A Good Man Is Hard To Find Personal Response

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.

     In the short story, 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', the main character is the grandmother. Flannery O'Connor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her from her direct conversation with the son, Bailey, her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, and the Misfit killer. Through these conversations, we know that she is a lady raised from a traditional background. In the story, her attitude changes

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” was published May 12, 1995 and was written by Mary Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” follows a family and how they ironically met their end. The story begins as we follow a family as the grandmother of the story attempts to convince her son and his wife to avoid Florida as the family trip and go to East Tennessee instead.

The author uses the grandmother to tell the story in a limited omniscient third person point of view. Because the grandmother tells the story, we are able to see the extreme biasness of an old-fashion style of judgments. While on the road trip the grandson insults his home state. The grandmother quickly enforces her disagreement stating that during her time, “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then” (965). This explains why the author chooses the grandmother to enforce her beliefs on to the audience. Without the grandmother stating her conservative beliefs, the story would lose that feel of superior thinking the grandmother presents as a quaint woman southerner. The grandmother grew up accepting the standard that in order to be socially accepted, you must have proper etiquette and dress like a lady. Before leaving for the trip the grandmother was dressed in a “navy blue straw sailor hat

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.

People are often over looked and are not acknowledged for the good that they do in every day life. Most would not consider Bailey, the father from the story A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, an outstandingly great man. A scholarly critic, Nancy Nester, expresses that the moral of the story is to delineate Bailey as the Grandmothers idea of a ‘good man’. Bailey’s character is bland and also a bit authoritative and can be seen as an ordinary man, not a ‘good’ man. Nester forenamed “[…] that is may be Bailey, in fact, whose goodness that the grandmother affirms at its climax”. Bailey’s true morality is not characterized until the end of the text when the grandmother shows her desperation to the ‘Misfit’, the alleged serial killer who escaped from prison. In the story A Good Man is Hard to find, Bailey, the father of his family and son to his mother shows his ‘goodness’ throughout the story by alleviating the wants and needs of his family but is ultimately over looked because of his bleak and affectionless characteristics.

In The Good Man Is Hard to find tells a story about a family that takes a road trip from Georgia to Florida. Along the way they encounter some deep trouble that leads to tragedy. This story is told from the grandmother’s point of view about how people can become bad or good in any given circumstance. Also along the way the grandmother keeps lying to her family about places she visited as a child. These events that the author takes you through shows examples of devastation of a cold hearted individual. Ultimately the author was trying illustrate that no matter how nice you are people will take your kindness for weakness. For that said you have to watch your back no matter where you go.

The short story, “A Good Man is Hard To Find” takes a lot of twists and turns which leaves the reader confused yet fascinated. The author keeps the readers waiting for good to overcome the evil. Unlike most stories, this story does not end in an anticipated ending which makes the story more captivating. The author uses conflicts, irony within characters and a twisted plot. This story is portrayed in a way where the reader can learn that it takes a personal crisis to wake someone into their spiritual matter. In this story, the grandmother's journey from a self-observed manipulative person to grace interprets a journey toward salvation.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is set in the 1940’s, in Atlanta, Georgia. Flannery O’Connor uses many forms of symbolism, foreshadowing and irony throughout this story. She uses a good balance of good and evil also, to keep her readers on the edge of their seats. Bailey announces that the family will be taking a trip to Florida for a few days, much to the grandmother’s dismay.

The first thing that the narrator tells the reader about the grandmother is that she “didn’t want to go to Florida” (O’Connor 422) because her family was in Tennessee and “she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 422). Although she wants the family trip to go her way, she never makes it evident. Instead she tries to manipulate her way by scaring her son by showing Bailey an article about a loose convict called The Misfit. The grandmother tells Bailey “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’Connor 422). Instead of showing fear for her family, the grandmother tries to scare her son into taking her family [her] to Tennessee rather than Florida. Further into the short story, the grandmother even manipulates her son and family into going to her old plantation home to find a secret panel that is made up in order for her son to drive in the wrong direction. Her devious scheme lands them in a car crash and stranded for The Misfit to find them. Soon, the grandmother makes an attempt at manipulating The Misfit himself by asking “do you ever pray?’’ (O’Connor 431). This shows that she is attempting to guilt her way out of the situation by bringing religion into the picture when she is not very religious

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is a short story written by Flannery O’ Connor that was published in 1955. The passage mixes elements of both Southern Gothic literature and suspense to unfold a dark, moralistic narrative. The story is an ironic tale that follows a pessimistic grandmother who is traveling with her family down south to visit Florida. She is unsettled by the news of a recent escape convict escape and tries to convince the family by changing course but to no avail. The strong use of foreshadowing present in the story is a tool used by the author to build tension as the readers follow the passage. Events soon transpire for the worse after a car accident which was ultimately caused by the miss care of the grandmother occurs. From this

The grandmother performs acts of selfishness without even realizing it. The grandmother is a cranky old woman who lives with her son, Bailey, and his wife and two children. The grandmother only thinks about what she wants, and does not let anyone or anything get in the way of that. The grandmother utilizes her feelings to guide her choices. First off, she is selfish because she conceals her pet cat in the car, against the wishes of her child. She does so because she says, “he would miss her too much… (O’Connor 135). ” She again shows selfishness when she keep insisting to change the family’s vacation destination because she wants to attend Tennessee instead of Florida. By lying and manipulating about an old plantation site she had previously visited, is when she begins to put her family in danger. “There was a secret panel in the house, she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing she were, and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through, but it was never found… (O’Connor 138).” This statement made the grandmother get her way because the children convinced her son to go that way, which led them to an accident, and later their

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.

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.

Grandma Bailey is the epitome of a self-absorbed human being who simply cannot escape from the gravitational pull of her own self. June Star, a minor character whose role is to allow the true nature of the Grandma to be revealed, states about why Grandma didn’t go to Florida, “She (The Grandma) wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (194). One page into the story and the nature of The Grandma is already being revealed. The fact that a described “little” girl could recognize such a character trait in the Grandma and say it with such force indicates that the Grandma is truly someone who is self-centered. The author descriptions involving the Grandma in relation to the other characters also points to the narcissism. While describing the Grandma playing with the baby