A Good Man Is Hard To Find Essay examples

If you were to ask someone what their definition of a happy life would be, they would probably give you an answer like, “having fun.” This is completely untrue in Aristotle’s terms. According to Aristotle, for a man to lead a happy life he must learn each of the intellectual virtues, and practice each of the moral virtues throughout his life. These moral virtues are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, and wisdom. With so many virtues to constantly abide by, a man cannot know if he has led a happy life until his life is nearly finished. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’ Connor, the question is

Since the beginning of mankind there is been an unsolved issue of good verses evil. We see this controversial issue in everyday life, Such as Television, Newspaper, etc. " It is not difficult to label the agent of evil in Flannery O' Connor's signature story, "A Good Man is Hard To Find", says John, Desmond. The family is described as a typical modern family, which has all type of problems. Agreeing with each other is one of the biggest problems the family faces. The story starts of where Grandma is in disagreement with her son about where they should plane there next family trip to. After much discussion they decided on going to Florida. The story makes a twist when their car gets into an accident and they have an encounter with Misfit,

In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the old south is perfectly represented. The short story occurs in Georgia where a family is traveling to Florida. While on their way, the family has a car accident near an old plantation because of a distraction by their grandmother 's cat. Due to this, the family encounters a man who the grandmother recognizes from the newspapers as a man called "The Misfit." This man is famous for being on a killing spree. In spite of this knowledge, the family 's good-hearted grandmother still tries to assure The Misfit that he is good man. The Misfit challenges the faith of the old southern woman but she never gives an inch. After the partners of The Misfit kill the entire family except for the grandmother, The Misfit then shoots the grandmother in the chest three times. This action ends her life instantly. The old south mindset is presented in several different occasions throughout this story but especially on pages 362 through 368. These pages tell about the family 's encounter of The Misfit and the incidents that took place thee. This story illustrates the old south primarily in three different ways, which include religion, racism, and respect.

In the O'Connor story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Southern Gothic literature is portrayed. Southern Gothic literature paints a picture of what life was like in the "Old South" and also includes bizarre turns of events and outlandish characters. The grandmother, is the protagonist, and the main character of O'Connor's story, about a family that travel on a vacation together and lose their lives by "The Misfit," a random man on the side of the road. The grandmother, who remains unnamed for the duration of the story, demonstrates a "her way or the highway" type of personality. The family is going on vacation to Florida, but she has relatives she wants to visit in Tennessee. So, instead of just asking her son, Bailey, if they could go to Tennessee instead, she cleverly attempts to trick him by saying, "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people" (O'Connor). She then, continues her devious plot, by referring to the safety of Bailey's children, when she states, "I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did" (O'Connor). That didn't go as planned, so she tries again, implying that it has nothing to do with her, but the kids have already been to Florida. Throughout the story, Bailey's mother continues the same type of tactics to get her way. For example, she mentions that, at the old house in Tennessee, "There was a secret panel in this house," she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that 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).

In the beginning, the grandmother is reading the newspaper where she then learns about the Misfit who escaped prison. The grandmother says, “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscious if it did” (O’Connor 485). This quote foreshadows as the accident happened with her guidance on the road it is what led them to steer off the main road. They were on and into the arms of who they call the Misfit and his

You are sitting in your living room at home watching the nightly news. The lead story for the night is about a family of four that were murdered. After seeing and hearing about something like that we often ask ourselves, What could possess a person enough to kill another human being? What is it that drives a person to kill? Will we ever know? Many authors use this unique mentality in short stories. They write about what the killer thinks and how he/she acts on his/her thoughts. One of these stories is “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, by Flannery O’Connor. In this story O’Connor’s victim, The Misfit, is an escaped convict. He was in the Federal Penitentiary for killing his father. Throughout the story O’Connor builds up this killers mentality

Now we take a look at the ending. The family had an accident on a back road, flipping their car. This occurred all because of grandmother. She told Bailey that the old plantation was along this way, and that the mansion had a secret panel in it. The kids went nuts to see this passage, and Bailey, the father, gave in and took them down this road to see it. The cat got uncomfortable from the whole situation and

O'Connor tries to show grace at work in the world. According to her beliefs Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, has shown that God so loved the world that He became man Himself. Yet this God is not accepted by men, so they have to be shocked into a recognition of their need for Him and the salvation He offers." (MAYER, 1976) In this analysis I will explain how O'conner uses the two stories "A Good Man is Hard To Find" & "A Displaced Person" to open the eyes of her readers about God and his salvation as Mayer said above.

O 'Connor foreshadows death when the family goes to the town "Toomsboro". The graveyard in the plantation is a symbol of death, and O 'Connor also writes, "It was a big black battered hearse like automobile" (357) which symbolizes that the family 's transportation to death has arrived. Also, the grandmother secretly snuck the cat into the car and goes against Bailey 's wishes. The cat springs

Bailey, the son of the character known as the Grandmother, decides to go to Florida anyway. Along their way to Florida with Bailey’s wife, the baby, and the two disobedient children; June Starr and John Wesley, the Grandmother is characterized as a senile, racist woman of bad judgment. This can be seen when along the ride she sees an African-American young boy and states, “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!...Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do. “ (O’Connor 12). The climax of the story occurs as the family leaves Red Sammy’s Famous Barbecue and gets in a car accident with the Misfit himself. It is then safe to say that the assumption of the senile Grandmother is accurate due to the thought that runs through her mind, “A horrible thought came to her…the house that she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia, but Tennessee,” (19). The Grandmother’s forgetfulness is in turn the direct cause of the accident and run-in with the Misfit.

Southern Gothic literature has rooted itself in American culture and created several classic short stories that have pushed literary boundaries and minds. Among the most influential of these Southern Gothic stories is “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner; “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “Good Country People”, both by Flannery O’Connor. After first discussing what characteristics make up the genre of Southern Gothic, each of these stories will be evaluated and discussed in terms of what makes each of them a prime example of Southern Gothic literature.

Using the word “good” for the qualities that she believe should be in people, the grandmother sets a proper standard. She tells Red Sammy that he is “…a good man” (O’Connor 409). Red Sammy and the grandmother begin to talk about how times have changed. He and the grandmother discuss when times were better. Red Sammy conveys the title of the story by commenting on how it isn’t easy to trust people “A good man is hard to find. Everything is terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.” (O’Connor 409). The grandmother continues by saying that Europe was to blame.

When dealing with dark themes like in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, it requires feeling and emotion to fully understand the scenes of death. When she uses a symbol, O’Connor allows the reader to expand the story within their own mind. Throughout the entire story, the setting, the south, influences characters through the stereotypical traditional values. The Misfit breaks every traditionalist moral in his run-in with this family: he kills, denounces god, exhibits pure evil, shows no mercy to women or children, and acts as an equalizer between the devil and man. This is enough to reduce the grandmother to nothing before she gets killed.

Shortly after, the family is about to set off for Florida. After a brief conversation, Bailey forbids his mother from bringing the cat along for the ride. Once again, the Author expresses her view of her self-absorbed, callous mother through the grandmother. Going against her son’s orders, she decides to bring the cat anyways, for fear it may miss her too much or, in a freak accident, asphyxiate itself on on the gas burners. An utterly selfish action for nothing more than getting what she wants, just because she wants it. This action would prove to be disastrous in the end, showing the self destructive behavior of a woman unfit to be called a “mother” by O’Connor.

The family stops at a restaurant to get a bite to eat, and we find out that the two parents, Bailey and his wife, do not really care for the Grandmother. The Grandmother asks Bailey to dance, but he just declines and ignores her. Bailey’s wife does not seem to care either. They then continue on the road, and the Grandmother begins to tell the story of a house that she really enjoyed passing. She really wanted to go there, so she persuaded the children to want to go as well. After a long time of complaining, they finally convince their father to head back toward this house. They go down this road when all