Preview

O Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
743 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
O Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find
O’Connor’s A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
Katherine Keil notes similarities between O’Connor’s story and alternate famous pieces of literature such as Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. She compares the grandmother and the sailor in a few ways: their ability to alienate themselves, their selfishness, and their need to empathize as human beings. She indicates another similarity; both having epiphanies. While the sailors is said to be an “ongoing spiritually energizing earthly life”, the grandmother conceives a “Christian resurrection and eternal life.” Lastly, they both achieved clarity of vision and prove that “A good man is hard to find.”

(Keil K. O'Connor's A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND. Explicator [serial online]. Fall 2006
…show more content…
Bryant depicts a few details to help with the foreshadowing of the story. Hallman describes O’Connor’s careful writing, from choosing the locations to the distances related to the time.
“Considering the conditions of Georgia roads in the late 1940’s, one had to drive under 50 m.p.h. to keep from knocking the wheels out of line from the numerous potholes that Governor Talmadge’s highway people never patched.” (Hallman 306)
He notes that the stories uses real locations for every noted place except for the town of Timothy; which he believes alludes to the bible.

(Bryant H. READING THE MAP IN 'A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND'. Studies In Short Fiction [serial online]. Summer81 1981;18(3):301. Available from: EBSCO MegaFILE, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 30, 2015.)

A Good God Is Hard to Find
In this article, Alexander Nazaryan talks about Flannery O’Connor’s faith and her A Prayer Journal. In O’Connor’s A Prayer Journal, she had pleaded with God “to see the bareness and the miser of the places where You are not adored;” and God had granted her just that. It’s much comparable to the grandmother who pleaded “Jesus,” which made the Misfit angered and ultimately led to her
…show more content…
107-18.

Section III: Discussion Questions

O’Connor is famous for her literary irony, what part of the story’s events showcase this literary effect?
A Good Man is Hard to Find has been called grotesque, meaning it is “comically or repulsively ugly or distorted;” although, Flannery O’Connor prefers to call it literal. What category would you say the literature fits?
The author provides some foreshadowing throughout the story; what kind of examples can you provide?
Leading up to the end, the grandmother was extremely difficult and persistent. Do you feel compassion for her? Why or why not?
When the family meets The Misfit, eventually they are all sent to the woods except for the grandmother. Why do you think O’Connor wrote the story this way?
If the grandmother had not announced that she had recognized The Misfit, do you think the story might have had a different

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The main idea of Maida’s article is to tie together and explain the common literary devices apparent in Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. There are four reoccurring devices in O’Connor’s work: first, the eyes, which reflect an individuals innermost thoughts and emotions; then the tree-line which symbolizes the division of understanding between the world understood by an individual and the world beyond their comprehension; then the color purple which represents emotional or physical trauma which is often evoked alongside the Sun, which represents divine intervention. In describing these devices Maida also describes the arc of O’Connor’s characters as one in which they begin their journey with a sinful or selfish understanding of life and ultimately are bestowed with an enlightened understanding of life after embracing the love of God, Christian values, or both.…

    • 614 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

    “The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.” This quote from a British preacher Charles Spurgeon accurately con-veys Flannery O’Connor’s works that are considered mere dramatizations of her stated religious views. O’Connor’s stories such as “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Revelation” have au-thoritative narrators who analyze corrupt characters’ theological errors. She often focuses on characters’ grotesque path toward redemption. The term grotesque is defined as a work in which two separate modes are mixed and the result is a disturbing fiction wherein comic circumstances prelude horrific tragedy.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    SECTION III: LOCATING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE – In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, locate at least seven (7) examples of figurative language. Write the statement, label the type, and explain the function of the figurative language within the story.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flannery O’Connor is known as one of the best short story authors. She successfully combines violence, religion, and grotesque into her short stories. She uses violence to take big actions and catch the attention of her audience. O’Connor was no doubt a dedicated Catholic, but in her stories she managed to apply multiple religions into her works (Nielson). O’Connor takes the word grotesque to a new level. She makes her characters bizarre by their physical and mental appearance. Flannery O’Connor uses characters that appear grotesque to make her stories capture the attention of her audience. From reading her stories you would think that she had a crazy messed up life, but she was actually just a normal well educated girl. O’Connor was born an only child in Savannah, Georgia. While there her early childhood education started at the city’s Catholic school. Later, she and her parents moved to Milledgeville, Georgia where they had existing family.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cormac Mccarthy Analysis

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cormac McCarthy’s novel written during the 20th century, it emphasizes the dramatic experience that has been witnessed leading to McCarthy’s usage of rhetorical and literary techniques, providing themes, symbols, motifs and other figures of speech in order to convey the impact on the main character, and other parts throughout the text.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the second page of the story, the author explains that the grandmother felt it necessary to bring her cat on the trip. The story read, “She was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself” (O’Connor 496). This use of foreshadowing is somewhat hidden and ironic. It can be considered that way because at the climax of the story, the grandmother’s cat actually jumped onto Bailey while he was driving, causing a car accident. Had the car accident never occurred, the family would not have been discovered by The Misfit. In hindsight, it can be argued that if the cat were not on the trip, the family would have lived.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 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

    but never the same for her family that were taken away followed by gun shots. In these moments she turns from unreligious and judgmental to a lady of the church and open minded to the misfit’s character. These events changed the grandmother. She became a whole new…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From what I see, a large portion of O’Conner’s work take after a comparable example. The principle character are stuck in a trouble situation and toward the end they see the light of God's ways and have their recovery. Christians have frequently commented her works for being corrupted however in reality she utilizes these situations and portrayal to express the force of God in a positive light. The shameless character of the Misfit is skillfully portrayed, just like the "enlightened" character of Grandma. Most of these characters always go through some kind of change in their daily lives. An adjustment in their perspectives of the world and in their observations about existence and passing. Such character in this specific story is Grandma and, as I would like to think, the Misfit. I imagine that…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a child, our parents teach us values and principles. Most of the time the values they teach have been handed down through their families and changing them slightly to adapt to the time and culture. What if parent 's don 't teach their kids ethical values? What if over the years, people have decided that certain principles has become obsolete? A case in point is the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O 'Conner. This story is a prime example of how people 's morals change throughout history. I propose that in order for us to get a better understanding of this story we need to analyze the theme of the story, evaluate the nature of the grandmother, and explore what the grandmother 's hat represents.…

    • 1305 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor opens with a scene of a grandmother in the kitchen with her son, Bailey, and his family, which consists of a wife who wears slacks and a kerchief around her hair while she feeds a young baby as well as two children; a young boy and girl named John Wesley (which oddly enough is the name of the founder of the Methodist religion) and June Star. The family is preparing to go to Florida on vacation but the grandmother is insistent that they go to Tennessee instead. She is ignored by the family and no one seems to value her opinion. It is clear that she is trying to weasel her way into getting her wish but none of them are falling for it.…

    • 2505 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful 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

    In literature, there is a protagonist and an antagonist that depict the good and the evil. O’Connor portrays these good and evil facets through the Grandmother (the protagonist) and The Misfit (the antagonist). She is able to support her theme through foreshadowing near the beginning of the story. The grandmother tells her son, Bailey:…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Marxist Literary Analysis

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    O 'Brien 's character makes several comments on storytelling in certain sections of the novel, such as "How to Tell a True War Story." Through making these comments, the narrator is not only justifying the intent of The Things They Carried,but he is also providing clues to the content,…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays