A Good Man Is Hard To Find Analysis

In the exposition, O 'Connor immediately presents the characterization of the overbearing Grandmother. This introduces the conflict that the Grandmother is set on getting her way above the family’s wishes. The reader needs to understand this characterization because it helps understand why the ending is so significant when she offers grace to the misfit and redeems herself. The author, O 'Connor, develops her plot chronologically, immediately stating the initial conflict of The Grandmothers manipulative tendency. The reader discovers there is an escaped criminal on the loose, the Grandmother uses this in her favor, she says, “Here this fellow calls himself the misfit is loose from the federal pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he’d do to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that a loose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did,” (O 'Connor 470). Her manipulation disconnects her from the reader in order to convey the theme when she changes in the end. If she started as a good person and was a likable character in the story, O 'Connor would not be able to get her purpose across that bad people can redeem themselves.

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.

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 grandmother is very happy that the child is very poor and is not as fortunate as her and her family is. What is so terrible about the situation she wants to take a picture of it, paint it, and display the child and his misfortune on the walls for everyone to see? She surely displays a lot of things that white American Southerners displayed which was a true hatred toward black Americans and thought that they should always remain as slaves with no rights at all. She discusses how the child does not have any pants on at all, the grandchildren ask why, and she states, "He probably doesn't have any." Also in this story, O'Conner refers to the black Americans as "niggers" instead of black Americans knowing that term was a negative reference to black Americans.

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.

After riding along a little further, the family is involved in a car accident. The main reason that the family is involved in the car accident is due to the grandmother. The grandmother remembers a mansion that she visits as a young girl. She is eager to go, because she wants the children to see how she grew up. This further states how the grandmother social class, because she lived in a mansion. During the time of the grandmother’s life, only plantation owners and their family lived in mansions. This also stressed the social class of the grandmother, because you can tell from this that the

Some authors without realizing they are doing it put things that have happened in their life in their stories. Flannery O’Connor especially did in many of her stories. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” O’Connor relates her characters to certain aspects in her life such as: her relationship with her mom, the way she herself talks,how she believes sins can only be forgiven if asked, and how she does not allow her characters to feel pain. O'Connor didn’t have a good relationship with her mom for many reasons. In “Passages from Flannery O’Connor’s Essays and Letters” it explains “O’Connor found little escape from her mother’s presence while living under the same room.”

The second theme exhibited by the grandmother is her class and racial prejudice, as most characters in southern gothic stories do. The grandmother exudes a sense of self-righteousness that she explains is imbedded in her because she came from a good family. Throughout “A Good Man is Hard to Find” descriptions of the south come up often. Most of the images are portrayed when the grandmother is reminiscing about “In my time” and on the “plantation” (114). Her insistent attitude and obsession about visiting the plantation shows the grandmother truly enjoyed that time period and implies she had no problem with the racial segregation in that era. She remembers back to when she was a young girl and Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden would bring her watermelon. “but she never got the watermelon”, “ because a nigger boy ate it when he saw the initials E.A.T.!” (115). It is clear the grandmother feels it is appropriate to use the N word when referring to African Americans, even years after slavery era. As the grandmother glamorizes Negroes and life on the plantation, it is clear she admired the ways of the Old South, a true characteristics of Southern Gothic writing. Her stereotypical character projects a prejudice that leaves the audience uncomfortable throughout the story.

Flannery O’Connor, a southern author has earned a reputation of writing stories that are shocking, violent, and they rely on grotesque characters. She also uses her background of religion, Roman Catholic, to influence her writings. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best-known stories has all of these characteristics throughout the short story. A southern family does take a vacation to Florida but the real journey happen right within themselves. The continuous question of what is a good man pops up in this story and they all wonder why there is very few left in the world.

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.

Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” centers around a selfish, hypocritical grandmother as she joins her family on their vacation to Florida. During the entirety of the trip, the grandmother constantly displays her self-centered attitude by secretly bringing her cat along, deceiving her grandchildren, and manipulating her son into visiting an old house she remembers. Even when the grandmother realizes she misremembered the location of the old house, she opts not to inform the rest of her family. Her vanity and selfishness ultimately cause the demise of her entire family.

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.

A literal interpretation of the grandmother portrays an elderly southern woman attempting to maintain the proper and genteel values of the South. The grandmother places great importance on her appearance and the opinions of others. This importance is revealed at the beginning of their journey when the story compares the grandmother, a reflection of the past, to the daughter-in-law, a reflection of the present: