From Violence to Grace
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.
Catholicism is noted as the most renowned religion in the world and is still growing today (Introduction). O’Connor was born into a Catholic family and attended the parochial schools of Georgia, learning and growing in her faith (Mary). However, her father died when she was a young and her passion for writing grew. In 1953,
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she wrote “A Good Man is Hard to Find” to illustrate human moral flaws and corrupt nature. She intertwines her catholic background into the story to play on the theme of morals and right vs. wrong. At the end of the story, a face to face interaction between the evil Misfit and the innocent grandma takes place. Although not explicitly said, the Misfit and grandma are having a conversation about the rising of Jesus Christ. The Misfit argues that he wished he would have been there to know about Jesus and therefore “wouldn't be like [he is] now” (O’Connor 950). The grandma pleads for her life by trying to convince the Misfit is a good man, but he’s not and the Misfit is very aware of his corruption. Ultimately, religion does not save the grandma and her selfish hope for salvation leaves her dead. Throughout the story, the opportunity for grace is evident but the selfish desires of each character prohibits any possible moments of grace. These selfish desires are found in every character from June Star to the Misfit. As the story begins, the family is embarking on a road trip but automatically the grandmother was “seizing at every chance to change” the family’s mind on the destination(O’Connor 939). Of course, the grandmother has her way and they head to the destination of her choice, accidently leading them on a detour that ultimately leads them to their graves. When the Misfit and his band of helpers come to the families rescue, the grandmother is chosen last to die. Does she try to stop them from shooting her family? No, she begs and persuades the misfit to spare her life. Except, the Misfit has no grace or mercy, he is the devil in another form, “a snake” ready to bite (O’Connor 950). Unfortunately for the grandmother, she recognizes her own sinfulness and connects to another “child of God” when it has become too late to change (A Good Man). The antagonist, the Misfit, is the essence of violence and corruptness.
However, in this story it is a random violence that counteracts the hopes of redemption and grace (O’Connor 938). The Misfit does not appear in the story till the end leaving the beginning of the story to seem positive and humorous. O’Connor then uses the Misfit as a contrast to the beginning of the story and the grandmother with his belief that “Jesus [had] thrown everything off balance”(A Good Man). The Misfit becomes an obvious stubbornness with his relentless non acceptance of Christ and grace. His stubborn violence is a symbol for the actions of the unmoral human race and how relentless some people are to harm others. The selfish nature of humanity is highlighted through the Misfit and how it's our nature to recoil from the opportunity of grace (A Good Man). After the Misfit kills the grandmother, his lack of remorse is seen when he says to take her off to where her family had been thrown (O’Connor 950). Showing that one rather keep committing sin than have to rethink and repent from the wrong they have
committed. The family adventure that began this story was not exactly typical. The tension between the grandmother and her son, Bailey, immediately set a ripple in the family dynamics. As the story progressed, there was a clear disconnect between the characters and a lack of visible love for one another. When the family is taken one by one to be shot in the woods, no one tries to stop this from occurring. They each go silently as if they accept their fate. This is a symbol that without love for one’s family, each person is lost. Family is important, like the Buddhists believe, without family one can lose compassion, wisdom, and refuge (Farrer-Halls). O’Connor was able to show this and then create a heartwarming moment at the end of the story when the grandmother realizes the misfit is “one of [her] own children” (O’Connor 950). This epiphany was not true, but it was a metaphor for the Misfit being one of God’s children, a sign of peace for the grandmother. However, only at the last moment of the grandmother’s life did she show a sign on connectedness and love for family, for a man that wasn't even her family at all. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor was trying to share with the world the sinful and selfish desires we all obtain. It is a warning to guide us to have grace and love in our hearts for one another. It is a warning to abstain from the corruptness that is spreading through the world and instead take the hardships life has to offer. As the Misfit said, “she would have been a good woman… if somebody [been] there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor 951). Life is not about getting the heart’s desires, it is about being shot down every minute of every day and rising up from the ashes, transformed. Whether it is religion that encourages the rise to get back up, or the love of family, or just the wish for something better, don’t let the violence in. Although Flannery O’Connor lived a short life, her stories helped get this message across and now her readers get a chance to spark a change in themselves.
Flannery O’Connor’s personal views on the justification of religion and the resulting world or corruption and depravity are apparent in her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. She analyzes the basic plight of human existence and its conflict with religious conviction. The first two-thirds of the narrative set the stage for the grandmother, representing traditional Christian beliefs, to collide with The Misfit, representing modern scientific beliefs. The core of symbolism and the magnet for interpretation is at the end, the conversation between the grandmother and The Misfit. The conversation represents the examination of the clash between animal and metaphysical human nature and the Misfit is the literary depiction of the outcome of that clash.
An ardent Catholic as she was, Flannery O’Connor astonishes and puzzles the readers of her most frequently compiled work, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. It is the violence, carnage, injustice and dark nooks of Christian beliefs of the characters that they consider so interesting yet shocking at the same time. The story abounds in Christian motifs, both easy and complicated to decipher. We do not find it conclusive that the world is governed by inevitable predestination or evil incorporated, though. A deeper meaning needs to be discovered in the text. The most astonishing passages in the story are those when the Grandmother is left face to face with the Misfit and they both discuss serious religious matters. But at the same time it is the most significant passage, for, despite its complexity, is a fine and concise message that O’Connor wishes to put forward. However odd it may seem, the story about the fatal trip (which possibly only the cat survives) offers interesting comments on the nature of the world, the shallowness of Christian beliefs and an endeavour to answer the question of how to deserve salvation.
Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most well-known short stories in American history. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a disturbing short story that exemplifies grace in extremity as well as the threat of an intruder. The story tells of an elderly grandmother and her family who embark on a road trip to Florida. The grandmother is a stubborn old woman with a low sense of morality. While on the trip, the grandmother convinces her son to take a detour which results in a broken down car and an encounter with a convicted fugitive, The Misfit. Although the grandmother pleads for mercy, The Misfit kills off the rest of her family. Through the grace she finds in her extreme circumstance, the grandmother calls The Misfit her own and implores him to spare her life. The Misfit does not oblige her and states after her death, “She would have been a good woman if it had been someone to shoot her every day of her life.” Through Flannery O’Connor’s disturbing and shocking display of the grandmother’s demise, she gives the reader a sense of the threatening power of an intruder and the idea of extreme situations bringing about a state of grace. The reason for such a powerful work may have resulted from Flannery O’Connor’s religious upbringing as well as the state of the nation at the time.
“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.
“In Matthew 10:39 Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” O’Connor delves into this paradox in several of the short stories in A Good Man Is Hard to Find. For instance, the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” loses her earthl...
Flannery O’Connor’s Catholic faith shows heavily in her writing’s, but yet most of her characters are Protestant. Protestants fall under Western churches, and follow the principle of Reformation. Flannery wants her characters to suffer, to feel anguish and find redemption. While Flannery O’Connor has written many complex texts with different themes, her faith is always the fueling force behind her creativity. Contrary to popular belief, O’Connor’s notions have only widened her points of view in her writings. O’Connor uses faith in her work to show the readers spirituality and grace.
Flan nary O’Connor’s short story “A good man is hard to find” shows a family on their way to Florida for a short vacation met there untimely dead in the hands of a known notorious criminal called “misfit” as the title suggest the men in the story were short tempered, violent and murderous in nature. From the story it was seen that a good man was indeed difficult to find, as the author portrayed the character misfit to be terrible and that alone changed the story to be about the survival of the grandmother in the hands of a fierce criminal. The violence in the story was used to mask the purest moment of the grandmother. The confrontation between the grandmother and misfit were centered on religion (Jesus). The grandmother used prayer to appeal
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
Bleikstan, Andre. “The Heresy of Flannery O’Connor”. Critical Essays on Flannery O’Connor. Ed. Melvin J. Friedman and Beverly Lyon Clark. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1985.
He’s the most dangerous criminal, and the Grandmother knows that. It seems she wants to buy herself time by having a conversation with The Misfit. The Misfit seems to be having a nice conversation because he was talking about his life and the meaning behind his name. He explains in their conversation why he calls himself “The Misfit”, according to the story, “I can’t make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment.”. So, he named himself The Misfit, because of the wrong things he had done in the past. He talked about how his dad had something to do with him being what he is. “My daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters.” It seems that his father knew he was different in a bad way and he expresses it with his son The Misfit. For him, murdering people is only to give them a punishment they deserved, but killing the Grandmother is justified as the ultimate punishment for her sins of manipulation and deviousness. According to the Article from Bethea, “like Satan, The Misfit is an anti-Christ. Jesus loved children, whereas children make the anti-Christ Misfit ‘nervous’’. The Misfit has already directed the execution of the Grandmother's entire family, and it must be obvious to all, including reader and Grandmother, that she is the next to die. But she struggles on. Grasping at any appeal, and hardly aware of what she is saying, the
The Misfit is a complex character created by Flannery O’Connor. He is talked about first when the Grandmother reads his criminal background at the breakfast table. Right when the Misfit meets the family the Grandmother starts questioning his faith and past, and through the Grandmother’s persistent behavior that you find out the truth behind the Misfits hard exterior. The reader understands that the Misfit was brought up by parents who were the “finest people in the world” (O’Connor 1312). With this type of background, how can one expect the Misfit to be such a cold blooded killer? Because of his kind nature in the beginning of the story, it’s almost impossible to understand how he could just kill. Through deeper analysis one can characterize the Misfit with a heart of gold, but the mind of a villain. This characterization is true because somewhere along the line he was wrongly accused of murdering his father and was brutally punished and he was mistreated by the justice system. The Misfit knows he was innocent and neither Jesus nor the justice system could rid him of the punish he received. It’s not because he is an evil person, he says himself “I never was a bad boy that I remember of… but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive” (1314). The Misfit states he was never the worst person, but he also says himself that he was never good either, so the reason behind the Misfit’s homicidal condition is not because he is an evil person but due to his distrust in Jesus Christ and the justice system.
The central idea of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor deals with the struggle to change a person in a positive way through religion. A person can be easily changed if grace, properly experienced, changes one's personal qualities (O'Connor qtd. in Hendricks). Attempting to change a person through religion becomes difficult when that individual demands to witness a miracle in order to believe: “if the Misfit had been able to see the miracle of Lazarus for himself, he would have believed that Jesus was the son of God, and he would have been able to live a conventional Christian life” (Hendricks).
Flannery O 'Connor utilizes multiple biblical references, such as Jesus raising the dead, to create a foundation for what the Grandmother and Misfit believe in terms of morality. The Grandmother references Christianity in a positive and redeeming sense while the Misfit claims that “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead, and He shouldn 't have done it. He shown everything off balance” (O’Connor 151). Her reality before the incident was the people such as the Misfit were evil, while those similar to her who grew up in the classic traditions of the south were better off. Although she was raised in a highly religious and proper setting, she does not realize the fault in her logic until she is staring down the barrel of a gun. The grandmother attempts to use this religion to save her life by telling the Misfit about prayer and salvation. By asking the Misfit "Do you ever pray?" and then repeatedly saying “pray, pray, pray”, she is attempting to show him the fact that he does not have to do evil acts because of his past (O’Connor 149). Because the Misfit does not view himself as evil, his reality is that his actions and beliefs are morally
Never once as the Grandmother was begging for her life, did she stop and beg for the life of her family. Her tactic to save herself went from “You wouldn’t shoot a lady would you?” (O’Connor), to “You’ve got good blood! I know you come from nice people” (O’Connor), then lastly to “If you would pray, Jesus would help you” (O’Connor). Yet to every beg the Grandmother made, the Misfit was completely honest with her, admitting that he would hate to have to kill a lady, but he would do it, admitting that he did come from good people but that he is not good, and admitting that he does not want Jesus’ help, that he is perfectly fine alone. Because the Misfit was so honest and open about who he was and his flaws, the Grandmother realized that she is not a “Good Man”. That she has been lying to herself and the people around her. The Misfit allowed the Grandmother to come to terms with who she really is a person. The Misfit giving her this eye opening realization before taking her life gave her the redemption she needed so
...sque, and in Flannery O’Connor’s artistic makeup there is not the slightest trace of sentimentally” (qtd. in Bloom 19). Flannery O’Connor’s style of writing challenges the reader to examine her work and grasp the meaning of her usage of symbols and imagery. Edward Kessler wrote about Flannery O’Connor’s writing style stating that “O’Connor’s writing does not represent the physical world but serves as her means of apprehending and understanding a power activating that world” (55). In order to fully understand her work one must research O’Connor and her background to be able to recognize her allegories throughout her stories. Her usage of religious symbols can best be studied by looking into her religious Catholic upbringing. Formalist criticism exists in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” through Flannery O’Connor’s use of plot, characterization, setting, and symbolism.