A Good Man Is Hard To Find Essay

If you were to ask someone what their definition of a happy life would be, they would probably give you an answer like, “having fun.” This is completely untrue in Aristotle’s terms. According to Aristotle, for a man to lead a happy life he must learn each of the intellectual virtues, and practice each of the moral virtues throughout his life. These moral virtues are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, and wisdom. With so many virtues to constantly abide by, a man cannot know if he has led a happy life until his life is nearly finished. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’ Connor, the question is

The Power Of Good And Evil in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find

The final comment of the story seams to be showing a change in misfits' life. Misfit seams to be thinking about goodness and probably thinking that evil is not the answer to the problems in his life. The story shows us that a lot of people are evil, but when they are in trouble they will think of god, as grandma did in the story. At the end of the story Misfit regrets killing grandma, and says that "she would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. (O' Connor 318)." The story is trying to tell us that do not flight all the time and be evil, because you never know what may happen to one. O' Connor is trying to tell us that every man has good and evil in him, but some time we only see one side of them and forget that they have another side as well. The final comment of the story implies that even though misfit seams evil, there still might be some goodness in him. Misfit has gone thorough so many challenges in his life that have made him this way, because he has no faith.

The story I picked is from O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find. I chose this story because of previous stories that O’Connor wrote were fascinating such as “Good Country People.” The titles she uses for her short stories just interest you to read them and figure out what is the meaning behind the title. When I first saw the title I assumed it to be a love story of a young woman looking for a good man to marry after many failed attempts to find him. After you read the story, you will be able to tell I was way off. The thesis to “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is based on selfish characters who believe their way of living or thought is right and could not be questioned but learned the hard way but while ending in violence.

What, declares a person to be good or bad? Who is the judge to pinpoint someone in such manner? Humanity is destined to be flawed and is capable of both actions. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” A masterpiece written by Flannery O’Connor gives insight of the protagonist and antagonist in the sense of good vs. evil. The protagonist, an old-fashioned conniving manipulator takes on the role of playing the judge basing the sense of goodness in her own superficial ways. The story has a foundation of family, the influence of manipulation, and good vs. evil. The grandmother, who considers herself to be a genuine good Christian individual, leads the entire family to their demise due to her selfish and manipulating demeanor.

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 word evil is most often associated with death or physically harmful things. But in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” the Misfit shows that evil is not only in physical actions but by also how you judge and treat people as demonstrated by the Grandmother in the story. The Misfit although is not seen as a fully developed character, he brings contradiction to the definition of evil and is also a main character of the story.

This paper will present a rhetorical context for the use of violence in the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” as she presented in her essay “The Element of Suspense.” The form of classical tragedy in this story will also be analyzed from the critical theories of Aristotle and Longinus. Tolstoy will be used to examine the use Christian symbolism. Nietzsche will provide a more well-rounded universal conclusion to the uses of tragedy and spiritual elements in this classic story.

When we look at Falnnery O’Connors “A Good Man is Hard to Find” we see many forms of evil even before we meet the criminals. The family has a trip planned to Florida which the grandmother does not approve of because she would rather visit Tennessee. The grandmother then tries to per sway the family by instilling fear bringing up “The Misfits” who were local criminals that just escaped from prison; although her actions may seem rather insignificant and perhaps even debatable if they are evil, the grandmother’s actions can still be perceived as selfish. The grandmother’s selfish motives can be viewed as a form evil even if it is not the worst evil. This begs the question where precisely does the line lay on what is done through purely evil motives and if the line is really as clear cut as we may possibly think it is?

When are people responsible for their actions? According to Simon Blackburn's theory of "Soft Determinism" people are responsible for their actions as long as true and available information is possessed. Blackburn's short story revises the compatibilist definition several times. The revised revised definition reads as follows:

It is dangerously naive to believe that some people are innately ‘good’ while others are innately ‘evil’ or ‘bad’. In today’s society, ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are relative - one person’s ‘good’ is another’s ‘evil’. These qualities are also flexible. For example, people who chose to behave in a cruel manor can display ‘good’ qualities such as kindness or empathy. Moreover, a supposedly ‘good’ individual can act out due to anger or annoyance.

The story dives deeper than just characters with protagonist with action being thrown at them and deciding in the critical moments what to do, it delves into the need for religion and what exactly a good person is, in society, in religion, and in God’s eyes. O’Connor uses the dialogue and mannerism’s between the grandmother and the misfit to comment on mankind’s sinful state, God’s grace and the need for salvation. The discourse begins when the misfit and his friends arrive to find them in the ditch after having a wreck. Prior to this, the grandmother has been rambling on about how awful the times were and that a good man was hard to

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother and the Misfit become the main focus even though the other characters are involved in the story. Throughout the entire story, The Misfit is portrayed as the symbol of evil because he was in jail; he escaped from jail, and he committed murders. The grandmother believes to be greater than the people that she are around because of the “good” that she portrays. The conventional meaning of good, or possessing or displaying moral virtue, is not the particular good that the grandmother is trying to portray throughout the story. The grandmother believes that good

A good man really is hard to find. But what is the real definition of a real man? Maybe it is not just the prince charming you see in fairy tales or the perfect guy walking down Sixth Ave. that you pass by everyday to work. Maybe a good guy is simply someone that is good what they do. In this case the relationship between the grandmother and the misfit is just that. The only thing is if the reader sees it as clearly as the author would like them too or simply as she does.

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.