Analysis of A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor Essay

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells a twisted story of a typical family going about a road trip embedded with ethical pit stops along the way. The story revolves around a cynical grandmother and how her unconventional attitude and habits set the stage for an interesting turn of events. Through manipulative antics, a prejudice character and an ironic story line, author Flannery O’Conner creates a captivating tale that shines a lights on readers’ own moral codes. The author does this by making an example of a woman completely unaware of her own immoral acts.

Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the story of a family’s vacation tragically ended by The Misfit and his gang. On the way to their vacation spot in Florida, the Grandmother remembers a plantation in Georgia she used to visit when she was a young lady and desperately wants to see it. She tells her son, Bailey, what road it is on and everyone is excited to see it. After a while, the grandmother realizes that she was wrong about where the plantation was and becomes so upset at herself that she knocks things over in the car which causes a car accident. A passing car stops to help the family but the Grandmother realizes that one of the men is a murderer, nicknamed, The Misfit. While one of

     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

In today’s society, several individuals have come across a point where they were on the verge of the death. Murder is constantly being thrown across headlines, news reports, and social media throughout America. It has become a disastrous factor throughout many individual’ lives. Viewing families suffer from their lost loved ones, as well as the murder of innocent lives have been tremendously relevant in today’s society. What many individuals fail to understand, is what actually happens during their last seconds on earth. Throughout the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” O’Connor uses a Grandmother to convey to the readers the actually value of goodness an individual tends to gain when confronted with death. Just as revealed in the short story, violence frequently triggers an individual’s actions when presented with death. In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” Flannery O’Connor uses theme, conflict, and religion in order to portray the false acts of goodness projected by the grandmother.

The world is a massive place full of endless literature, beginning from ancient scrolls to daily news articles, filled with many secrets, perspectives and surroundings that help connect literature to an individual’s daily life. Some writers use the skills of literary elements to express and discuss an event that has happened to them or what has happened to others. This helps others to comprehend the perspectives of the author’s understanding toward an incident that one might experience. For instance in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, she uses many literary elements to express her views over most of her stories. O’Connor expresses her views in her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by using the literary elements of point of view, irony, and setting.

The concept of being a “good” person has painted the picture of how people have handled their lives throughout history. On the same note, this concept has also been the subject of much debate; such is the case in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The protagonist, the unnamed grandmother struggles to find the “good” in others and herself. O’Conner uses foreshadowing, characterization, and a distinct point of view to make her point. In my interpretation, her point is that only through conflict and turmoil can good truly be found.

The Grandmother displays the proper image of a southern Christian woman in the presence of other people. Her clothing, her perfection, and her attitude are perceived as truly religious. In reality, the grandmother is exceedingly selfish and corrupt morally. She preaches and gives sermons throughout the story yet in the face of danger she thinks only of herself. O'Conner writes “…the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collar and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace, and at her neckline, she pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O'Conner, 2007). She is obviously over dressed for a road trip, again it pin points the grandmother's obsession with materials. Grandmother uses gender roles, “you wouldn’t shoot a lady would you,”(O'Conner, 2007) and religious images to try to save herself. She preaches and prays to the Misfit as if he is Jesus, “Jesus…you’ve got good blood, Jesus you ought not to shoot a lady” (O'Conner, 2007). She radiates an aura of holiness at the same time sounding self-serving.

Brutality, humor, religion, and violence are a few themes portrayed throughout many of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. In many of her short stories, O’Connor exposes the dark side of human nature and implements violent and brutal elements in order to emphasize her religious viewpoints. In the short stores “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation”, O’Connor explicitly depicts this violence to highlight the presence and action of holy grace that is given to a protagonist who exudes hypocritical qualities.

As a gesture of love, acceptance, and forgiveness, the grandmother goes to touch the Misfit; he, however, shoots her dead. The Misfit is aware that “grace worked through him to strengthen the woman’s faith” (108). This scene defines the moment of grace in the grandmother’s life as she was able to fill her conscious with compassion by viewing him as one of her own children. An interesting remark is that the Misfit In the midst of such heartbreak and violence, the grandmother was able to feel love and sympathy towards the criminal. O’Connor emphasizes the dramatic transformation of the grandma in traumatic times from selfish and manipulative to benevolent and warmhearted.

The grotesque tale of sudden violence in the South piggybacks into a tragic case of murder. In Flannery O’Connor’s “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” a gothic comedy in which the grandmother and the Misfit are the central characters of the story, both function as catalysts to the story. In spite of the fact that the grandmother and Misfit are quite incompatible, the grandmother and the Misfit are both receivers of grace, regardless of their blatant imperfections, sins and weaknesses.

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find, the author, Flannery O’Connor states many points in this short story. It is to be said that O’Connor is a very religious, catholic, in fact (Vol. 2 pg. 97). O’Connor has stated her religious views in most of her fiction stories. O’Connor was also known for her stories on violence. Readers sometimes find O’Connor’s fictions to be weird with such turning points in her stories. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” has many turning points and moods. The story starts off random with an elderly woman not wanting to travel to Florida, instead Tennessee. The grandmother tags along with her family to Florida hesitantly, despite her feeling so-so after reading about a criminal being on the loose. Readers get to know each character in the story when Flanner O’Connor goes into detail about the family’s road trip to Florida. The grandmother seems to be very old fashioned with the way puts herself to her grandchildren. She seems very kind and caring but also a little bit selfish. Grandmother also seems to have a kind of personality that makes some points of the story silly. Violence is also a big point in this short story. While going through Georgia, the family stops by a small rundown restaurant (O’Connor 6-9). Red Sam, the owner of the restaurant seems to get into great conversation about how times in their current day was so much different than back in their day, talking

This story of irony identifies one of the worst anxieties of modern life, when violence from an unknown assailant, kills reality. The Story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by author Flannery O’ Connor, presents and argues to prove to readers that a common mistake of good vs. evil occur throughout this story. In this reading we know that the two main characters the grandmother and the misfit are both viewed as recipients of grace. No one is perfect and as the author Flannery O’ Connor lived her life she understood this as an outlook from her Christian Theology. O’Connor’s way of portraying the characters shows how she believes that man has fallen short of glory and grace. Her

The story “A Good Man is Hard To Find” begins with a family planing to take a vacation to Florida. The grandmother who does not want to take the vacation in Florida is persuading the family. She has read about a crazed killer by the name of the Misfit, who is on the run, heading for Florida. The mambas of her family ignore the grandmother. On the day of the trip, ironically, the grandmother is dressed in her Sunday best. She is decked in white gloves and navy blue dress with matching hat. She is the first one in the car and ready to go. O'Connor is getting the reader to visualize the Southern culture. The grandmother’s purpose of dressing this way is to be recognized as a lady, in case someone saw her dead on the highway. This tells me the grandmother’s thoughts of death are shallow. Later in the story, the Misfit says, "There never was a body that gave the undertaker a tip.” The grandmother’s readiness for death is an indication that she does not want to go where there is a prisoner on the loose. However, her thoughts for death changes when she recognizes the Misfit. As the trip moves on,

In the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, written by Flannery O’Connor, the theme that the definition of a ‘good man’ is mysterious and flawed is apparent. The reader must realize that it is difficult to universalize the definition of a good man because every person goes through different experiences. Thus, these experiences affect his or her viewpoint and in turn flaw ones view on a good man. O’Connor conveys this theme through her excellent use of diction, imagery, foreshadowing, and symbolism as well as through a creative use of repetition and an omniscient point of view.

In" A Good Man is Hard to Find" there are a variety of themes. The themes in this short story are: the grace of the grandmother and The Misfit, the vague definition of a “good man”, and the class of the grandmother. All of these themes are apparent to any reader, but it does not quite seem to match O’Connor’s depth style way of writing. The two characters, the Grandmother and the Misfit change from beginning to end. Even though they are both different as night and day, they both have principles and stand by their principles no matter what the circumstance.