Lame Shall Enter First

Good v. Evil, it’s way more than just a concept, it’s more of a lifelong struggle inside of you. What more could you do when evil is shown all around you? Many of us may see the struggle between good and evil in the people we come across everyday. Flawed individuals may be perceived as good but are bad in the eyes of someone else; it all comes down to how you see it. The exposure to things and memories you make help impact the good in you. In order to further evaluate the argument of how good can come out of evil and good can show up even when it’s not right in front of you, can be shown in both William Golding’s novel Lord of the flies and the Anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf. This essay asserts that,

Wherever you are… answer.” (214). These scenes are all vivid because they all involve the suspenseful Mr. Dark. Right before these scenes continue they have a transition that involves an intense

O’Connor is revealing to us our main flaws. We, as humans, tend to succumb to our desires of greed and corruption. Feelings of purity and innocence are generally ignored, as was Lucynell, and forget all about them, or at the most minimize them. When we finally realize that we have omitted purity and innocence and rather took the road of corruption and greed, we show regret. The issue with regret is that it’s temporary, as shown by Mr. Shifflet in the end of the story. We become aware of our flaws, but instead of correcting them, we find it easier to forget about them, move on and carry on those ways because it’s easier. The life lesson taught by Flannery O’Connor’s story, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, is that we must become aware of our mistakes, confront them, and follow through with correcting ourselves. The life which we save is truly our own because we are the only ones who can fix

Mr. Norton firmly believes that he is responsible for the outcome of the narrator, while the narrator feels that he is solely responsible for himself. This difference of opinion will only end up blinding Mr. Norton, for later on, it will be discovered that his poor attempts to convince the narrator that he is a part of his fate will bitterly explode into the pathetic reality of his life. Mr. Norton exclaims to the narrator, "You are important because if you fail, I have failed by one individual, one defective cog; it didn't matter so much before, but now I'm growing old and it has become very important..." (Ellison 45). It is too early for the narrator to accept or even realize his invisibility, but it can already be determined that Mr. Norton is an insecure, inept man who is dependent on others for security. However, the

This causes Jack to be driven off the edge in hatred, which also causes his family to be in danger of abuse yet again.

O'Connor's typical use of violence and humor in her literary work broadens the characterization of the grandmother and the misfit throughout her story. She uses these elements in an effort to establish the characterization of her two main characters through the many

O’Connor uses the limited omniscient point of view in the story so that the reader learns more

Author Anthony Di Renzo notes the effectiveness of O’Connor’s use of thematic revelation.Rather than opposing one another, good and evil instead exist as “equally odd, equally absurd, and equally shocking” (122).The good and evil ironically converge to relay the message of grace, common throughout her works. O’Connor wanted her stories “to reach the unbelieving reader,” and the shocking aspect of the grotesque was the most effective way to reach him/her (Hawkins 28-29).

Knowing Flannery O’Connor’s religious conviction, one cannot overlook this underlying tone in both of her regarded stories “A Good Man is hard to Find” and “Good Country People”. It is often said of those who stand outside of religious conviction that faith seems to come in handy to people only when it is valuable to get them out of a predicament, of which they have likely placed themselves through insensitive behavior and decisions. In such a desperate attempt to appeal to faith, one only finds emptiness and a fate that leaves them hopeless or even dead. O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” illustrate that the inability to see the flaws in one’s self lead to substantial consequences, where an appeal to faith

They partake in a war revolving around the ideals of Christianity and the existence of God and morality, however it is entirely filled with hypocrisy. O’Conner’s belief of a single gesture is proven to be true when Rufus tears a page of the Bible and eats it, and act that would typically to be considered sacrilegious, in order to show his faith in God and/or Jesus. O'Connor believes that people that are liberal and atheistic are wrong and egotistical. O’Connor also shows that conservatives and people that are religious can be hypocritical and egotistical. I believe that she thinks that naturally people are inclined towards religion and that people by nature are hypocrites even if they do not try to

O’Connor uses the setting of the story to illustrate the theme of good versus evil. Upon meeting the Misfit he mentioned that he “‘[doesn’t] see no sun [or clouds],’”and the grandmother responds by stating “‘it’s a

Morrison places a responsibility for the social dilemma; tragic condition of blacks in a racist America so prominent in the 1940s, on an indefinite God and/or the church. This omniscient being, the creator of all things, both noble and corrupt, and his messengers seem to have in a sense sanctioned the ill fated in order to validate the hatred and scorn of the "righteous." In her introduction of the Breedlove family, Morrison holds accountable the Breedlove's acceptance of ugliness to a higher power saying, "It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear" (Morrison, 39). This divine being not only created ugliness for

The central idea communicated by point of view in this story is that if one is resistant to adapting to the changing times then they’ll become ignorant. The point of view O’Connor uses to convey

After receiving the news about the murder, Jimmy explodes with emotions. “I remember, I was more afraid of my little daughter than I ever was of being in prison” (Dennis 34). This quote shows the fatherly love Jimmy had for Katie. It compared the strength Jimmy had through the rough times in jail and how afraid he was of losing Katie. Ultimately, Jimmy follows the wrong path. Jimmy not only fails to find his daughter’s murderer, but he also kills Dave along too. By looking though a psychoanalytic lens, one can interpret Jimmy’s fatherly instincts which are to try to unearth his daughter’s murderer no matter the cost.

Over the course of the novel, Rufus becomes less idealistic as he learns of corruption and greed when he meets with Mr. Floode and the “Professor.” Mr. Floode exemplifies the willful ignorance of people working at the oil company. “--Our pipelines are vandalized daily, losing us millions... and millions for the country as well. These people don’t understand what they do to themselves…” Rufus then has to explain to Mr. Floode that, “There are countless villages going up in smoke daily… I don’t blame them for wanting to get some benefit out of the pipelines that have brought them nothing but suffering to their lives…” (103). Rufus’ humble roots also compel Rufus to correct Mr. Floode and to try to portray the gravity of the situation in the delta. This scene is a key part of Rufus’ character development because the reader can tell that Rufus has thickened his skin. He is trying to fight for what he believes in by correcting an extremely powerful executive, Mr. Floode. As the novel progresses, Rufus grows from a shy rookie reporter to a reporter so confident in his abilities that he is willing to confront the head of the militia. “Are you calling me a liar, reporter? --No, Professor. I am not. I don’t know you well enough to do that.” (230) The