Shattered Superiority in the Face of Danger Essays

Oates emphases that Connie is in her adolescence, who is trying to transition into thinking like an adult. Connie, who is obsessed with her appearance, is constantly “craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right”(Oates 1). She is starting to

In the story, Oates uses interior monologue and third person limited omniscient narration to show how her parents neglect contributes to Connie’s vulnerability and how Arnold Friend is successful in his strategies of seduction. It’s obvious that Connie’s parents always have neglected her. Her mom is always evaluating her and critiquing her physical appearance. She is continuously comparing her to her sister June and Connie feels like she can never be on the same level as June. Since her sister is responsible and respectful Connie gets a great deal of freedom. Her dad has no sense to watch over or protect Connie, he just comes home and goes to bed, isn't curious about what is going on, he is extremely disengaged from her life. Connie thinks

Putting together multiple of my previous points, it is obvious that Connie is incredibly self-absorbed and selfish at the beginning of the text. It is also shown that as bad things happen to her character, she quickly becomes aware of her actions and the world around her. As Arnold traps her in an incredibly graphic situation, everything comes crashing down for Connie. She pleads to her mother whom she once hated, “She cried out, she cried to her mother” (Oates, 2213) and quickly fully understands why her mom didn’t want her to act in such a way. Connoisseur confidence, maturity, self-awareness, opinions, and sense of reality completely flip from the beginning to the end of this story.

Connie’s mother envies her beauty and Connie takes note of this, “she knew she was pretty and that was everything.

Connie?s mother was probably criticized when she was young too, she used to be pretty too. Children who lacked attention by their parent when growing up, tend to mistrust others or themselves. There is no doubt Connie plays two different personalities, one when hanging out at the shopping plaza with her friends, when she didn?t feel threaten by her mother, ? Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home?.? and behaves sexualized, desirable, immature, and flirtatious.

She thought that her mother liked her more, just because she was prettier, but that wasn’t true. Being pretty gets to her head, not knowing of what the consequences could be with the way she acted and how she looked when she was in public. Connie did show her love for her family one day. She didn’t know the consequences of being pretty and acting that way until she saw Arnold Friend at the end. It is like if he was the walking clouds and thunder that followed her ever since he saw her.

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

As Latta notes, “Arnold proceeds to try and convince Connie to come for a ride with them, using a combination of music, charisma, and gradually increasing threats.” Connie’s worlds of fantasy and reality intertwine, drastically impairing her judgment and causing for unexpected events to follow. Arnold ignores Connie’s weak requests to leave and overpowers her in a scene that becomes a massive blur. Holmen writes, “After all, it is not as though Connie does not realize that Arnold Friend is a dangerous man; she is immediately wary of his presence when he shows up in front of her house.” When Connie becomes dizzy and finally comes to the realization that this man would cause her more harm than good, she cries out for her mother – a surprising act given the context of their distant relationship.

In the beginning of the story, the way Oates describes Connie’s behaviors help construct Connie’s state of mind as a doubtful and vulnerable young girl. The author perfectly capture the essences of Connie’s character by illustrates how Connie has, “a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people’s faces to make sure her own was all right,”

In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the Grandmother is the protagonist. She is the focus of the narrative and the character whose reactions we encounter the most. More importantly, the third person narrative focuses strongly on the grandmother’s point of view, which establishes her in the reader’s mind much more than any other character. Nevertheless, the grandmother views herself as a rather dignified and traditional woman who appears to judge everyone, but manages to constantly overlook her own flaws. This appears various times such as when she conveys her ideas about the upcoming vacation and June Star states “She has to go everywhere we go” (O’Connor 567), in which merely displays the Grandmother as unwanted by the family. This can be compared to that of the Misfit in the story who also appears to be unwanted by his family. Despite this, the Grandmother continuously positions herself in the family’s everyday activities while imposing her judgment every chance she gets. Moreover, she is censorious of her son and daughter in law for not allowing their children to “see different parts of the world and be broad” (O’Connor 567). She is also critical of her grandchildren for not being like children “In my time” (O’Connor 569) who “were more respectful” (O’Connor 569). By doing this, O’Connor presents a strong characterization of the woman and her virtually unbreakable mindset. However, this story reflects on how through any conflict you can find the good in others, but sometimes it is too late for them to realize their own mistakes. Eventually, the Grandmother confronts evil in the form of The Misfit and seems to show a completely different side of

The author puts Connie out to be a bad kid but is she really? Yeah, Connie is not the most respectful or well-behaved kid but who is at the age of fifteen. The author shares some instances where Connie does not make the best decisions. The author shares, “She spent three hours with him, at the restaurant where they ate hamburgers and drank cokes…and then down an alley a mile or so away” (Oate’s. 109). The quote shows how Connie put herself in situations that a girl her age should have never been in. The author gives Connie the identity of not being confident in herself when she says, “Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything.”

The grandmother, the main character of the story, is manipulative. Her definition of a ‘good man’ refers to the characteristics that a ‘good man’ should possess.

The grandmother is the central character in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. She is also a very well rounded and dynamic character. She shows various characteristics and reveals various remarks as they story progresses. Some of her qualities include selfish and a pushy person. She is also kind of manipulator in a way that she insists her family to change the plan. At the beginning of the story when we first realize her desire to visit her childhood house, she is being a very selfish person. Examining her conversation with her son Bailey, the grandmother is moreover a pushy person. She is convincing Bailey to change the trip plan according to her need only and which will

Cornelia is watching as her brave and independent woman is slowly fading away, mentally and physically. "She was never like this, never like this" (Porter, 517). Cornelia tells the doctor worried as she sees her mother's capacity diminishing. Granny hears this and is spiteful towards Cornelia. Granny has had a hard life and that has made her very independent. For eighty years Granny has taken care of herself, she remembers, and tells herself, "I pay my own bills, and I don't throw my money away on nonsense" (516) and now to have people coming in her room checking in on her, taking about her is unfamiliar and condescending to her. Granny is a very reserved woman one who is almost embarrassed or ashamed of allowing people to know her thoughts, "no use to let them, the kids, knows how silly she had once been" (517).

Both incidents are prime examples that show the grandmother?s behavior. We see that the grandmother is selfish and uncaring. She claims that she is a "good" person, yet she criticizes everyone and always wants to get her way. She hides the cat and lies about it to her son; she did not consider how anyone would feel about her bringing the cat. Yet, on the other hand she is very concerned with social opinion. She is dressed nicely, her excuse is that "in case of an accident anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know that she was a lady" (O?Connor 907). This shows that the grandmother was very concerned with people?s opinion. She acted proper, had strong virtues, values; a good woman in her view. But she was a self- centered person who judged others harshly, so that she would look good.