A Good Man Down By Lee Jenkins Summary

In the short story, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O 'Connor uses characterization, flashbacks, the five-part plot structure, and point of view to set up the plot efficiently. The story is told through the Grandmother’s point of view most of the time in order to understand her, and her thoughts in her final moments with the misfit. In seeing how the grandmother views the world around her the reader is able to understand the type of person she is. O’Connor makes the grandmother a unlikable character. She is obnoxious, manipulative, and dramatic, yet in the end of the story, she has a redeeming moment with the misfit where she puts someone else before her. The authors purpose for, A Goodman is hard

“The Falling Man,” taken by Richard Drew on September 11, 2001, remains one of the most controversial, yet underappreciated images of the 21st Century. The picture captures one of the final moments of a victim from the World Trade Center, who chose to commit suicide rather than perish in the burning fires on the top floor. As the man plunges to his doom, he is positioned upside-down with legs flailing in the air. In the background lies the Twin Towers, positioned precisely to split right in the middle of both the image and the man himself. Understandably, this scene drew much backlash by the public, as it revealed the private moments of a man on the worst day in modern American history. At the same time, it also caused others to reflect soberly

Jenkins starts the article with a section that sets an optimistic tone for the piece. “What makes it special, what makes it sacred, is the love that Thomas poured into the turf,” is an example of how Jenkins places a thought of determination into the reader’s mind. Throughout the article Jenkins explains how Ed Thomas helped the town of Parkersburg through many disastrous moments, such as the tornado that hit thirteen months before. Thomas keeps hope by putting back together the football field, which brings the town together. Towards the end of the piece, Jenkins goes back to the optimistic tone and writes about forgiveness and how the people of Parkersburg are sticking together. He includes a quote that Ed Thomas’ oldest son told the team about what was going to happen. “Don’t use this as an excuse. Nothing is changing here.” By including this quote, it lets the reader know that the citizens of Parkersburg are not giving up and they are going to move on through the tough times, no matter how hard it is.

In addition to the grandmother being viewed as a traditional Southern lady, the grandmother also views good through her faith. In the article, “An Overview ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’”. Author Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton states, “ an individual may not earn opportunities for grace by good works, but he or she may turn away from grace when it’s offered.” Basically, Piedmont-Marton is warning the audience that the Misfit had an opportunity of grace, when the grandmother touches his cheek, but turns the offer down, which to the grandmother is not how she views what a good man is to be. Another example from the same article, Elisabeth Piedmont- Marton writes, “ She also cautions the readers that they ‘Should be on the lookout for such things as

The small city of Brownsville is small in both population and mind. Even though there are individuals who commute morning and night from country to country, there is no unity. Growing up, I had never experienced a “diverse” city. In the city of Brownsville, Hispanics are the majority. As a result, individuals who saw somebody of a different race or ethnicity would make negative and offensive comments towards them. At times, these offensive comments were accidental. Other times, the offensive comments were on purpose and intended to appear humorous to friends. Apart from discriminatory remarks to outsiders, this happened amongst people of my Hispanic community.

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

Flannery O’Connor’s Southern Gothic short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” is one of sudden violence; although, it begins rather uneventful (Kaplan 1). Bailey, his wife, and their children, John Wesley, June Star, and a baby boy, are all looking forward to a trip to Florida. Grandmother, Bailey’s mom, wants to go to east Tennessee to see her relatives, not Florida. She uses an article in the newspaper that tells of an escaped criminal, the Misfit, which is headed to Florida to try to persuade her son into not going there. Her attempt at persuading her son fails, and so the adventure begins. While the grandmother and the Misfit are the central figures of Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Bailey, John Wesley, and June Star prove to be instrumental characters because they are used to show a change in the mood of the story.

In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery 0’Connor, a southern family planning a road trip to Florida portrays the hypocrisy of the society through their actions and dialogues. Major question that rose in the story was what is considered good and how there aren’t enough good men left in the world.” A social science major with several courses in English, O’Connor is remembered by her classmates as obviously gifted but extremely shy. Her closest friends recall her sly humor, her disdain for mediocrity and her often merciless attacks on affection and triviality.” (Gordon 1) The author, Flannery O’Connor is recognized in her work in southern gothic literature which had grotesque

One of the most memorable lines from “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” comes from the Misfit when he says, “She would have been a good woman if it had been someone there to shoot her for every minute of her life (O’Connor 309).” Flannery O’Connor’s depiction of Christian faith can be seen in almost all of her works. Inevitably, the plots in all of O’Connor’s stories end with a shocking conclusion, and this leaves the reader with freedom to interpret the central idea. From the endless list of themes that O’Connor embeds into her stories, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is largely influenced by divine grace, hypocrisy, bitter reality, and white supremacy.

Flannery O’Connor impeccably portrays an anomalous family epitomizing the inevitability of fate in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. In this short horror story, a family consisting of a grandmother, father, mother, two young children and a baby, adventure down to Florida where their vacation takes a bitter turn. While taking a hasty detour, the family bumps into the criminal, the Misfit, and is brutally murdered on the spot. In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor utilizes emblematic symbolism, indicative foreshadowing, and capricious setting to illustrate there is no escape from the inevitable path of disastrous fate.

In the stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor and “Where Are You Going Where Have You Been,” by Joyce Carol Oates, the authors illustrate the attitudes that people possess toward death. O’Connor is considered to be motivated by religious appeal, whereas Oates writes to depict the temptation of death. Those that have no choice in their death see it as a punishment, while those that choose to die see it as a blessing. Through the use of symbolism, diction, and comparisons, O’Connor and Oates shed light on the differing perspectives of death.

Perceivable in virtually all aspects of life, the Christian faith and its values are embedded deep within worldly establishments and ideals. Whether it’s the “In God We Trust” displayed on American buildings and currency or the numerous countries who mention God in their national anthem, belief in Christianity is a trait shared amongst people worldwide. Appropriate with the vital impact Christianity has on many lives, authors often glance at Christianity and its followers through the actions and decisions of their characters. Revered as one of the most prominent Christian writers, Flannery O’Connor delves deep into her Catholic faith in nearly all of her works; she is quoted with saying that “[she] write[s] with a solid belief in all the Christian

Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird about a little Alabama town called Maycomb. What is interesting is how Maycomb compares a lot to the town that Ms. Lee grew up in, Monroeville, Alabama. The history of Monroeville and the way it was in the 1930s makes a reader wonder if Ms. Lee took her hometown and made it the famous small town in the novel. By looking back to the history of Monroeville’s founding, the way it was in the 1930s, the way it almost mirrors Maycomb and the way it is it today, one can see that Ms. Lee’s used her experiences to create one of the most famous towns in literature.

The story takes place in Georgia in some dirt road that creates a swirl of pink dust when it is ridden on. The dirt road had sharp curves on dangerous embankments and while looking down while on a hill, all that you could see are blue tops of trees “for miles around.” The setting changes from being on top of the hill on the road to crashing into one of the embankments and being in a ditch surrounded by dust-coated trees looking down at the family. At first it seems as if the people are there to help the family out and then they kill them instead because the grandmother spotted one of them, The Misfit, for the convict that he is.

Flannery O'Connor once said of her writing, "All my stories are about the action of grace on a character that is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal." This statement is especially true when matched with O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," in which character plays such an essential role within the story. Through her characters, particularly the Grandmother and the Misfit, O'Conner manages to inject many elements; the characters embody symbols and themes such as O'Brien's message of Christianity.