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Dishonesty In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

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Flannery O’Connor, a southern author has earned a reputation of writing stories that are shocking, violent, and they rely on grotesque characters. She also uses her background of religion, Roman Catholic, to influence her writings. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best-known stories has all of these characteristics throughout the short story. A southern family does take a vacation to Florida but the real journey happen right within themselves. The continuous question of what is a good man pops up in this story and they all wonder why there is very few left in the world. However, many of the characters throughout this story think of themselves as good people based on their ethicalness. The character’s ethicalness is deeply flawed …show more content…

She completely overdresses for the trip in a “navy straw hat and collars and cuffs, so that in case there was an accident, people would know she was a lady.” (277) She also looks down upon other people. The grandmother is quite judgmental of others but she never realizes her own dishonesty or selfishness. When talking to John Wesley she makes derogatory about black kids such as they don’t have things like you do and “if she could paint, she would paint that picture.”(278) Later on the grandmother paints a romantic story of when there a good man was possible to find. But, her definition of a good man is flawed, she said, “she would have married Mr. Teagarden because he was a gentleman and had bought Coca-Cola stock making him a very wealthy man.” (279) Towards the end of the story the family encounters a car accident. As the family sits and waits for help a car comes along and three men get out. The grandmother said that she recognized the misfit so therefore the misfit had to kill the family. As the misfit is killing each family member one by one, she tells him to pray for himself. But the grandmother never once prays for her own family or asks the murderer not to kill them. Right before the grandmother is about to be murdered she pulls out a handkerchief to fan herself and asks the misfit if he would kill a lady. The grandmother was only trying to save herself and never once thought about saving the rest of the

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