Literary Analysis Of Good Country People

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

In Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People,” the main characters’ trust is put to the ultimate test. Trapped in vulnerable situations, the protagonists become powerless and have to put their trust in the hands of the “bad guy.” As a result, the main characters fall victim to manipulation. Those who were once in total control of their situations are now stripped of their superior titles and are taken advantage of by the person they once trusted. Egos are bruised in the game of trust and manipulation in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.” The grandmother and Joy-Hulga are taught lessons of a lifetime that changes the way they see themselves and life forever.

“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are two short stories written by Flannery O’Connor during her short lived writing career. Despite the literary achievements of O’Connor’s works, she is often criticized for the grotesqueness of her characters and endings of her short stories and novels. Her writings have been described as “understated, orderly, unexperimental fiction, with a Southern backdrop and a Roman Catholic vision, in defiance, it would seem, of those restless innovators who preceded her and who came into prominence after her death”(Friedman 4). “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are both set in the South, and O’Connor explores the tension between the old and new South. The stories are tow

“Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor is a short story told in third person omniscient point of view. The story contains a lot of irony, symbolism, imagery, and many more literary devices. Flannery O’Connor’s purpose was to demonstrate how “good country people” are not so “good.” Instead, they were categorized as “trash” and “good.” The short story interprets how the characters are contradictory and how women are portrayed in 1955 as well as today’s society.

Everyone wants to believe that they are beautiful. For this reason, we tend to seek out that approval from others including our parents, friends, and other loved ones. Flannery O'Connor's story, "Good Country People," focuses on this particular theme. In her narrative, a young girl named Joy Hopewell longs for her mother's approval. When she does not find it, Joy begins to believe that she is unworthy of anyone's admiration. This basic premise allows for Manley Pointer to easily win Joy's trust. Flannery O'Connor includes this string of events in order to show the significant role parents play in developing their children's self-esteem, as well as reveal that even though Joy Hopewell begins to believe that she is not beautiful, she

The short story “Good Country People” wrote by Flannery O’Connor is a story that shows many underlining themes about the people around us. One of the many underlying themes is that it shows that people are not always who they say they are, we see this when Hulga/Joy meets the Bible salesman, Manley Pointer. Also, people should not judge others by their looks, we see this when Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell think they are superior over everyone else. Throughout the story, Flannery O’Connor uses his description of characters, dialogue, and the use of the reality he created to show the underlying theme of the story.

    “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best works, describes a family on a trip to Florida and their encounter with an escaped prisoner, The Misfit. Although “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an early work in O’Connor’s career, it contains many of the elements which are used in the majority of her short stories. The grandmother, a selfish and deceitful woman, is a recipient of a moment of grace, despite her many flaws and sins. A moment of grace is a revelation of truth. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her child and reaches out to touch him, the grandmother has a moment of grace that enabled her to see The Misfit as a suffering human being who she is obligated to love. The grandmother realizes that nothing will stop The Misfit from killing her but she reaches out to him despite this. The Misfit rejects her love and kills her anyway. This moment of grace is very important

From an hour of watching TV, you may see two commercials telling you to embrace yourself. Society teaches us to embrace who we are and dress how we want to be expressed. Yet, there is an equally influential part of society that teaches us to suppress certain aspects of our lives. So where do we, as people, stand on this complicated issue? Do we express only the good parts of ourselves and hide all the negative parts, or can we do more and express both the positive and negative aspects of our lives. No matter what you choose to believe you too can relate to the Bible salesman. People either choose to show what they believe in or choose to hide what they truly prioritize.

Flannery O’Connor was a short story author from Savannah, Georgia. She has produced many critically acclaimed pieces and has won several awards for them. Two distinct pieces she wrote are titled The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Good Country People. While both of her stories are unique, the underlying storyboard and character creation process that O’Connor used is the same throughout her stories. Her stories usually involve one or more self-centered woman, a younger person who become the victim of egregious crime, and a conniving male driven by his own motives. Good Country People and The Life You Save May Be Your Own do not stray from this rule. In either story, the narrative is driven around a shocking tragedy that is very unexpected. Even though in the tragedies committed in the book always have a belligerent and a victim, it is not easy to discern who amongst the two are the antagonist and the protagonist. In either of these narratives, the tragedy that occurred within the stories blurs the line between antagonist and protagonist.

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.

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

Even with all the annoyances from Mrs. Freeman, Mrs. Hopewell is willing to endure it because they were good country people to her. Hulga was a very quiet and troubled woman. Oliver Kate explains that, “Joy-Hulga's physical afflictions--her heart condition, her poor eyesight, and her artificial leg--symbolize her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments.”(Kate 234) Due to Hulgas medical problems she could not enjoy many things in life, like teaching philosophy and interacting with others outside the house. She was very detached from other people. Hulga had to be like this to protect herself. The world can be a very cruel place, where they could of judged her because of her fake leg, glasses and heart issues. She was afraid and hand no trust for others outside of her house.

Joy-Hulga, who had grown cynical and cold as she grew up with only one leg and heart ailment, creates an image that she is smarter and better than the rest of the characters in the story. Her education and self-absorption seemed to instill this attitude in her to greater extent than if she hadn’t studied and read so much. Her weakness is the feeling of power she believed she gained from her studies. She refers to herself as a person who “sees

Southern Gothic literature is a genre of Southern writing, which often uses the grotesque to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the South. Flannery O’Connor is a Southern writer, who relied heavily on regional setting and filled with black humor and the grotesque. In addition, her writing reflected her faith in God as well as the morality and ethics of Roman Catholic. “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, one of her best-known stories, exemplifies the Southern Gothic literature and the grotesque. This story is about a self-righteous grandmother is shocked into spiritual awareness by the Misfit, who kills her family first and then her.