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Name of flannery o connors stories
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Style is a literary technique that authors use to reveal information about various aspects of the narrative. Style can be utilized as a way for the audience to read between the lines and unveil key information. Pejorative language expresses criticism and bad opinions. Flannery O'Connor's pejorative style is exhibited in many of her short stories. From the dialogue of a convict in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” to the thoughts of not so wise Hulga in “Good Country People” her pejorative style unveils the perceptions of characters. O’Conner’s pejorative style shines in her short story, “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find”. O'Connor expresses her disapproval of the main character through the antagonist Misfit. After killing the grandma, Misfit shows …show more content…
Her style and disapproval is expressed through the words of Hulga. After Manley Pointer steals her wooden leg she finally sees his true intentions. She realizes he has a twisted mind, and that he is “a fine Christian [... who] says] one thing and do[es] another”(12). Hulga no longer sees that Manley Pointer is the innocent Bible selling boy he presented himself as, rather, she sees him as a manipulative man who steals her wooden leg. Hulga’s pejorative language expresses her disapproval of ungracious people. Additionally, the pejorative language gives insight on how truly rare it is to find a good person. Moreover, O'Connor's style is also expressed through the thoughts of Hulga. After Manley Pointer kisses her she realizes “it was an unexceptional experience and all a matter of the mind's control [and that] some people might enjoy drain water if they were told it was Vodka”(10). Hulga’s pejorative thoughts display her disapproval of others. O'Connor's style also reveals that Hulga feels superior to others. All things considered, O'Connor's pejorative style in “Good Country People” unveils the character of both Manley Pointer and …show more content…
While the main character Mrs.Turpin is sitting in the waiting room she begins to judge the all the strangers on how “they sat kind of vacant and white trashy”(4). Even though Mrs. Turpin does not know the people in the waiting it does not stop her from making assumptions about their class. O’Connor’s pejorative styles reveals Mrs. Turpin's judgmental character . Another display of O'Connor's style is through the dialogue of another girl in the waiting room. After listening to Mrs. Turpin speak in the waiting room the girl sees Mrs.Turpin's true identity and tells her to “Go back to hell where [she] came from”(21). Her pejorative language reveals the way others see Mrs. Turpin and presents her judgemental character once again. As expressed, Flannery O'Connor's pejorative style reveals the way Mrs. Turpin views others and how others view
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.
Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” explores the consequences of hypocrisy and gullibility. O’Connor shows how this terrible combination of hypocrisy and gullibility can affect average families. She intergrades strict Roman Catholic upbringing into all of her character flaws. Every character in the story believes that they are on a higher moral ground, but none of them leads an ethical life. When in actuality, they are all hypocrites that claim they have the honor and higher moral values than they actually do. Throughout the story, the men illustrate the only receptive hypocrisy that is displayed, and the gullibility that is illustrated is by the women.
“A Good man is hard to find,” is about a family who decide to go on a trip to Florida. The story revolves around a self absorbed grandmother who loves to talk about how everything used to be back in her day and takes the time to dress herself so that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (358).” She sneaks the family cat with her despite her son’s disapproval of bringing the creature along violating her boundaries to how a lady would act. The family encounters an accident along the way and happens to come across ‘The Misfit,’ a runaway criminal. Using ‘The Misfit’ as a tool, O’ Connor sends a message to her readers of how hypocritical a person can be when it comes to belief.
In Flanery O’Connor’s Good Country People there are a lot of characters that can be compared and contrasted and that you could have sympathy for. But since the main two people in the story are Hulga Hopewell and Manley Pointer, it seems only fitting to focus on these two characters. While Hulga Hopewell is characterized as a mean and aggressive person, due to her situation, Manley Pointer is characterized as sweet and generous man who loves the lord. Even though these two characters are characterized as opposites, they are fairly similar in how they act, the way both of them have ulterior motives, and in general how they are just weird people that a common person would just not think of. Hulga Hopewell is a very strange and harsh person, in her defense there are some complications that one may be able to understand why she is the way she is.
When looking into works of literature, some stories seem to be similar to others. They can have a similar setting, point of view, theme, or sense of language and style. However, all of these points could be very different as well and could cover different theme or style. Flannery O’Conner’s “Good Country People” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” have some contrasting elements, such as their points of view and use of symbolism, but their similarities in the underlying theme, language, and the setting of these stories reveal how these two stories are impacted by education on both the individual and their family.
Elmore Leonard once said “I don’t judge in my books. I don’t have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It’s just how it comes out. I’m just telling a story.” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O'Connor, is one of the most interesting stories that we have read in this class. The protagonist in this story is the grandmother and the antagonist is The Misfit. In any other short story, the protagonist and the antagonist would not have much in common, but that is not the case in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. The three major similarities between the grandmother and The Misfit is that they are both the oldest one in their groups, they are both hypocrites, and they both are missing important spiritual relationships.
In “Good Country People,” O’Connor effectively symbolizes Christian hypocrisy in her narrative. The same man who is selling bibles is the one who carries “a pocket flask of whisky and a pack of cards” (“Good Country People,” 289), in his hollowed-out bible. A bible salesman using a hollowed-out bible as storage for whisky represents those who use religion to cover up for their sins and achieve society’s approval. Additionally, in Revelation, a person’s name symbolizes the sole theme of the narrative. While Mrs. Turnip is busy denouncing other people’s appearances in the waiting room, a girl named Mary Grace exposes Mrs. Turnip for who she really is, and tells her to “go back to hell, where [she comes] from, [and calls Mrs. Turnip an] old wart hog” (“Revelation”, 21). Although Mrs. Turnip believes she is a noble person, Mary Grace symbolizes the need for grace in Mrs. Turnip’s life for her to become aware of the ugliness that lies beneath her beautiful face, and clean skin. Furthermore, symbolism is a significant element in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The Misfit arrives in “a big black bettered hearse-like automobile” (“AMIHTF,” 6). The car designed to carry coffins, indicates and symbolizes the family’s death, and all the others that the Misfit
The short story, “Good Country People”, by Flannery O’Connor, was built on the elements of both irony and foreshadowing. Throughout the story, the most ironic aspect was the phrase: “good country people” because after analyzing each individual character, all of them were uniquely flawed in their own way. In addition every character’s name was uniquely crafted to either foreshadow future behavior or ironically give the character a deeper meaning as a whole. The main characters, Hulga and Manley were both ironically portrayed as someone they are not until their true characteristics were revealed at the very end when they were alone together.
The central theme of Flannery O’Connor’s three short stories is irony. Her stories are parables, that is, short stories with a lesson to be learned.
Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” as well as her other stories have very religious themes. For this reason, violence occurres, often punishing the sinners. The violence in the story “Good Country People” mainly focuses around one specific encounter between Manley Pointer and Joy Hulga. After winning the heart of Mrs. Hopewell and a date with Hulga, Manley’s plans are in full motion. He lures hulga into a barn to trick her into giving up her prosthetic leg and her pride. Hulga is mentally bested by Manley Pointer. The story ends with him disappearing
To conclude, Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is filled with irony and it is what makes the story so interesting. Without the use of these ironies the story would have been very different for the readers. Flannery O’Connor uses irony to enhance her writing and to push the readers to want to read further. She also uses this irony to explain some of her own concerns about the human condition. Verbal, dramatic, and cosmic ironies are all present in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and are used skillfully by the author to enhance the reader’s experience.
In “Good Country People” there are two characters who believe that they are superior to others. Mrs. Hopewell describes herself as having “no bad qualities of her own” (DiYanni pg.189). She also takes it upon herself to categorize the people she meets as either, “good country people” or “trash,” (pg.188, 189).There do not seem to be any shades of grey in her thinking. Joy/Hulga Hopewell also sees herself as superior, but her superiority lies in her intellect. She makes it known that were it not for her ill health she would be at a university teaching people who “knew what she was talking about” (pg. 191). Although Joy/Hulga believes herself to be intellectually superior she is fooled by the Bible salesman to such an extent that he is able to steal her wooden leg (pg. 200).
The reflection of Libido and the reflection of defense mechanism. In the reflection of Hulgas sex drive; libido, Hulga is completely turned on and her emotion thoroughly defeats her reasoning, leading to Hulga’s salvation. In the reflection of defense mechanism, Hulga never does accept the unfair reality. Hulga gets rid of her depression by projecting her hatred of physical disability onto her surroundings. Hulga believes that the physical disability makes her inferior to others. A belief that makes Hulga insinuate that everyone mocks her behind her back. This leads Hulga to have oversensitivity and distrust in others. The source brings me to an understanding the possibilities that lead Hulga to destine Manley. My perspective projected from thinking Hulga was someone who belittled everyone around her because of her PHD degree. Understanding Zhongming Bao and Juan Zhao point of view helps me clarify that Hulga’s action come from trying to protect herself from others around her, such as
The first name Manley, might suggest to the reader that he will fill a male void for Hulga. The reader is told that Mr. and Mrs. Hopewell are devoiced and there is no other mention of her father in the story. Also, the fact that Hugla sees herself as being hideous suggest that she probably doesn’t have many if any male suiters. While the last name Pointer, could suggest that he will most likely reveal, or point out something in Hugla’s life. Manley is a skilled conman and is able to trick both Mrs. Hopewell, who believes that he is good christian and Hulga, who thinks she is to smart to be fooled by anyone. At the end of the story the reader learns that not only is Manley not a bible salesman, but that his name isn’t even Pointer. “You needn’t to think you’ll catch me because Pointer ain’t really my name. I use a different name at every house I call”(O’Connor 1644). He then goes on to say to Hulga “ you ain’t that smart”(O’Connor 1644). Manley had tricked Hulga into thinking that he was a good Christian and that he was interested in her sexually, but really what he wanted was her false leg and some might also suggest to humiliate her.
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.