Comparative Analysis Of ' O ' Connor 's Stories Essay

As I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with every sentence and by doing so, the characters within the story are infinitely real in my mind’s eye. As I consider these factors, the story focuses on two main characters; that of the grandmother, who comes across as self-centered and self-serving and

She was a lady through and through, so much that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” The irony of that quote is simply that it becomes factual. Flannery O’Connor really paints a vivid picture of how self absorbed this character is. The grandmother’s personality might play a role in her self-proclaimed aristocrat outlook on society but the way that she was raised probably had a much greater impact on the way she view things as proper and right. Flannery O’Connor wrote A Good Man is Hard to Find in the 1946. From this, readers can assume that the grandmother would have grown up before the time of the booming 1920’s. After the 1920’s, many women’s outlook on what was proper and acceptable was drastically changed. The grandmother saw this drastic change in the morality of the American Society, which could have given her the idea that she was a more proper and sophisticated lady then the younger people who had completely different views on what was deemed expectable. She was surrounded with people that she was much older than her, which could have also given her the thought that she was among the hierarchy. This is because of the time period that she was brought up, she may have felt it necessary for her to teach other people the ways that to days younger people seemed to have lost. One could see the influence that her

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.

Flannery O' Connor, a native of Georgia was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century. As a strict Catholic, O' Connor often displayed a sense of spiritual corruption within the characters in most of her stories. One of O' Connor's famous stories, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," reveals the image of spiritual deficiency inherent in the characters which foreshadowed a bloody end.

Flannery O’Connor was known for her strong religious background, Catholicism, and used her faith as the underlying message in her works. In the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” there are a couple of things that can be traced directly to Christianity. The little boy, John Wesley, symbolizes the religious denomination of Methodism. John Wesley, along with his brother Charles Wesley, founded the

In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor represents her style of writing very accurately. She includes her "themes and methods - comedy, violence, theological concern - and thus makes them quickly and unmistakably available" (Asals 177). In the beginning of the story O'Connor represents the theme of comedy by describing the typical grandmother. Then O'Connor moves on to include the violent aspect by bringing the Misfit into the story. At the end of the story the theme changes to theological concern as the attention is directed towards the grandmother's witnessing. As the themes change throughout the story, the reader's perception of the grandmother also changes.

Thesis Statement: In Flannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the grandmother's journey from being controlling and selfish to graceful symbolizes a Christian's journey toward salvation.

This article from the SCC database explains that O’Connor sought to present a message of God’s grace and presence in everyday life. It then provides a basic summary of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The article continues, going into an in-depth characterization of the grandmother and how she ultimately dies having transcended into grace. The article’s author and editor, Kathleen Wilson, is a professor of history and cultural studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She was educated at Yale University and has been awarded fellowships from a number of foundations. Even though the article was published in 1997, it still holds up, as it is analyzing a story that has already been written and will not change. There is no evidence of bias, as it is a simple analysis and summary. This source came from Short Stories for Students, which was published by Gale Publishing. Gale Publishing is reliable and unbiased, as they are an educational publishing company that has been publishing works since 1954. There are a few cited sources for this secondary source, one of which is biased. The biased source is a New York Times Book Review, which is biased in favor of the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. This source will be useful in describing the grandmother’s character and analyzing her connection to spirituality in the first body paragraph. It also helps to connect

Flannery O’Connor shows her readers a realistic look at their own mortality in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The story is about a family of five, a father, mother, grandmother, and two children, starting out on a vacation to Florida from Georgia. The family, on their way to a routine vacation, takes a detour that will change their lives forever. Through the use of literary elements like symbolism and characterization, O’Connor creates a theme of good vs. evil, which can be felt throughout the story by tapping into the audience’s emotions.

Flannery O’Connor was an American author who often wrote about characters who face violent situations. These situations force the characters into a moment of crisis that awakens or alters their fate. Her short stories reflect her Roman Catholic faith and frequently discuss questions of morality and ethics. O’Connor’s Catholic upbringing influenced most of her short stories, often accumulating criticism because of her harsh portrayal of religion. O’Connor incorporates the experience of a moment of grace in her short stories to contribute to the meaning of her works and to represent her faith.

Flannery O’Connor’s short stories “A good man is hard to find” and “Revelation” share many similarities. While “A good man is hard to find” is about a family that goes on a vacation that ultimately results in all of their deaths. “Revelation” is about a woman who is very judgmental and looks down on people. In the end both characters have revelations that contrast with who they are and how they portray themselves to the world.

Irony is a useful tool for giving stories unexpected turns and twists. In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," irony is used as a very effective literary tool; to guide the story in and out of what we think will happen. O'Connor uses irony in this story to contradict statements and situations to expose a truth very much different from what "we" the reader would think to be true. O'Connor use irony in several different forms, situational irony, dramatic irony and verbal irony to make the story unpredictable and interesting to read. In most every aspect of the story from beginning to end there is some type of ironic twist. The title itself is some what

Flannery O’Conner, a Gothic literature writer, has written several short stories throughout her life. Among these stories, two of them being A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People, she has included some of the most fleshed out and grotesque characters I have ever read. O’Conner brings her characters to life throughout her writing in near flawless and subtle detail with ironic humor. For example, O’Conner makes skillful use of ironic names for her characters. The titles and names such as grandmother, the misfit, Joy/Hulga, and the bible salesman are used ironically. These subtle characterizations help guide the reader to the final, and often times ironic, conclusions all her characters deserve.

O’Connor first expresses her views in her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by using the literary element of point of view. Point of view is an important literary element in O’Connor’s short story, because it expresses her views on the grandmother and her “role as grace-bringer” (Bethea 2006). Point of view is expressed in her story by the main character the grandmother, a woman who lives with her son and tries to convince her family to go to Tennessee to avoid the Misfit. Point of view is especially important in this story because it lets the reader know what the grandmother is thinking and her actions that involve the main conflict of the short story. For instance, in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the

O’Connor borrowed these characteristics from her life and used them in the complex characters she would later create. Her Catholic faith is another point that drove O’Connor’s writing, especially given that she grew up in a Protestant-majority region. “Flannery O'Connor put much conscious thought into her dual role of Catholic and fiction writer” (Galloway). Her devout faith plays a huge role in her writing, as most of her characters grapple with salvation and grace. O’Connor’s influences in life were so powerful, they became the same topics that impacted her philosophy in writing.