A Good Man Is Hard To Find Analysis Essay

To begin with, it is important to note that O’Connor was a writer that utilized aspects of foreshadowing to tell her stories. In an article by Marita Nadal entitled Temporality and Narrative Structure in Flannery O’Connor’s Tales, the writer notes “O’Connor is considered a visionary writer and also ‘a comedian of genius’ who recurrently resorts to distortion and excess” (25). This is certainly seen throughout the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, namely through the events that the grandmother appears to foreshadow. Nadal elaborates upon this when she notes

Another virtue the grandmother lacks is courage. Courage is “The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger with self-possession, confidence and resolution” (Courage). When The Misfit arrives, the grandmother is nothing but a coward. She exhibits no self-possession, “Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice” (O’ Connor 1116), displayed here when she can’t even speak. She also has no resolution to the situation but to give The Misfit her money, “‘I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!’” (O’ Connor

In Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” there were reasons why the Misfit, the wanted prisoner, killed the grandmother, the selfish prominent character. Although she did not want to travel in the direction the Misfit was headed, her selfish decisions led her and her family in an unfortunate accident which led them to be approached by the Misfit. His psychological instability, his moral code and being recognized by the grandmother ultimately led to her demise.

Both incidents are prime examples that show the grandmother?s behavior. We see that the grandmother is selfish and uncaring. She claims that she is a "good" person, yet she criticizes everyone and always wants to get her way. She hides the cat and lies about it to her son; she did not consider how anyone would feel about her bringing the cat. Yet, on the other hand she is very concerned with social opinion. She is dressed nicely, her excuse is that "in case of an accident anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know that she was a lady" (O?Connor 907). This shows that the grandmother was very concerned with people?s opinion. She acted proper, had strong virtues, values; a good woman in her view. But she was a self- centered person who judged others harshly, so that she would look good.

The reader is almost forced to look at the actions of the grandmother as being similar to that of a young child. There's not a quiet moment with her around and she never sits still. The reader tends to have a negative perception of the grandmother due to these personality traits. However, these traits are expressed in a comical way causing the reader to be annoyed by the grandmother, but also entertained.

    “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best works, describes a family on a trip to Florida and their encounter with an escaped prisoner, The Misfit. Although “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an early work in O’Connor’s career, it contains many of the elements which are used in the majority of her short stories. The grandmother, a selfish and deceitful woman, is a recipient of a moment of grace, despite her many flaws and sins. A moment of grace is a revelation of truth. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her child and reaches out to touch him, the grandmother has a moment of grace that enabled her to see The Misfit as a suffering human being who she is obligated to love. The grandmother realizes that nothing will stop The Misfit from killing her but she reaches out to him despite this. The Misfit rejects her love and kills her anyway. This moment of grace is very important

Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find tells the story of a family from Atlanta, Georgia as it makes it way to Florida for a vacation. The five members of the family include the grandmother, her son Bailey and his wife. Among the passengers are three children, one of whom is still a baby. There fatal deaths in the end illustrate the belief that everybody has their own unique flaws. The grandmother plays a pivotal role in the story considering the fact that she selfishly convinces the family to divert momentarily from the expected route. In From ‘One of My Babies’: The Misfit and the Grandmother, Stephens Bandy points out that the grandmother was extremely evil. John Desmond, on the other hand suggests that the grandmother is not necessarily a strictly evil person. With reference to the short story, this paper explores Bandy’s and Desmond’s critique’s of A Good Man is Hard to Find. The paper argues that the grandmother is absolutely to do anything for her selfish gains. Furthermore, the paper argues that people are not entirely good or evil, but respond to different events in unique ways.

Selfishness is another negative characteristic of the grandmother, along with being self-centered. On page 118 the grandmother was all dressed up so, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 118). This is the first time readers see her conceited quality. She wants to make sure everyone knows that she was a first-class citizen and lady. This ironically happens

Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” focuses on the contrast between “good” and “evil.” Through the characterization of the Grandmother and The Misfit, O’Connor reveals that in reality there are no drastic differences between the two, only that one has already come to accept his fate and the other is still blinded by her own selfish ways. From the beginning, the true nature of the Grandmother begins to unfold. It is evident that she will say just about anything to get her way, only she’ll do it in a manner that illustrates her as one whose sole purpose is to look out for her family, “See here...this fellow that calls himself the misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida… I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal aloose like that… I couldn’t answer to my own conscience if I did.”(117) O’Connor’s use of the word “conscience” leads the reader to believe that the Grandmother has good morals and values, but upon further investigation it’s evident that this “good” only runs so deep. At first glance, this moment can be perceived as one filled with sincere fear on the grandmothers part, however, the chances of the family actually running into a loose criminal on a family road trip is one in a million. Which leads to the conclusion that the Grandmothers sole intention is to scare her son into submission, so that she may go to Tennessee to visit her old friends. Nearing the end of the family’s life, the Grandmother’s

Along with foreshadowing, characterization is also an extremely important aspect of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. O’Connor’s story has many supporting characters, such as the children and the misfit’s accomplices whose characters and personalities can only be shown through their actions. We do not get a clear picture of how they feel, or who they truly are. The main character is a different story however, the grandmother lets us know how she is feeling throughout the story. The grandmother would be considered primarily a stock character, because for the most part, she fills the typical grandmotherly role. She is a nurturer, even if it is only to the baby, and her cat. She is also stuck in her ways of life, and doesn’t wish to change how she is. At the same time however, she is not a perfect fit to the mold. Most grandmothers are not selfish, egocentric, and conniving the way she is. These modifications in her personality cause the reader to be unable to predict what the grandmother is going to do. On the other hand, the Misfit is more than likely different than anyone you have ever meet, or read about. The Misfit’s character was in no waya stock character. Nevertheless it seemed like his actions were slightly easier to predict. While his motives might have been a mystery, I felt that I knew what was going to happen.

O’Connor first expresses her views in her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by using the literary element of point of view. Point of view is an important literary element in O’Connor’s short story, because it expresses her views on the grandmother and her “role as grace-bringer” (Bethea 2006). Point of view is expressed in her story by the main character the grandmother, a woman who lives with her son and tries to convince her family to go to Tennessee to avoid the Misfit. Point of view is especially important in this story because it lets the reader know what the grandmother is thinking and her actions that involve the main conflict of the short story. For instance, in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the

The grandmother feels that God provides the answer to any underlying problems, and the Misfit knows and feels that all of the horrible things he has done are truly not considered morally wrong from his perspective. Towards the end, when the grandmother experienced an epiphany before the Misfit shot her in the chest she stated, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children” (11). This made the grandmother realize that she was expressing the true Christian belief that we are all seen as equal in the eyes of God, no matter how murderous someone may be. O’Connor’s use of spiritual insight stripped away the grandmothers self-centeredness, and helped her discover the ability to see others with compassion and understanding. Nonetheless, within “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Connor provides great amount of spiritual insight in her short stories mainly as a way to connect her characters with God and to make them recognize the true meaning of individual equality.

O'Connor's typical use of violence and humor in her literary work broadens the characterization of the grandmother and the misfit throughout her story. She uses these elements in an effort to establish the characterization of her two main characters through the many

First, O’Connor begins her story in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by presenting the flaws in the leading character, the unnamed grandmother. The grandmother is more concerned with appearance, she judges “good” by the way people are dressed, not focusing on anything other than appearance. She is very conscious throughout the story of what people are wearing, because to her “it is through such things as clothing that one can externally reflect internal worth, even when this worth is otherwise obscured by surrounding conditions” (Owens par. 5). This exemplifies when she met

Only when the grandmother is facing death, in her final moments alone with the Misfit, does she understand where she has gone wrong in life. Instead of being superior, she realizes, she is flawed like everyone else. When she tells the Misfit that he is “one of [her] own children,” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding.