A Good Man Is Hard To Find Literary Analysis

Kimberly Slater Instructor Course Date The Life and Faith of Flannery O’Connor Christianity forms the bulk of Flannery O’Connor’s works. In the story “A good man is hard to find”, she strategically depicts, engages readers and puzzles conventional ideas concerning religion. The story begins with a family going on a vacation in the family car with the grandmother being the first character to be brought to the light.

To conclude, the relationship between the Grandmother and the Misfit perfectly encapsulates O’Connor’s idea of grace and the journey to get there. To find grace, a person has to be broken down to their basic ideals and stripped of everything that makes them feel above others. It has to come with change and a full acceptance of God into their hearts. Often, it is done through violence and hate to show that a person is never truly untouchable. For the grandmother, her grace came in the form of seeing the grim and tragic result of her actions: the death of her whole family.

With a casual conversion with the grandmother. The grandmother's final act of grace, reaching out to touch Misfit, is met with three swift shots, illustrating the senseless violence the Misfit embodies. The story serves as a powerful reminder that appearance can be deceiving. The grandmother for instance initially comes across as a little rude and thinks she's morally right, but self-centeredness and manipulation ultimately lead to the family's tragic encounter with the misfit. O'Connor challenges the notion of what it means to be a good person, while highlighting the flaws and hypocrisy that can lie beneath the surface.

Then the Misfit insults the lady by saying “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead”. Grandma before she dies proceeds to call the Misfit her son. “Why you are one of my babies. You're one of my own children!” (10-11 O’Connor).

Throughout the course of literature class, we have to read articles, stories, poems and analyze them. Then answer and respond to a few questions on the readings. One story that is interesting is “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor. The story is about a family that consists of a grandmother(the mom of the family), Bailey(the son of the grandmother), June Star(daughter of Bailey), John Wesley(son of Bailey), the mother and the baby, that go on a trip to Florida where they experience challenges and dark tragedies but throughout the trip it can be shown the personality that some of the characters have. Two characters that are significant is the Misfit (A criminal) and the grandmother. Throughout the beginning of the story the character/personality of the grandmother is selfish but then changes from the beginning, middle and the end of the story to becoming a better person just like the Misfit, who shifts from saying that he is a criminal to him questioning and hoping he is not which means that both of them represents that there is good underneath all the evil.

Thought to be one of Flannery O'Connor's best short stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" regales us with the narrative of an inconsiderate maladroit family and their subsequent chilling massacre as committed by fugitives led by a notorious butcher christened the Misfit. This tale is renowned for its spiritual qualities, specifically the author’s portrayal of redemption through the appalling and vicious deaths of her surreal characters. O'Connor can be applauded for her vivid use of colorful details from everyday life in addition to utilizing the comical elements of her southern upbringing. O’Connor also shows a proclivity with the talent to make the reader visualize the eccentricities of characters like the grandmother

The family quickly leaves Atlanta and is on their way to Tennessee. The grandma’s valise moves the cage of Patty Sing and the cat quickly lands on Bailey’s lap enough to scare him off and cause an accident. The van does a severe turn and causes them all to get out of the car. Once, they realize there has been an accident, the kids start to scream frighten for their lives. A man with two young fellows approaches the accident and questions the family. The grandma recognizes the man as “The Misfit” he then, feels threatened by the grandma knowing who he is, and decides to end their lives. Theme plays a vital role by proving the grandma’s theory of no good man left in this world; Imagery shows itself by the author describing each individual in the story; Symbols portrays itself by the grandma’s hat and negative colors, as well as avoiding a

From the story of O’ Connor “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” talks about a family going on a vacation in Florida, but meets their doom when they run into The Misfit and his associates. The grandmother, whom most of the story is realized from her point of view while she talks to The Misfit about his religious doubts. O’Connor suggest that often when we find ourselves in a detrimental position we tend to be both sinners and saints. The grandmother who was faced with death is a good illustrator of how people can be sinners and saints at the same time without even realizing it. She can be said to be manipulative, superficial and self-centered.

Good and bad, right and wrong, hero and monster, are just a few of the many views that encompass society. Everyone has their own opinions, and they depend on their morals and values to help guide them through life. In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor portrays a family vacation to Florida that unfortunately ends up being a catastrophe when they run into a monster called the Misfit. The short story depicts a contemporary society, where the characters’ actions and beliefs are parallel to those in the real world. Egotism, bellicosities, and crimes cohabit with compassion, morals and ethics. The characterization and irony in the story illustrate that all people have qualities of a hero and a monster. O’Connor uses

When first reading Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the ending is unpredictable. However, when reading the story for a second time one can see how the themes play a major role in the ending. The grandmother seems to be prepared for her death. While reading the story one may notice that the grandmother is not truly ready for her death until the moment before the story ends. The tone and the themes in the story help to tie it together. The grandmother brings up the Misfit multiple times throughout the story, almost as if she was prescient and knew she was going to encounter him at one point.

“Yes’m,” the man said, smiling slightly as if he were pleased in spite of himself to be known, “but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t of reckernized me” (O’Connor 362). That was all it took The Misfit had now claimed their lives. She tries to appeal to him by saying he “is a good man and he doesn’t have common blood” (O’Connor 362). The cries continue to fall on deaf ears as The Misfit and his company takes her family to the woods to be subsequently executed. She never pleads out to the family the only time she shows compassion is for her son.

The Character Traits of The Grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a work of fiction written in 1953 by Flannery O’Connor as one story in a set of short stories telling the story of a simple family going on a quick road trip from Atlanta to east Tennessee. With a car full of strong willed people including a grandmother, her son Bailey, Bailey's wife, their two children, and an easily startled cat, things don’t go exactly as planned. Before they set off on this journey they weigh their options between Florida or east Tennessee and eventually settle on going to east Tennessee because there is an escaped fugitive called The Misfit on the loose apparently heading to Florida. As they’re driving they persuade Bailey to take a quick trip to see a house that had a secret trap door that the grandmother had remembered from her childhood. The detour entailed a long winding dirt road with many imperfections, causing Bailey to lose control and flip the car into the ditch.

The story depicts a family road trip to Florida that goes awry. From the beginning, it is apparent that the main character, simply known as the “grandmother”, is self-centered, and tries to manipulate people to get what she wants. She doesn’t want to go to Florida, so she jumps at every chance to try to convince them not to go, including telling them about an escaped convict, “the Misfit”. Her vanity shows itself throughout the entirety of the story. The grandmother also considered herself as a lady, and dressed so that if they were in an accident, anyone who saw her corpse would know she was a lady.

After reading both “The Necklace” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, a reader might make the assumption that these two pieces of fictional literature, have nothing at all to do with each other. I would then make the argument that there are a few reasons why this reader made the mistake of thinking these stories were nothing alike. As one truly sees the messages that both authors are trying to convey, their points of view may change based on the similarities (and differences) between the main characters, and the message each story tries to convey. To begin with, if a reader is reading these stories back to back for the first time, it is easy to shut his book, and come to the conclusion, that the yearning protagonists of both stories were “doomed”

To prove that point there talk begins to start talking about the escaped convict called the misfit. Talking more about it they get details about it and how the misfit would continually ruin there establishment. One of the characters names is red and and he seems to be very focused in the mingling with the perhaps of the guests that stay where the family chooses to dine in the establishment and is welcomed with transactions of others. Even though he has done a lot of crimes the grandmother still sees him as one of her children. A quote from the story to show this is “nome i aint a good man, “ the misfit said after a second ah if he had considered her statement carefully, “ but I ain’t the worst in the world neither my daddy said I as a different breed of dog from my brothers and