A Good Man Is Hard To Find Analysis

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor challenges readers to look at life through a different lense and causes her audience to make connections to the modern world from the text. Throughout the entire story, O’Connor addresses issues that are still relevant to this day by thoroughly developing each character and using each character to bring up issues that are intriguing to the audience. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a story that challenges readers to make connections and think about the world through a different lense. These thought provoking qualities are the reasons why A Good Man is Hard to Find is a must read for readers of all ages.

Southern family preparing to go on what seems to be a typical vacation. The story is humorous at first because the reader is unaware of how the story will end. The tone changes dramatically from amusing to frightening and plays an important part in making the story effective.

In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor starts out by giving a look at a dysfunctional family on a vacation, but ultimately, gives insight into ourselves as well as the nature of good and evil, how they can clash, and how they can co-exist, even in the same person. The setting, which plays a critical role in this short story because the grandmother shows her selfish wants and views on people and society and believes that things were much better in her early years. As the story unfolds the setting provides insights to the where the dysfunctional family will eventually meet their doom, which is

In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother and the Misfit both experience a life-changing event that leads to them having a clear understanding of who they should truly be. After the Misfit kills the rest of the family, the grandmother is left alone with the Misfit in the ditch. Once she

In the Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” we find out that the title indicates of what the story is about. The title actually came from the lyrics of a song written by Eddie Green in 1918. The title of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner is quite ironic really. The reader expects to eventually find a good man in the story, but is quite surprised at the ending of the story. The title "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is expressed clearly in this story by introducing a variety of male personalities that all have one thing in common; they are not truly good men.

The Grandmother identifies herself as having the best values. She completely overdresses for the trip in a "navy straw hat and collars and cuffs, so that if there was an accident, people would know she was a lady" (368). The narrator points out that she looks down upon other people as well. In the beginning of the story, she criticizes the mother for "not taking the children to different parts of the world and being broad" (367), and tells John Wesley that he "should be more respectful of his native state and his parents" (368). Despite being so judgmental, the Grandmother never criticizes her own dishonesty, hypocrisy, and selfishness. When she criticizes John Wesley about the state, she calls a little black boy "a cute pickaninny" (368) in the same sentence. She later says that little black kids do not have things like they do and that "if she could paint, she would paint that picture" (368). The Grandmother paints this picture later with a romantic story of the good old days on the Southern plantations. Her definition of a good man is even flawed. The narrator says she would have married Edgar Teagarden because "he was a gentleman who bought Coca-Cola stock, making him a rich man" (369). In the end, when the Misfit is killing her family members one by one, she tells him to pray for himself. But she never once prays for her own family or begs the Misfit to spare them. She is even dramatic when she pulls a handkerchief out to fan herself and tells the Misfit "you wouldn't kill a lady would you" (373), effectively trying to save herself instead of her family.

n the Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” we find out that the title indicates of what the story is about. The title actually came from the lyrics of a song written by Eddie Green in 1918. The title of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner is quite ironic really. The reader expects to eventually find a good man in the story, but is quite surprised at the ending of the story. The title "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is expressed clearly in this story by introducing a variety of male personalities that all have one thing in common, they are not truly good men.

The family originally intends to travel to Florida for their vacation, but Bailey reluctantly changes the location to Tennessee because the grandma feels that the children could use a change in scenery. Oddly enough, in the same conversation, the grandma reads a newspaper article that informs the family that a man who, “calls himself The Misfit is aloose…and headed towards Florida,” and she explicitly states that she would never “take [her] children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (1). The fact that the family is traveling to the same area as The Misfit hints at their encounter in the end of the story.

Have you ever noticed that, many individuals never awaken to reality unless they are exposed to violence? In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” his main character, the grandmother is a master manipulator. In the story, a family is destroyed not only because of accidents caused by the grandmother, but also because the grandmother is inconsiderate and self-centered; they are all killed because they meet a murderer who also is unable to see beyond his own insights and choices. Her manipulative capabilities, her selfish, self-centeredness and her Southern lady nature are all examples of her deceitful role.

The story begins with a Grandmother trying to convince her son, Bailey and daughter in law to take a vacation in East Tennessee rather than Florida because of the escape of an escaped convict known as the Misfit and the children have already been there (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). The Grandmother’s grandson states that she should just stay home, in which the granddaughter replied that she would not want to miss anything, as she had to always go where the family went. The Grandmother dressed as a lady, and was the first in the car, hiding her cat in a basket so her son did not see it. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” written by (Mary) Flannery O’Connor is about a grandmother who reminisces with her grandchildren on the good versus evil in the world.

“She would have been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,” (O’Conner pg. 418). In Flannery O’Conner’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” she explained the dynamics of how the grandmother is an unlikely recipient of grace, she related the actions of the Misfit with religion, and also, the intangible definitions of a good man. The short story is about a family going on a trip to Florida, but the grandmother did not want to go on this trip. She wanted to go to Tennessee, but since she lived with her son Bailey she went with them where they wanted to go. While on the drive the grandmother remembers about a plantation she went to when she was a young lady. Bailey decides

Bailey the father wants to take his family on a vacation from Georgi to Florida, while the “grandmother” his mother want to take a trip to East Tennessee to connect/ visit friends. To persuade her son to follow her wishes she works to change his mind with a news article about states there is an escaped murderer from the Federal Pen that calls himself “The Misfit” heading towards Florida and she points out what he did to people all while “She argues that his children, John Wesley and June Star, have never been to East Tennessee.” The grandmother is labeled as “Arrogant, hypocritical, manipulative and interfering, but she has no name throughout the story like the wife and baby” (Kirk).

In O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the setting contributes to the reader's understanding of Bailey's out of tune family. We can assume the story took place in the post-war mid century era given the fact that O’Connor wrote this story in 1953 and when the grandmother says, “the way Europe acted you would think we were made of money” (O’Connor). During the 1940’s and 1950’s the backbone of the American dream was “hard work, family values, and hope” (Desmond). Families from back then were big on respect and took family time seriously. When comparing a traditional mid century family to Bailey's family there is a distinct difference that allows us to label them as a dysfunctional family. Although we do not get a look into the family's work ethic, we do get a close enough look to see their lack of family values. Throughout the story there are several times where the family reveals that they are clearly flawed with the words they choose to say or simply with their actions.

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 the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the author, Flannery O’Connor communicates literary symbols and prominence of Southern culture. Within the story, there are subtle yet important details that make the entirety of the piece as iconic as it is. The reoccurring theme of being a lady and moral codes both are important to the overall concept of the story.