The Significance Of The Grandmother In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Throughout the text, O’Connor touches on issues that are controversial and still relevant in today's world. These issues are brought up in many different ways, like the racist Grandmother or the belittling husband at the BBQ restaurant. Many current issues like race and gender equality are brought up in A Good Man is Hard to Find. On page 2 of A Good Man is Hard to Find, the Grandmother said “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!" she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. Wouldn't that make a picture, now?” (O’Connor 2). The Grandmother shows her racist side when she makes comments about a little black boy sitting on the porch in no pants, thinking that it was cute he did not have pants on but in reality, the little boy probably did not own a pair of pants. The Grandmother not only makes racist

O’Connor describes the children’s mother in contrast to the grandmother by what they are wearing; thus their clothes represent the age from which they are. The Children’s mother “still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white dot in the print”(O’Connor 118). The children’s mother is representative of the New South in which the Southern Lady is becoming less of a central figure within society. A lady of the old south would never wear slacks and tie her hair up in a kerchief to go out in public. Under an old south mentality these actions would be considered very unlady like. O’Connor illustrates the tension between the old and the new south by the constant struggle between the grandmother, her son, and the daughter-in-law.

In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the Grandmother is a main character that symbolizes a savior. O' Connor

These are elements of random foreshadowing that helped the reader understand why the grandmother believed so strongly that a good man is hard to find. This would be a prelude to the horrific events that would later unfold when the grandmother encounters the misfit who by all intense purposes was not believed to be a good man.

The Grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard To Find” is the one of the most prominent characters in the story. Moreover, her personality is quite interesting and greater than most, for she casts an ascendancy over the other characters in the story. Great in the sense that her personality was quite faceted.; though not a particularly admirable mixed bag of personality elements. Evidence of her complexity is sprinkled throughout the story: The Grandmother enticing her grandchildren to get their father to go to a particular area; her interest and enthusiasm for being regarded as a “lady” (357), which is a euphemism for a term you would use when referring to a woman in the upper class; not to mention, a proclivity for doing whatever she deems necessary to get what she wants. The aforementioned examples are proof that The Grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard To Find" is massively status conscious, manipulative, and juvenile.

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

O'Connor does the same thing here; the grandmother's first action was to convince her son, Bailey, into going were she wanted to go, a selfish act, not a trait that we see a grandmother having. Also she thought out a plan to get what she wanted by acting as if she cared about her family's safety. "Now looks here, Bailey........ see here, read this...Here this 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(328)." The grandmother's relationship right away to the reader is one that can not be trusted. Throughout the story you now question the grandmother's intentions, are they honest or selfish.

Also, the grandmother seems to care less about poverty and the sufferings of lower class people. For example, when the old women spots a poor Negro child in the street naked without any pants, she says, "Wouldn't that make a picture now?” (A Good Man…). The author connects the grandmother to the real world where a lot of people pay more attention to their outward appearance to impress others than to beautify their inner self first. Also, the family in the story has a car in an era where having a car was perceived as a higher class possession. Although the grandmother shows a prejudice behavior towards the little Negro child with her comments, O’Connor mean to emphasize the class difference that exists in the American society and the negligence and the lack of assistance from higher class to less fortunate class.

Although normally when talking about an old woman living with her family we think of the sweat old stereotype, Grandmother was anything but sweat. In the Story when she says, “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do. If I could paint, I’d paint that picture.” (O’Conner). These are words that place the child at arm’s length disassociating him from her as non-human.

Change is something that many people find difficult and tough to cope with as it goes against what that person may feel is correct or normal to do. Throughout ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ we are faced with a outdated old woman who's has her ways challenged to the point that her tone and attitude are completely revised by the conclusion of the story. Although from the beginning one would thing change is impossible with a woman such as the Grandmother, we soon realize when a self centred person is in danger they will do anything to live. Many people would feel no compassion or sadness in regards to the woman and her losses, primarily due to her racial negative attitude up until the bitter end of her life. The transformation displayed in ‘A Good

Character Analysis: A Good Man is Hard to Find In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the grandmother is seen as the main character, protagonist, and tragic hero. The grandmother is really not in a typical happy family and she really isn’t liked, but she still tags along with the family on a road trip to Florida from the peach state, Georgia. Throughout the story the grandma has said a good man is really hard to find and why is that so. All the things she talked became true when the misfit a killing man, found the family on the side of the road. .

In both “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Rose for Emily,” the authors portray primary female leads which depict many typical and sometimes stereotypical, Southern ideals and values. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find, “the lead character, the Grandmother, epitomizes the stereotype of an elderly southern woman. O’Connor skillfully conveys the Grandmother’s superficiality by describing the over-the-top outfit she wears on the day of the trip, writing, “Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (406). The Grandmother assigns value to being a “lady” among all other virtues, placing the physical appearance of herself and others of the utmost importance. The grandmother is also nostalgic of the past, and constantly reminisces about the

The grandmother demonstrates that she does not see things for how they truly are. We see this when they are driving down to Florida and she sees a Negro boy and goes “ Look at the cute little pickaninny!” (O’Connor 251). She then goes on about in the past, they never had pants because they were expensive, but she goes how cute at a poor boy. Not realizing that the little Negro was poor and had nothing. Also, when the misfit comes and attacks them, she tells him over and over again “ Listen,”... “ I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from good people!” (O’Connor 259). She says this that based on his appearance, which he looks fair, but has strong white teeth, which was uncommon at the time and signifies wealth, that he will not kill a lady because she has manners and feel she is above everyone because of these

First, O’Connor begins her story in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by presenting the flaws in the leading character, the unnamed grandmother. The grandmother is more concerned with appearance, she judges “good” by the way people are dressed, not focusing on anything other than appearance. She is very conscious throughout the story of what people are wearing, because to her “it is through such things as clothing that one can externally reflect internal worth, even when this worth is otherwise obscured by surrounding conditions” (Owens par. 5). This exemplifies when she met

A literal interpretation of the grandmother portrays an elderly southern woman attempting to maintain the proper and genteel values of the South. The grandmother places great importance on her appearance and the opinions of others. This importance is revealed at the beginning of their journey when the story compares the grandmother, a reflection of the past, to the daughter-in-law, a reflection of the present: