In Flannery O’Conner’s A Good Man Is Hard to find and Edger Allen Poe’s The Cast of Amontillado, both stories revolve around darkness and evil. Even though these stories present evil, the characters selfishness takes over most of the stories. Both the grandma and Montresor think about themselves in the situation they are in. Due to the evil situations going on in the stories, both stories contain ironic twist. ---Human beings are selfish creatures ---they are born selfish and greed Edger Allen Poe’s story The Cast of Amontillado, gives us a sense that Montresor can be seen as a selfish man. While Montresor and Fortunato were walking down the halls of the vault, Montresor complements Fortunato for being “rich, respected, admired, beloved, …show more content…
As for The Cast of Amontillado, Montresor plans a deceiving way to lure Fortunato into his vault. Montresor uses the excuse that he bought some Amontillado but is not quite sure if it is the real drink. Being so conniving and knowing Fortunato despises Luchesi, Montresor announces he is going to ask Luchesi to test the drink in order to get a reaction from Fortunato. And unfortunately for Fortunato, he fell for the trap saying, “Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry…Come let us go.” (4) Since Montresor used the excuse that he needed someone to test the drink, Fortunato did not suspect what was destined to occur to him once he was in the vault. It also helped that Fortunato loved drinking so testing Amontillado was a pleasurable activity for him. As Fortunato continues his journey down the vault towards his own death, Montresor starts to imply they should leave the vault since Fortunato starts coughing continuously due to the damp vault. Fortunato ironically mentions death as he response “The cough is mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.” In the end, Fortunato was correct, the cough was not the fall of his death. His “friend” was the cause of his death, Montresor walled him up in the niche and left him to die of suffocation and perhaps, …show more content…
From the opening of the story, the grandma persuades her son to take the family to Tennessee instead of Florida. Her son does not give in and that makes his mother uneasy. Just like Fortunato mentioned death in The Cast of Amontillado, the grandma mentions she is prepared for her death. As the family is on the on the road, O’Connor starts to describe the grandma’s sense of fashion. Since the grandma is an old, southern woman, she makes sure her attire indicates she is a lady. She is wearing bold pieces of clothing articles, “A navy blue straw sailor hat, a navy blue dress with white dots in the print, collars with lace and a pinned purple spray of clothes violets,” (679) that will distinguish her as a lady in case someone were to find her lying on the side of the road. The grandma was thinking strategically about her wardrobe without knowing her death was nearing soon. While the family of six are on the road, they pass by a cemetery in a cotton field and the grandma calls attention towards it by saying, “Look at the graveyard.” She goes on to describe that there are five or six graves meant for a family burying, and coincidentally there are six people in the
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 the Misfit’s urge to kill her. She is unrelenting in her actions to control those around her. Grandmother portrays a stubborn, devious character who wants what she wants and is going to see that she gets it.
Meanwhile as Fortunato was concocting his plan beneath the earth, Montressor was heading back to his house feeling slightly guilty about what he had done. “He insulted me, he made me to be less that I am, he had it coming.”, Montressor told himself reassuringly. But that did not erase the ominous tone he now felt in the vaults. Something was not quite right since he pushed that last brick into place in Fortunato’s tomb. Shaking the feeling off as best as he could he reached the top of the catacombs and entered his home with a taste for the barrel of wine that he knew was Amontillado all along. After his drink he returned to his bedroom for the night and before he fell asleep he heard a small voice in his head saying that Fortunato was still alive and that he was coming for him.
One catches a glimpse of Montresor’s lost happiness from his obscure past, moreover his distressed self-esteem, in this statement. His façade begins to slip. The strain starts to show. At last Montresor leads Fortunato to the remote niche and secures him to the wall. Surprised Fortunato does not immediately respond.
There are plenty of on this earth who are egocentric. They feel that as if every decision they make is important and feel as if they are more important than everyone else. Flannery O 'Connor explores this type of mindset in her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find. The story focuses on a family of six who are going on a trip from Georgia to Tennessee after the Grandmother reads an article about a serial killer heading to Florida. After stopping to eat, the Grandmother convinces her son Bailey to take a detour; the car crashes, afterwards; they encounter the serial killer and then he kills the entire family. Throughout the story, the Grandmother exemplifies that she may be egocentric, so O 'Connor 's character of the Grandmother feels that
He did not show even by words that he is going to kill. Also, he did not let Fortunato to know that he intended any grudge against him “..neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will... He did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation (8-10).” One night while Fortunato was drunk, Montresor told him that he bought a barrel of wine called Amontillado “But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts (25).” He understood that Fortunato “prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine (12).” He attracted him to going to his house to check the drink by saying that he might invite Luchresi to do it, a seeming rival of Fortunato 's, instead “As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If any one has a critical turn it is he. He will tell me (37-38).” When they left, Montresor put on a mask and quickly took the way to his property. He was sure nobody could see them together on Fortunato 's last night. Moreover, Montresor completely knew Fortunato and used the knowledge versus him. He planned his deed carefully and carried it out slowly. It seems that Montresor anticipated his revenge with joy. While they traveled down the cavern, Montresor gives Fortunato many opportunities to leave. Fortunato looks weak against the niter, which is growing on the walls, and repeatedly coughs. Montresor commented on Fortunato 's health and asked
The grandmother did not want to go to Florida; she ironically dresses in her Sunday best. She was dressed very nicely with, "A navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet." (11). A strong foreshadowing imagery can be seen in these lines. Knowing the ending of the story, the grandmother’s elaborate dress symbolizes a preparation for her coffin. When a person dies, they are usually dressed in their best outfit, just like the grandmother was dressed in what seemed to be in her Sunday best.
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.
The story begun with the grandmother not wanting to go to Florida, but Tennessee where she has some friends to see. She ironically dresses in her Sunday best. She is dressed very nicely with, "A navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet"(382). A strong foreshadowing imagery can be seen in this line. Knowing the ending of the story, the grandmother's elaborate dress symbolizes a preparation for her funeral. When a person die, he or she usually are dressed in their best outfit, just like the grandmother is dressed in what seems to be her Sunday best.
Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is about the misfortunes a family experiences while embarking on a vacation, but it goes further to depict the divergence between the superficial conflict in everyday life and the true battles in life threatening situations. O’Connor’s use of tone, syntax, and diction helps to develop the characters and illustrate the struggle of good versus evil, shedding light on the harsh reality of the prevalence and depth of real evil.
In the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O’Conner there is a major theme and life lesson behind this story. The author, Flannery O'Conner makes it very clear on what she is trying to portray. Each character has a deep meaning and has a great part of showing the irony and how everyone should look at the aspect of life based on events people face. This story also has to deal a lot with good and evil desecration of society over time. Throughout the story, there are two major characters, the misfit who is a murderer and the grandmother. There is also the family who consists of the father who is named Bailey, his two kids named John Wesley and June Star. The last character is the mother, who is Bailey’s wife.
Fortunato is fortunes favorite- the Lady Fortunato, Lady luck or God's favorite. Montressor is more material in the fact Tresor means storehouse or hoard. Montressor is jealous that Fortunato was so "rich, respected, admired, beloved..." He was not, so everyday was like an insult seeing Fortunato. Montressor invites Fortunato to his vaults where he keeps his wine selection. He told Fortunato of the Amontillado which Luchesi good not appreciate like he could.
When they arrive at the Montresor estate, Montresor leads Fortunato down the stairs into the catacombs. Down here is where the Amontillado Fortunato is going to taste and where the revenge of Montresor is going to take place. As he get closer and closer, the narrator opens up more and more to how he is going to kill his "friend". It sound like it is a premeditated murder. Montresor seems so inconspicuous that he acts like he cares about Fortunato which is still a part of his plan.
In her bedroom, Granny is literally confined to her deathbed, revealing to the reader that death is approaching. Granny speaks of a longer life from the place her life will end, emphasizing that death could come at any moment. As her mind starts deteriorating, she begins confusing the past with the present. At one time, she remembers having to dig hundreds of postholes after her husband’s death, and enlightens the reader with the fact that “digging post holes changes a woman;” (Porter 85). The change from a genteel lift to one of harsh labor representing another type of death. She worked hard for years, foreshadowing the time she will no longer need to work. Consequently, since she familiarized herself with hard work, accepting that her death is effortless is very difficult for Mrs. Weatherall. In the end, nighttime draws near, and Porter uses the time of day to symbolize mortality; the end of day is not only passing so is Granny’s life. Similar to the candle beside her bed, Granny draws her last breath to blow out light of her own life. Just as day has its end, so does every
In O 'Connor, Flannery‘s “A good Man is Hard to find” the reader is presented with a living and breathing personification of selfishness and overly misguides sense of what’s good and what’s bad. The grandma in her warped sense of moral conscience at time seems to symbolize the character flaws apparent in all humans. Her selfishness is on full display throughout the entirety of the story and it ultimately plays a significant role in her untimely death. Her final sense of what’s morally correct in society leaves the reader with an obvious sense of renewed grace which eventually marks the end of the story. In this paper I will discuss how the grandma’s character in “A Good man is Hard to Find” is made to symbolize some of the most obvious imperfections