full of integrity and a good example to follow, her actions contradict everything she wants people to believe.
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.
Directly at the beginning of the story the grandmother shows her selfish ways. She is trying to convince her son Baily, whom she lives with, to vacation where she wants, Tennessee, instead of Florida. O’Connor stated “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida, she wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing every at every chance to change Baily’s mind” (202). The grandmother further shows her selfishness when she tells the family a story about a house she had once visited in the neighborhood. She knew Baily would not want to waste time stopping at an old house so she makes up a story about the house having a secret panel which contains all of the family’s silver, causing the children to begin nagging Baily until he finally gives in and takes them to the house We can also see her being selfish after the family runs into The Misfit. She continuously begs for her life while never mentioning the lives of her children or grandchildren.
After the accident that the grandmother had unintentionally caused by manipulating the image of a nonexistent house into her family’s head, they run into the Misfit. No one else in the family knew who he was or anything about him. They all thought someone had come to their rescue and was going to fix the car, but nothing gets over on the grandmother. Blatantly putting the whole family in danger she blurts out, “’You’re the Misfit!’…’Yes’m…but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t of reckernized me’” (192). At this point in time, she knows that she is going to die, trying to save herself and not caring about the rest of her family clearly as she has witnessed the Misfit’s goons kill off her whole family, she tries to manipulate him. She brings up that he is a “good man at heart” (192) and telling him if he “would pray…Jesus would help” (194). That was just simply her trying to plea for her life, but when she realized she was getting nowhere her “head cleared for an instant” (196), she knew this was an opportunity to try and manipulate the Misfit into letting her go, to make him feel like he didn’t have to be a killer anymore, to comfort him “she reached out and touched him on the shoulder” (196). The Misfit jolted away and shot her three times in the chest because he saw through her manipulative ways which if clear when he
There are three phases of thought for the Grandmother. During the first phase, which is in the beginning, she is completely focused on herself in relation to how others think of her. The Second Phase occurs when she is speaking to The Misfit. In the story, The Misfit represents a quasi-final judgment. He does this by acting like a mirror. He lets whatever The Grandmother says bounce right off him. He never really agrees with her or disagrees, and in the end he is the one who kills her. His second to last line, "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," (O'Conner 152). might be the way O'Conner felt about most of us alive, or how she felt that God must feel about us.
The grandmother has never truly understood what being saved means. She is also ignorant to what salvation is. The Misfit is missing the ability to empathize and bind with other people. He does not hold respect for human life. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, it says “She would of been a good woman, The Misfit said, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (430). In “‘One of My Babies’: The misfit and the grandmother”, written by Stephen C. Bandy, it says “The Misfit has already directed the execution of the Grandmother’s entire family, and it must be obvious to all including reader and the Grandmother, that she is next to die” (108). These example justifies that The Misfit does not have any regard for human life. The only people that he has are the two goons that help him murder people. The grandmother sees that The Misfit has never had anyone to take care of him. At the end of this story she tries reach out to him on a spiritual level, but he shoots her three times in the chest as soon as she touches
The story begins with the grandmother trying to persuade the family not to travel towards Florida but perhaps go to Tennessee instead. This is based on the grounds that “the Misfit”, a escaped criminal is on the loose somewhere in Florida. The Ironic part of this is that the grandmother is the only family member to conceive of bad things happening to the family. She bases this solely on the fact that they were traveling in the same direction as the Misfit. This negative thinking quite possibly could have led to the eventual rendezvous between the convict and the family.
The grandmother's character in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is also very selfish in her motivations. She felt she had to lie to her son, daughter-in-law and her grandchildren in order for her to be able to see that nice house again. "'There was a secret panel in this house' she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, 'and the story went that all the family sil...
“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.
The grandmother lives with her only son, Bailey, his wife and their children. The beginning of the story the grandmother is preparing to take a trip with her son?s family to Florida; a place where she doesn?t even want to go. She wants the whole family to go to Tennessee to visit relatives (O?Connor 907).This is the first example of the egocentric ways that lead her to her demise. She wants to uproot the whole family ,only for her benefit. She also does not want to go to Florida because there is a escaped convict, an evil man, on the loose. She says, "The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to those people" (O?Connor 907). Critic Richard Spivey explains the use of violence in O?Connor?s work: "O?Connor dealt with violent and grotesque people because "man has in his...
Bailey’s wife asks about the location of her husband, sensing foul play. The grandmother reconfirms the possibility of honesty existing inside of him (misfit). The concluding suggestions from her tell him that he could be honest, if he tried. A final inquiry from the grandmother asks if he prays. A pistol shots in the woods verifies the irrelevance of her question with an acknowledgement of earlier feats as a gospel singer. Perhaps destiny is better enjoyed when favorable conclusions materialize. Irony always presents the considerations for contentment enjoyed in times past. The element in which this is realized needs no particular atmosphere or lessons learned from the revelation.
grandma keeps pursuing her son Bailey to go to Tennessee instead of going to Florida. Second of