Examples Of Foreshadowing In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Two more pertinent points are made by the author, in regards to the grandmother, follow in quick succession; both allude to further yet-to-be seen gloom within the story. O’Connor writes of the grandmother “[s]he didn’t intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself” (1043) and of the way she is dressed “[i]n case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (1043). These two observations are innocent enough on the surface but provide true intent on the foreshadowing that O’Connor uses throughout the story. It is these two devices, irony and foreshadowing, that I feel are prominent and important aspects of the story and are evidenced in my quest to decipher this story.

The grandmother also secretly brought the family cat, “She had her big black valise and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it” (O’ Connor 1106), even though “Her son, Bailey, didn’t like to arrive at a motel with a cat” (O’ Connor 1107). When The Misfit arrives, “The grandmother had the peculiar feeling that the bespectacled man was someone she knew” (O’ Connor 1112), but when she later realizes who the man is, she claims, “‘I recognized you at once!’” (O’ Connor 1113). She tells The Misfit, “‘we turned over twice!’” (O’ Connor 1112), even though they both knew that it was only once. Lastly, the grandmother lies again to herself and to The Misfit when she says, “‘you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart’” (O’ Connor 1113). The only reason she says this is in an attempt to save her life.

Throughout the course of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men he uses the device of foreshadowing and giving clues of future events very well. In the story he uses it very effectively and very often. The examples of this are shown throughout the story.

When the Misfit arrived with his gang, he gave a few hints to his victims indicating their brutal death. The Misfit arrived in a vehicle described as ."...a big black battered hearse-like automobile." The hearse, which is a vehicle carrying the dead, was the Misfit's vehicle which conveyed the message that he was going to kill the family. Another interesting imagery was when the grandmother asked the Misfit, "`What did you do to get sent to the penitentiary that first time?'" His answer further foreshadowed the death of the family. He said, "`Turn to the right, it

The children yelled "We've had an ACCIDENT!" and the reader is not sure what will happen next. Shortly after the accident, when the "big black battered hearse-like automobile" pulls up to assist the family and the grandmother recognizes one of the occupants as the Misfit, the tone

She intentionally lies about the house having a secret panel just to get the kids interest so that Bailey would be more likely to stop and visit. The grandmother is also portrayed as being very loud and outgoing. When the family stops at the restaurant, she carries on a conversation with a complete stranger. She also wants to get up and dance.

In my opinion the parts that helped boost the dramatic interest in the story, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor, were the foreshadowing parts of the story. For example, when the family stopped at Sammy's Famous Barbeque, the grandmother started talking to the owner of the restaurant about two fellas who had done him wrong, and from there they started talking about the Misfit, "Did you read about that criminal, The Misfit, that's escaped?" (311), the grandma asked the owner. By talking about the Misfit throughout the story, I feel like it was adding to interest of the readers to know when he was going to appear. A symbol that I noticed in the story was the grandmother's hat, which to me represented her traditions as southern woman. I liked the way O'Connor used imagery to contrast the way the mother of the children looked like and how the grandma looked like by saying, "The children's mother still had on slacks and still had her hair tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy-blue dress with a small with a small white dot on the print." (309).  The climax started when the grandmother realized that the house she was looking for was in Tennessee, I feel like from that moment there was no coming back.

The grandmother hid her cat in a basket, which she puts in the car with her on the day of the trip. The grandmother wears a floral hat and dress, because if she were to get into a car accident people would know she is “a lady”. The two kids June Star and John Wesley clearly dislike their grandmother, it is very clear because they often make remarks to suggest this. The family makes their way through Georgia and they Grandma reminisces about an old suitor she had back in the day when the family passes

The way the grandmother sneaks the cat into the car and lies about the secret panel brings irony to her beliefs of what it is to be a lady. Her views on the “old south” is established when she calls an African American boy a “cute little pickaninny.” June Star’s remark upon the boy not having britches on leads on to the grandmother’s remark on how he might not be able to afford shows her lack of sympathy towards the less fortunate. This also makes the reader wonder why she even says such a thing in the first place. Instead of reaching out to lend a hand the grandmother ends her statement by simply saying that she would like to “paint a picture” of the scene.

What defines a “good man”? The answer to this question is more complicated than one might think. There is no such thing as a “good man”, simply because nobody is purely good; every person is flawed. This concept is proven in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. In this Southern Gothic story, a family takes a road trip to Florida, and along the way, they get into a car accident. Here they run into an escaped convict named “The Misfit”, who murders the whole family. The grandmother, in a moment of desperation, tries to convince the murderer that he is a good man in hopes of him sparing her life - but her plans fail. Through this great story, we see the struggle of good versus evil, and learn that ultimately, evil exists in all of humanity.

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

First we will take a look at grandmother. She is made to look like the saint in this story. Her, in contrast to the rest, is the good person, always looking out for the best of others. She is not going on vacation, she is going to visit her "connections" in Tennessee. While

In Flanner O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the literary technique of foreshadowing appears in the very beginning of the story giving off hints of the coming dramatic events. O’Connor employs many examples of foreshadowing throughout this story. One example of foreshadowing is: “Here the fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed towards Florida and you read here what is says he did to these people. Just you read it I wouldn’t take my children in any direction of with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’Connor 485). This quote increases the possibility that the family may encounter The Misfit on their journey to Florida. The grandma, the main character tries to convince her family to take a

“You hadda do it.” These two men had a big dream. They looked for work to help them reach their goal. But what was coming wasn’t at all anyone had expected. John Steinbeck uses evidence to show foreshadowing for, the death of Lennie, the death of Curley’s wife, and George and Lennie’s big dream.

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.