A Good Man Is Hard To Find Character Analysis

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, anticipates the audience to recognize a male as the focus of the story but instead there are two main characters. Flannery O’Connor focuses her story on the grandmother and The Misfit as the two main characters. It is throughout her story and juxtaposition of the characters that the author conveys conflicting moral codes and faith between The Misfit’s principles triumphing over the grandmother’s principles. The literary device that expresses the theme of the individual’s opposing values is the use of indirect characterization in contrasting differences of appearance, speech and actions.

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 short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor, depicts the cold-hearted murder of a family by a group of escaped convicts led by an infamous killer, The Misfit. O’Connor leaves the readers waiting for good to overcome evil, but never lets them have their envisioned ending which gives this story its intriguing draw. Flannery O’Connor uses literary techniques such as conflicts, foreshadowing, imagery, simile, and irony to create unusual characters and a twisted plot.

In Flannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", a southern family is taking a vacation to Florida, but the real journey takes place inside the family's lives. One question that comes up in the story is what the definition of a good man is and how there is so few of them left in the world. Many of the characters in the story think of themselves as good people based on moral codes that they stand by. These moral codes are deeply flawed however, leaving each character blinded by their own self-righteousness.

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.

There is a saying, “expect the unexpected.” This turns out to be true in many works of literature, and to some, it may seem so in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” However, the author, Flannery O’ Connor, subtly provides hints that foreshadows the tragic demise of the family. Through the grandma choosing to have the vacation in Tennessee instead of Florida, the grandma’s fancy ladylike outfit, the descriptive scenery, and the drive during the trip, O’Connor foreshadows the family’s fatal encounter with The Misfit.

Exploring the idea that all men are born sinners, O’Connor demonstrates immoral indulgences entertained by various characters. Readers are introduced to grandmother, an elderly woman whose consistent unscrupulous behavior exhibits her inner motives. Grandmother uses subtle, indirect confrontation to get her way until she is faced with The Misfit, a runaway criminal who believes that crime is a justifiable. In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” Flannery O’Connor uses characterization to display a loss of morals, imagery to portray evil in society, and symbolism to emphasize the struggle of obtaining grace to prove how life is nihilistic without religion.

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

It was first published in 1953 in the anthology The Avon Book of Modern Writing. In 1960, it was collected in the anthology The House of Fiction, published by Charles Scribner's Sons. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," One of O’Connors most famous short stories is titled after a song recorded in 1927-28 by Bessie Smith a blues singer, that informed women that had a faithful man at home to follow her advice and give him a lot of affection; because “A Good man was hard to find”. After finding out that her man was cheating on her (Kirk).

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.

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 Good Man is Hard to Find" is an extremely powerful commentary that elucidates Flannery O'Connor's opinions about religion and society. Like the majority of her other works, " A Good Man is Hard to Find" has attracted many "interpretations based on Christian dogma" (Bandy 1). These Christian explications are justified because Miss O'Connor is notorious for expressing Catholic doctrines through her fiction. Once she even remarked "I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy" (Kropf 1). This longstanding reputation compels every critic of O'Connor to expose the religious convictions encrypted within her stories. The grandmother's final gesture towards the Misfit is not a