A Good Man By Flannery O ' Connor

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, anticipates the audience to recognize a male as the focus of the story but instead there are two main characters. Flannery O’Connor focuses her story on the grandmother and The Misfit as the two main characters. It is throughout her story and juxtaposition of the characters that the author conveys conflicting moral codes and faith between The Misfit’s principles triumphing over the grandmother’s principles. The literary device that expresses the theme of the individual’s opposing values is the use of indirect characterization in contrasting differences of appearance, speech and actions.

In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the old south is perfectly represented. The short story occurs in Georgia where a family is traveling to Florida. While on their way, the family has a car accident near an old plantation because of a distraction by their grandmother 's cat. Due to this, the family encounters a man who the grandmother recognizes from the newspapers as a man called "The Misfit." This man is famous for being on a killing spree. In spite of this knowledge, the family 's good-hearted grandmother still tries to assure The Misfit that he is good man. The Misfit challenges the faith of the old southern woman but she never gives an inch. After the partners of The Misfit kill the entire family except for the grandmother, The Misfit then shoots the grandmother in the chest three times. This action ends her life instantly. The old south mindset is presented in several different occasions throughout this story but especially on pages 362 through 368. These pages tell about the family 's encounter of The Misfit and the incidents that took place thee. This story illustrates the old south primarily in three different ways, which include religion, racism, and respect.

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Misfit’s characteristics are often opposites of each other or contradictory to each other. For example, at times he is gentle, while at other times in the story, his words and actions are harsh. Some of the statements he makes and actions he takes show him to be intelligent, but others also show him to be clueless and out of touch with reality. Similarly, he treats the family in the story with respect, yet in no way values their lives.

The story “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor published in 1955, is a very interesting story about a family father with two kids and their grandmother, planning on taking a road trip. The father decided that they will go to one place and the grandmother decides that she has a better and safe place for them to go which is her hometown Tennessee to change the family mind to not go their destination but instead goes to hers, she tell them family a scary situation that might occur in order for them to reconsidered. In the short story " A Good Man Is Hard To Find", Flannery O'Conner uses characterization, setting and plot to reveal the negative aspects of human behavior

Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find tells the story of a family from Atlanta, Georgia as it makes it way to Florida for a vacation. The five members of the family include the grandmother, her son Bailey and his wife. Among the passengers are three children, one of whom is still a baby. There fatal deaths in the end illustrate the belief that everybody has their own unique flaws. The grandmother plays a pivotal role in the story considering the fact that she selfishly convinces the family to divert momentarily from the expected route. In From ‘One of My Babies’: The Misfit and the Grandmother, Stephens Bandy points out that the grandmother was extremely evil. John Desmond, on the other hand suggests that the grandmother is not necessarily a strictly evil person. With reference to the short story, this paper explores Bandy’s and Desmond’s critique’s of A Good Man is Hard to Find. The paper argues that the grandmother is absolutely to do anything for her selfish gains. Furthermore, the paper argues that people are not entirely good or evil, but respond to different events in unique ways.

     In the short story, 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', the main character is the grandmother. Flannery O'Connor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her from her direct conversation with the son, Bailey, her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, and the Misfit killer. Through these conversations, we know that she is a lady raised from a traditional background. In the story, her attitude changes

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’ Connor, is about a family going on a trip from Georgia to Florida. The grandmother, who is old-fashion in her beliefs, tells her grandchildren stories on the road trip; one story leads them down a dirt road to find a house on an old plantation, which produces an unpleasant outcome. The author uses the grandmother’s voice and language to give an old southern appeal to the story, which causes the impression that those who live like her are considered more acceptable.

In her book, “Good Country People,” Flannery O’Connor shows first hand how one cannot judge a book by its cover… not even a Bible. Even though a façade is put on, one realizes how vulnerable Hulga Hopewell actually is. Her encounter with a Bible salesman, Manley Pointer, shows how one cannot trust even “good country people” (2). Symbolism in this story transforms what one perceives the character of Hulga and Manley to be and allows the reader to make deeper connections about their physical and mental flaws.

The Misfit is our antagonist in the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor. He is a mysterious man who’d give you the sense of trust, but his actions are not pardoning. He’d show the qualities of a good man and the qualities of a psychopath. His background and stories don’t quite fit his actions, that is why he calls himself “The Misfit.” Although The misfit’s actions are ringing the bell of a psychopath, his inner-self shows otherwise. The Misfit is full of flaws but he is no psychopath, he’s just a man who is forced to live a life that was not meant for him. Deep down inside he’s a good man, but life forced him to act differently.

You are sitting in your living room at home watching the nightly news. The lead story for the night is about a family of four that were murdered. After seeing and hearing about something like that we often ask ourselves, What could possess a person enough to kill another human being? What is it that drives a person to kill? Will we ever know? Many authors use this unique mentality in short stories. They write about what the killer thinks and how he/she acts on his/her thoughts. One of these stories is “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, by Flannery O’Connor. In this story O’Connor’s victim, The Misfit, is an escaped convict. He was in the Federal Penitentiary for killing his father. Throughout the story O’Connor builds up this killers mentality

The short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor, depicts the cold-hearted murder of a family by a group of escaped convicts led by an infamous killer, The Misfit. O’Connor leaves the readers waiting for good to overcome evil, but never lets them have their envisioned ending which gives this story its intriguing draw. Flannery O’Connor uses literary techniques such as conflicts, foreshadowing, imagery, simile, and irony to create unusual characters and a twisted plot.

Flannery O’Connor, undoubtedly one of the most well-read authors of the early 20th Century, had many strong themes deeply embedded within all her writings. Two of her most prominent and poignant themes were Christianity and racism. By analyzing, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” these two themes jump out at the reader. Growing up in the mid-1920’s in Georgia was a huge influence on O’Connor. Less than a decade before her birth, Georgia was much different than it was at her birth. Slaves labored tirelessly on their master’s plantations and were indeed a facet of everyday life. However, as the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began, slaves were not easily assimilated into Southern culture. Thus, O’Connor grew up in a highly racist area that mourned the fact that slaves were now to be treated as “equals.” In her everyday life in Georgia, O’Connor encountered countless citizens who were not shy in expressing their discontent toward the black race. This indeed was a guiding influence and inspiration in her fiction writing. The other guiding influence in her life that became a major theme in her writing was religion. Flannery O 'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family. The region was part of the 'Christ-haunted ' Bible belt of the Southern States. The spiritual heritage of the region profoundly shaped O 'Connor 's writing as described in her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South" (1969). Many

Extravagant accessories, egocentric mindsets, and eloquent judgment comprise some of the qualities that society in the 1950’s and now embrace in common because of moral superiority. This “belief or attitude that one’s position and actions are justified by having higher moral values than others,” invades present society. Such lifestyle appears in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” lives blindfolded to the thought that she stands morally superior to those who surround her, sadly acting the same way many individuals do now in humanity. The grandmother’s acts of vanity, manipulation, and judgment encompass the never-ending attitude of moral superiority that haunts current society.

Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find’ tells of a seemingly normal family with a bit of dysfunction. Throughout this tale, the author fabricates a number of characters, some inconsiderable, others full of depth and history that present themselves wildly open to interpretation. Looking into O’Connor’s past, it is clear to see her relationship with a number of these fictional minds and pull from these the meaning behind her hidden pain and anguish. We are therefore presented with a mother and sons family who are prisoners in a manipulative, destructive relationship.

In every home, there is a different definition of family and how family should treat each other. Two short stories were read by an author named Flannery O’Connor. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. It was about a dysfunctional family who encounters a criminal named “The Misfit”. The grandmother which is the main character is very judgmental towards others and sometimes her own family at times. This story starts off with a disagreement on where to go for a family trip, but they decide on going to Florida for the family trip after a while of arguing. On this trip, it showed what type of family they are. They talk about everything with one another as well as bicker and fight but at the end of the day, they are still family and love each other. They come together the most in panicking situations such as the accident and waiting for a car to help them. The point of this paper is the theme of family. Specifically, family is a theme in this short story because it depicts a dysfunctional family; the family you see on a crazy television show and can’t get enough of because they’re funny but also they have serious moments. There 's the two troublesome and annoying kids, the hot-headed dad who tries to maintain control of a situation and fails, the wife busy attending to the baby, and the grandmother, who 's a case all to herself (and also the main character). Though the story starts out seeming like a comedy, it takes a serious turn when the family encounters a criminal, who kills them