Spiritual Awakening in Flannery O’Connor: “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, spirituality and grace is the underlying theme as much of her works reveals. Without this premise most of her work would be impossible to interpret and understand. With her Christian background at the forefront, the reader can interpret and synthesis her story out rightly. In life’s spiritual journey it often takes a personal crisis to awaken the spiritual senses. On the mission to eternal spiritual truths, the crises encountered, despite their threatening outward concealments, take on a lesser significance than the spiritual truths that these crises often unearth. These interpretations truly describe the
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Her continuous references to the Bible, Jesus, and praying, makes it appear if she is a Christian lady, but while in the car the she displays some very un-Christian ethics. She tells the children, “Oh look at the cute little pickanninny. Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?” (278). These are racist words, which are unbecoming of someone who believes in God. She is also good at lying and being manipulative. When she is losing the battle about taking the trip to visit the old plantation house, she has no absolutely no reluctance in resorting to untruthfulness. “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 silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found… (281). The word crafty shows her careful selection of her words so that it would have the most controlling effect on the children’s mind. As much as she may have wished for it to be the truth, it is a grave lie. She knew that the allure of hidden treasure would get the children on her side. In light of a woman who views herself as a Christian, and who wants to project just the right appearance, it’s clear that the grandmother is a hypocrite who is really far from living a life as Jesus would want. The grandmother is a picture of anyone who doesn’t really know Jesus and who goes through life giving the …show more content…
The question lingers surrounding the identity of the “Good Man” who is purportedly hard to find is found by following the winding path way of the grandmother on her faith journey. The exploration of the consequences of her self-centered, devious, and unfilled life justifies that the good man is not anyone like the grandmother. The good man is most certainly not like the Misfit, his men, or any of the other people in this story. In the end, the grandmother discovers that the only really Good Man is Jesus Christ. It is, indeed, possible to find Him, but only through a journey of faith. Only by abandoning all of her devious, self-absorption, her focus on class and her external show of Christianity in exchange for her sinfulness, she can be given the Grace of God, forgiveness and the hope of eternal Paradise. In the end, she unearths eternal spiritual truths, despite the erroneousness of her death which took on lesser significance since she finally meets Jesus and is transformed by God’s grace. This enables her to show love and grace towards the Misfit, who has just had her family brutally murdered. For the grandmother it is hard to find the Good Man, but at the end of her journey she finally finds him (Jesus) and is now with resides with him(Jesus) in Eternal
The Grandmother is a bit of a traditionalist, and like a few of O’Connor’s characters is still living in “the old days” with outdated morals and beliefs, she truly believes the way she thinks and the things she says and does is the right and only way, when in reality that was not the case. She tends to make herself believe she is doing the right thing and being a good person when in actuality it can be quite the opposite. David Allen Cook says in hi...
The grandmother is based on conventional Southern women. She dresses in her Sunday best so that noone would be mistaken as to her status as a lady, an issue at the heart of every true Southern woman. She related stories of old mansions and of the little ‘pickaninny’ by a door. This was not a racial comment because for it to be there would have to be an intent to insult an African American and there was not. This was written to further convey the notion of her embodying all the true characteristics of Southern women, including their adherence to devout Christianity.
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” was written in 1953. The story demonstrates a broken family who can barely tolerate each other, going on a trip to Florida. Coincidentally, The Misfit has escaped from prison and is headed in the same direction as them. The grandmother continually attempts to persuade Bailey, her son, to go to destination that is not on their agenda. The only exception to their deviation of their route leads to The Misfit, who is a symbol of the grandmother’s salvation and the reality of everyone’s death. An individual’s misconstrued truth about their identity can falsify and taint their religion, therefore, leading them to beg for salvation. For example, in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the grandmother manipulates everyone, compares the past to the present, and believes so passionately in her “lady hood” that it becomes her religion.
Lessons are learned through mistakes and experiences, but to completely understand the lesson, a person must be smart enough to profit from their errors and be strong enough to correct them. However, this was not the case for the main character in the short story; A Good Man is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor. In this tale of manipulation and deception, O’Connor depicts the main character, the grandmother, as a shrewd self-centered woman, who considers herself morally superior than the other individuals. Throughout the entire story, she is seen using her manipulative tactics on everyone, which brought her to a sinister ending. O’Connor expertly portrayed the grandmother as a character that did not correct her negative characteristics throughout the story. To prove this statement, the use of time will be applied to help focus on the main idea of the grandmother not changing her deleterious ways throughout this story.
“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.
Although “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a short story, the text deeply analyzes and exhibits diverse characters and the consequences behind their actions. Flannery O’Connor and her use of the Southern Gothic style places the Misfit and the Grandmother, two opposing persons in the literal sense, to convey that in unusual circumstances and places ones true character can be revealed.
Flannery O’ Connor’s story: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the tale of a vacation gone wrong. The tone of this story is set to be one irony. The story is filled with grotesque but meaningful irony. I this analysis I will guide you through the clues provided by the author, which in the end climax to the following lesson: “A Good Man” is not shown good by outward appearance, language, thinking, but by a life full of “good” actions.
In 1953, Flannery O’Connor wrote “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” which turned viral and preemptive, due to a very controversial ending. Although Flannery lived only 39 years, she successfully made a name for herself as an American writer, publishing two novels and 32 short stories. Her southern gothic stories examined questions regarding morality and ethics, and featured flawed characters. Growing up in Georgia, she set out to highlight the sentimental nature of Christian realism, and although her stories were disturbing, she refuted the opinions of those who characterized her as cynical. In the last decade of her life, she wrote over a hundred book reviews, which were inspired by her religious Roman Catholic faith. She successively demonstrated her intellect, often confronting ethical themes from some of the most challenging theol...
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the traditional views of religious salvation are put into a new perspective. O’Connor believes immoral people do not deserve the generic happy ending. Instead, she brings to light the grotesque nature of humans and how their selfish acts lead to unfortunate endings. In this short story, O’Connor focus on the Catholic view of salvation and the opportunity for grace. However, there is also themes of selfish desires, violence, and the lack of love for one’s family.
The dominating opinion is that the final part of the grandmother was one of grace and of charity, which implies that "A Good Man is Difficult To Find" was written to show a transformation in the grandmother as the history progress. In the beginning, she was more worried about the resemblance to a good Christian than to be a faithful Christian. “At lunchtime, they stop at Red Sammy’s, a barbecue eatery, where the grandmother laments that “people are certainly not nice as they used to be,” and Red Sammy agrees: “A good man is hard to find.” In this conversation, the grandmother, narrow-minded and opinionated, repeatedly assures herself that she is a lady,...
anyone like the grandmother. The good man is also not like the Misfit, his men, or any of the other person in this story. At long last, the grandmother discovers that the only real Good Man is Jesus. It is, actually, possible to find Him, but one must have faith. The grandmother must leave all of her manipulative self-centeredness, her focus on earthly things and showing of her Christianity by just talking and not by actions. In exchange for her sinfulness, she is given the Grace of God, forgiveness and the hope of Paradise. In the end, she finally meets Jesus and is transformed by the Grace of God. This enables her to show love and grace towards the Misfit, who has just had her family brutally murdered. For the grandmother it is hard to find the Good Man, but at the end of her journey she finally finds Him and is now with Him in
In Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the theme of good vs. evil unravels throughout the series of tragic events. The Grandmother’s epiphany introduces the idea of morality and the validity is left to the interpretation of the reader. By questioning the characteristics of right and wrong, morality and religion become subjective to personal reality and the idea of what makes individuals character good or bad becomes less defined.
An LA Times article by David L Ulin describes O’Connor as a “devout Catholic who wrote out of [her] abiding faith” (Ulin Literature and the Moral Question). Flannery O’Connor portrays these same faiths and morals as the grandmother’s beliefs. These faiths are then displayed when the grandmother attempts to coax The Misfit to pray by telling him that “[if he] would pray… Jesus would help [him]”(O’Connor 24). Flannery O’Connor uses the grandmother to put forward her message of faith, the grandmother’s morals cause the grandmother to want to present her faith of God to the Misfit, believing she can help the
For those who are blind I believe O’Connor is saying that they are the most closed off to the religion and so she needs to ensure that her stores have the startling figures to capture their attention. I believe this is represented in her story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. In this story O’Connor has a family brutally murdered on the side of the road. O’Connor very vividly paints the picture for the reader’s imagination and does not hide her message. The grandmother’s whole family is taken into the woods and murdered. She is able to hear the guns go off but she still tells the man that he is a good. At the end of the story the grandmother has convulsed into hysteria screaming at the man “why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” (p. 132) O’Connor seems to be using the grandmother as the mediator of Christ and showing that even though the runaway may have committed these heinous crimes she will still accept him as her own
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor, is chock full of religion, bigotry, and karma. The dark nature of the short story engages the reader with many curve balls and a wild twist ending. The readers may begin to feel as if they know where the story is going and they follow along, maybe laugh along, critique humanity right along with the grandmother (and O’Connor) and think they know what is going to happen and to who. But in the end, many readers’ assumptions prove incorrect. O’Connor’s writing style is subversive and shocking, but honest to the realities of societal norms and expectations. Many readers could possibly find this story humorous if it were not so incredibly sad.