Preview

A Good Man Is Hard To Find Character Analysis Grandmother

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
295 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Good Man Is Hard To Find Character Analysis Grandmother
A Critical Character Analysis of Grandmother: A Good Man Is Hard to Find: The character of Grandmother is a typical “lady”. Grandmother believes herself to be more respectable than others around. She is not afraid to chastise those around her in order for her to express her better moral compass. She never wants to be left out, because she is afraid she will miss out on something. Grandmother is a character who is very sneaky. She loves to talk her way into getting what she wants. In most cases, Grandmother does not get her way. The way she goes about getting her way involves sneaky tactics. Instead of convincing her son that going to east Tennessee, she hoodwinks him into to go towards eat Tennessee by telling the children a story. Grandmother

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Throughout this story, the grandmother struggles to find what the definition of “good” is. The grandmother wears a hat to show others that she is a lady. However, this hat is also a symbol for her foolish ethical code. When the grandmother prepares for the car trip with the family, she dresses up in collars and cuffs to show she is a lady “In case of an accident” (12). The grandmother acts as if she is completely undisturbed with the fact that she would be dead in this situation and remains unconcerned that her son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren would have also possibly died. The grandmother, however, only cares about her appearance as a lady. This silly concern shows how self-centered she really is and how delicate her ethical conviction is. This symbol further develops when the family becomes, in fact, involved in a car accident. The grandmother’s hat falls apart, much like her ethical conviction, and after she continued to stare at it, she eventually “let it fall on the ground.”(96) Once she is thrown from the car and her family is face-to-face with the Misfit, the brim of the grandmother’s hat then falls off. Her appearance as a lady melts as the damaged hat falls.…

    • 946 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a family plans a vacation to Florida, in which it does not turn out as they had expected. The story begins with a family from Georgia consisting of the father Bailey, his wife, baby, two kids John Wesley and June Star, and their grandmother whose name is never announced. Among planning their trip to Florida, the Grandmother suggest they go elsewhere, justifying herself saying that there is a misfit on the loose and he’s heading that direction. The rest of the family does not take her suggestion seriously, and so the next day they all leave for Florida, including the grandmother. The grandmother makes the decision to bring her cat along for the trip as well while not telling any of the other family. During the trip, the grandmother tells the children stories and plays games with…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Conner depicts a southern family, who is at odds about where they should go for a family vacation. They will eventually agree to head for Florida, once in the car the family will go through a series of events that will shapen each indivudal character. One of the main characters in the story, “The Grandmother”, who is known for her critical , savvy ways gives the audience her definition of what exactly it means to be a lady. The Grandmother and her family will be put to death by an escaped criminal by the name of the Misfit, who the grandmother warns the family of before there voyage to Florida. In the story one will see that although the Grandmother had not been a known convicted felon, like the Misfit, her way for thinking and immoral behavior was no different than that of the Misfit and that they were alike in many different ways. Although the Grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to find”, tries to portray herself has a good role model and a Christian lady one will later see as story evolve that she was a woman contrary of her word and was indeed the ultimate “misfit”.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flannery O’Conner short story “A Good Man is hard to Find” Is about this grandmother who is plotting to get her own way through whatever means is necessary. So the fact is “The grandmother’s whole personality is built upon the fictions she tells herself and her family” (Schenck, 340). “She creates the stories behind the visual phenomena she sees and explains the relationships between events or her own actions which have no logic other than that which she lends them” (Schenck, 340). The grandmother who imaged a life she once had that turn to a tragedy of reality for her and her family. She does not admit it, but her thoughts manifest themselves physically and emotionally. The grandmother got so embarrassed that her cheek was red and her eyes widen and she begins to stomp her feet and this really upset her at that moment.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The tragic heroes and narcissists in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor are the Grandmother and the Misfit. However, the focus is on the Grandmother and how she is in the grandiosity phase of being a tragic hero. There are personality characteristics associated with this phase, some of which the Grandmother has. She feels entitlement to get and do what she wants. In the story she takes her pet cat with her on the trip even though Bailey tells her not to. The Grandmother is a judgmental person. She judges other people based on petty things like clothes or first impressions. Finally, the Grandmother’s omniscience personality gets her killed.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The grandmother frequently passed judgement on to others throughout the story, especially towards the misfit. She judges the lack of goodness in the world and says racist comments but believes she is a “lady”. During the story the grandmother was dishonest to her family about the secret panel and does not tell them how she mistook the location ultimately leading them to their death. When the grandmother’s family is taken away to be murdered she doesn’t beg him to spare them but pleads for her own life. The grandmother repeated, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?”…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The unnamed grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” considers herself morally superior to others by her being a “lady,” and she freely and frequently passes judgment on other people within the story. She claims that her conscience is a guiding force in her life, such as when she tells Bailey that her conscience wouldn’t allow her to take the children in the same direction as the Misfit. She chastises John Wesley for not having more respect for Georgia, his home state. She then points out the window and gladly says “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” While she proudly sits in the car wearing her dress and straw sailor hat, certain that being a lady is the most important virtue of all. Her hat represents her overall self as a lady and her misguided moral code. The grandmother never turns her critical eye on herself to inspect her own dishonesty and selfishness. For example, the conscience the grandmother invokes at the beginning of the story is silent when she sneaks the cat into the car because she doesn’t want it to be left alone for days, lies to the children about the secret panel in the house, and never mentions that the house is not near the location they are traveling. When the Misfit starts murdering the family, the grandmother never once begs him to spare her children or grandchildren. She does, however, plead for her own life because she can’t imagine the Misfit wanting to kill a lady. She seems certain that he’ll recognize and respect her moral code, as though it will mean something to him despite his criminal…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor, is a detailed account of a family trip to Florida that ends in tragedy. On this journey, the family meets several different characters along the way. No matter how insignificant each character is O’Connor is sure to give the reader a full understanding of their intentions and personality. Although the reader never gets to know some of the characters names, O’Connor is sure to make the reader feel as though he knows each character personally. O’Connor uses characterization techniques such as actions, clothing and family life that allow the reader to…

    • 1982 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother plays a significant role. She is the typical grandmother of, “years gone by”. She gives critical advice to her son and his wife. She seems to know best when it comes to the children as well. She mentions in the story that children used to be respectful towards their parents, when the children make snarky comments about her having to go wherever they went. Aside from her feeling that the children are disrespectful, the no-name grandmother makes a jab at the parents, suggesting that the children need to be well rounded when it came to expanding their knowledge of the territory around them. She wanted them to visit a place other than Florida, because they had been there before. This was an excuse for her to get out of going to Florida just because she didn’t want to vacation there. She also used the excuse of the Misfit being on the loose to get out of going to Florida. She tried to…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” you meet a family, but the member of the family that sticks out is the grandmother. She says many things that makes one wonder what is going on in her head. For example, when she says “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O'Connor). This is a one of the first sentences from the reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor. When reading this sentence, it makes one wonder; why does the grandmother care so much about being know as a lady? The story about a family of five going on vacation and they bring their “well” mannered grandmother, who just seems very stuck in her ways. When it comes to her ways she thinks they are the “good” ways, but are they really? Even though, the grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Through use of superiority and racist attitudes, the grandmother keeps the idea of the “Old South” alive. The setting of the story gives visual to those ideas through old buildings and style of roads. Together, these aspects of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” show the differences between the US now and the US of the 1950’s. Without the social prejudices of that time period, the story would lack the importance of the grandmother’s character which is to teach readers to be a more progressive…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The mentioning of the word “grandmother”, is often followed by an image of a sweet elderly woman who will often encourage, support, and model what type of person another should strive to be. In cases like the one presented by Flannery O’Connor in his short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother possesses qualities that are rarely associated with grandmas. Most fictional characters have flaws and redeemable qualities to parallel living people and the “grandmother” in the story follows the same trend by having some redeemable qualities because she is dishonest, manipulative and selfish.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout literature there is a theme that seems to be constant, the protagonist against the antagonist, good versus evil. It is a theme that reoccurs throughout time because it provides the audience with an interesting conflict and reveals more about the true nature of humans. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” she exposes her audience to the veracity of human nature; through various rhetorical devices and the demeanor of her characters, O’Connor reveals a new perspective on good versus evil.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughout, the story we see the grandmother being manipulative, deceitful, and selfish. Aruther Breatha, the author of the article “O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find” even compares the grandmother morally and philosophically to the serial-killing Misfit (Breatha 246). The grandmother is seen being manipulative when she is trying to change her son Baily’s mind about going to Florida, so she can go to Tennessee. She is described as “seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 364). She even tries to make Baily feel bad about taking his children in the direction where a criminal is a loose (O’ Connor 364). She has no care, for what the family as a whole want to do, and is only concerned, with what she wants to do, and where she wants to go on vacation. When all her attempts to stop the family from going to Florida fail, she starts to become deceitful. The first of her deceitful action is bring the cat along even though Baily said not to so, then when the family is on the road the grandmother want to stop at an old plantation she used to visit as a child. Baily does not want to stop so she lies and tell the children that “There was a secret panel in this house” (O’Connor 368), and that it was filled with silver. This of course drives the children to bug, Baily, and the grandmother get what she wants. Once, the family turns down…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” exemplifies what it means to be a fake. She is a liar, racist, and judger. All of these attributes go against the beliefs of the Catholic Church, but the grandmother does not have the self-awareness to notice. Her racist remarks are most clearly shown during the drive when the…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays