'A Good Man Is Hard To Find'

"A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor represents her style of writing very accurately. She includes her "themes and methods - comedy, violence, theological concern - and thus makes them quickly and unmistakably available" (Asals 177). In the beginning of the story O'Connor represents the theme of comedy by describing the typical grandmother. Then O'Connor moves on to include the violent aspect by bringing the Misfit into the story. At the end of the story the theme changes to theological concern as the attention is directed towards the grandmother's witnessing. As the themes change throughout the story, the reader's perception of the grandmother also changes.

This article from the SCC database explains that O’Connor sought to present a message of God’s grace and presence in everyday life. It then provides a basic summary of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The article continues, going into an in-depth characterization of the grandmother and how she ultimately dies having transcended into grace. The article’s author and editor, Kathleen Wilson, is a professor of history and cultural studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She was educated at Yale University and has been awarded fellowships from a number of foundations. Even though the article was published in 1997, it still holds up, as it is analyzing a story that has already been written and will not change. There is no evidence of bias, as it is a simple analysis and summary. This source came from Short Stories for Students, which was published by Gale Publishing. Gale Publishing is reliable and unbiased, as they are an educational publishing company that has been publishing works since 1954. There are a few cited sources for this secondary source, one of which is biased. The biased source is a New York Times Book Review, which is biased in favor of the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. This source will be useful in describing the grandmother’s character and analyzing her connection to spirituality in the first body paragraph. It also helps to connect

A seemingly innocent family vacation can turn into a disaster if the members of the family only care about themselves. In the story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a self-absorbed Grandmother, too consumed with her own opinions, fails to address the views, feelings and overall well being of others. Her family is not much different in their self-interested ways. This leads them straight to the Misfit whose childhood trauma has caused him to grow up into a damaged individual. The Misfit does not believe in the Grandmother’s religious beliefs and she ultimately cannot reach out and help him. The characters get themselves into a predicament for living in the Id

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A good man is hard to find,” both authors present main characters who are contrasting to the people in their society. In Faulkner’s work, Emily Grierson is an outsider because she hides herself from the people in town for more than thirty years. They have no clue that she has kept homers body in her home for so long until the day she dies. Also, in O’Connor’s work, the grandmother describes herself as a Pure, good woman but her actions contradict her by proving she’s manipulative and evil. In this way, both characters are outsiders by choosing not to show their true identities to their respective societies.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” share the same plot by having the protagonists in each of the stories end with death. Although their plots are the same, the landscape and imagery of the surroundings, leading up to the death of the characters are different. In these stories, there are different points like the unexpected deaths to make the ending the same. Each story consists of a different scenery/ landscape imagery to show the ultimate ending of death to the main characters.

I believe that the cat was the only thing that showed her love and attention. Her only son, had a family of his own, her grandchildren were older now, and she felt like she was not important to them anymore, and the children?s mother was involved with the baby. By bringing the cat, she felt like she would not be lonely. The reader can also tell that the woman is extremely prejudice. She refers to the black child as a ?cute little pickaninny? and a nigger.

In a Good Man is Hard to Find, this grandmother is very selfish, talkative and manipulative. Throughout this story the grandmother portrayed all of these different personality traits. She is like no grandmother that you have ever seen.

When someone compares any two stories, we must contrast them as well. The main character in both "A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner, and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," by Flannery O'Connor have many things in common, but just as they have many things in common they are also very different. Emily, from "A Rose for Emily" and the Grandmother, from "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" are very used to getting their way, and when they don't things turn for the worst and they try everything to ensure that they get what they want. The Grandmother wants to convince her son Bailey, to go to her home state of Tennessee rather than to Florida for a vacation, her excuse being her grandchildren have already been to Florida but never to Tennessee.

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the interactions between the bizarre characters create an interesting framework in which O’Connor can discuss the nature of human psychology. The short story focuses on the series of unfortunate events that comprise a family’s road trip across the southeast. Through these events and the character’s various reactions, the reader realizes that nothing in life can be taken for what it seems. In the short story, some of the characters experience circumstances that challenge their outlook on life. It is evident that the author believes people are often not who they pretend to be.

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

Flannery O 'Connor is a Christian writer, and her work shows Christian themes of good and evil, grace, and salvation. O’Connor has challenged the theme of religion into all of her works largely because of her Roman Catholic upbringing. O’Connor wrote in such a way that the characters and settings of her stories are unforgettable, revealing deep insights into the human existence. In O’Connor’s Introduction to a “Memoir of Mary Ann,” she claims that Christians live to prepare for their death. This statement is reflected in her other works, including her short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find.” After reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” many questions remain unanswered

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor uses the two main characters, the misfit to and the grandmother, to emphasize and personify the good and evil perceived within each character. Each one of the main characters displays both characteristics of good and evil, and while they might initially be viewed as one or the other, neither character can be seen so black and white. O’Connor uses these two characters to show how two characters can demonstrate such contrast and difference of good and evil traits, while also, having some of thosesame traits in common with each other. The first part of, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, is devoted mainly to the characterizationof the grandmother and is originally portrayed as a believable old lady,

In Flannery O'Connor's eccentric short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader is introduced to her fundamental theme of Identity through a typical southern family. O’Connor’s exceptional use of fictional elements such as characterization, point of view, and setting further develop this theme in her work. She does so by familiarizing the use of violence, humor, and salvation along with point of view and setting to create a deeper connection between her work and the reader.

Response of A Good Man is Hard to Find In the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, nearly everything is a symbol. The Grandmother represents the audience of readers as being repented but misguided. Throughout the story the Grandmother's actions go through a change. At first the Grandmother is focused on herself and what others think about her, then she has a moment of redemption and knows that she was misguided in her way of thinking.